2012 Bellingham Yarn Crawl part 1

Hello!

I am in such a great mood.  I know it's Tuesday, but I was exhausted on Sunday, and busy Monday, so I had to wait until today to post the first installment of blogs about the Eastside Stitchers' 2012 Bellingham Yarn Crawl.  

Many of us were able to take part in the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour in May.  We had a wonderful time getting introduced to 24 LYS.  But, trying to cram all of the shops into 4 days was challenging, especially since we traveled all the way to the Canadian border as well as visiting 2 islands involving ferry trips.  Basically, we ran in and out of the shops trying to get as much of a feel as we could for what each shop carried.

It was a good introduction, though, and it made us determined to come back and visit the shops again.  This was one of the reasons I knitted like a fiend this summer, trying to use up most of the yarn I purchased in May.  Ok, I probably would have knitted that much anyway, but it did dictate a bit of WHAT I was knitting.  On that Crawl, I basically just bought what looked cool.  I love the things I made, but, I have completely organized my stash, completely, and wow, I have a lot of random skeins of yarn.  

Before:

After:

 Ok, I still need some type of bins, but at least it is all organized by fiber, size, and for sock yarn, solid/variegated.

I organized my stash, then made a list of 4 projects I really want to knit next.  I guess this will be my year of the shawl, because I chose 3 shawl/shawlettes and a mobius cowl.  The cowl is for my son, Pookie, who plans to be a physics major in college next year.

I listed the amounts and types of yarn suggested for each project and made a vow to myself that I would stick to my plan.  

I planned to use my "Costco" method of shopping.  I love Costco, which for me is a local store as it started here in Washington, but, it is very easy to come out of Costco with a load of random purchases that you don't really need.  When I shop there, I always make a list, then hold the list in front of my face so I can't see any really cool things that just want to be bought, and run from list item to list item.  I am usually pretty good at sticking to it.

Well, I can claim complete success on the Bellingham Crawl.  I bought only stuff on my list.  Now, I need to knit up all 4 projects before May and the big yarn crawl!  Or before we plan another day trip to a new part of the Puget Sound area and some other yarn stores we haven't "tasted" yet.

So where did we go?  And what did we buy?

Stop 1 

NW Handspun 
1401 Commercial St. 
Bellingham, WA 98225

We arrived in Bellingham, WA at about 11:30 am.  It was gray out, but looked like it was going to be a nice day.  Bellingham is on Puget Sound and almost to Canada.  As we got close, driving up the 5 freeway (Interstate 5), we had glimpses of the water.

We found parking in a bank lot just down the street from the store,

where we were threatened with the full body-binding curse, Petrificus Totalus.  Undismayed, we continued on to the shop where we were greeted by the sight of a yarn bombing.

 

Yep!  yarn store in the immediate vicinity.  NW Handspun is a lovely little shop. 

They had some beautiful yarns.  Everyone went gaga over the Periwinkle Sheep yarns.  They were beautiful colors, and sparkly.  Upstairs, were the sale yarns and... Spinning wheels and roving.  I actually spent about 5 minutes looking at the different wheels, then said out loud to myself, "Back away from the spinning wheels.  There is nothing for you here."  Needless to say, a wheel was NOT on my list.  But the roving was beautiful, and well, reading the spinning chat in HPKCHC and listening to the KnitmoreGirls as well as the Weasley Sisters, and just about every other podcast I love, talk about spinning... Not on my list I repeat.


However, some Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend, was on my list.  The cowl I hope to knit (Easy Mobius Cowl by Haley Waxberg) for Pookie suggested that yarn, doubled.  Pookie wants gray.  He wants it to go with a purple sweater he has.  Gray?  just gray?  Why are boys, well boys?  

I had the foresight to bring the purple sweater with me, and I found the perfect yarns. 

I chose a gray (Nickle) :

and a variegated (Abalone):

It will look mostly gray, but with just a bit of purple, pink, blue, and cream to add interest.  But still masculine.  Definitely, still masculine.

It goes well with the sweater.

Now to just knit the cowl.  But since the HPKCHC dictates my stitching life, I can't cast it on until October 1, and hope it fits a class.  Ha!

Tomorrow, I will write about the 2nd stop.

Where in the world is f1bercat?

Yes!  the Bike Ride South is back.

I made it to the Y yesterday and today.  They have remodeled the entryway, and our little Y is quite lovely now.  The recumbent bikes were in the same spot, though, and one was empty.  

I was only able to knit for 20ish minutes both days.  Can you say, "Out of shape?"  Not horribly so, but still.  Anyway adding them together I knit for 8.13 miles on one of my Spa Washcloths.  

The first 3 of these were from the Liz Marino Gift Knits Club.  She sent the organic cotton yarn and the nubby washcloth patterns. 

 I loved the idea so much, that I am making sets for my 3 sisters and my 4 sisters-in-law for Christmas.  Always thinking of how I can fit what I intend to knit into the HPKCHC, I decided to propose these washcloths as a B.R.O.O.M (Basic Request for an Official Order Mission) project.  These are formally know as Order of the Phoenix projects, and and meant to take more time than a regular class, but less time than an OWL.  I suggested that I knit 8, but the Moderator in charge, asked that I make more, as 8 was not a sufficient number to count.  She suggested 10.  Ok, I can knit 10.  I mean, I think I can, with 6 classes each month, Quidditch games, and my OWL socks to knit.  Anyway, they are perfect projects to knit while riding the bike.

So, where does that put me?

The last time I rode (and posted progress), I was at 322.93 miles.  Which put me in the middle of nowhere:


View Larger Map

Now that I have driven this route, down and back up, I know that I am headed into some beautiful places, but pretty empty of people.

So, 8.13 more miles brings me to 331.03 miles total, just south of Yoncalla.

View Larger Map

Roseburg, here I come.


View Larger Map

Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet with new yarn!

Wooden hooks from NW Handspun

Puget Sound LYS Tour Day 3

Elyo

Huckleberry Knits Sock Yarn at Apple Yarns

I woke up early so I am getting in yesterday's Yarn Crawl recap before we head out for the last day of the madness.

We met at my house yesterday morning and got on the road at 7:30 am. Our group included Ellyol, Allifer, GwenS, and me, f1bercat.  We planned to visit the 8 northern shops on the tour starting with Beach Basket Yarns & Gifts  which is almost on the US/Canadian Border.

The shops open at 10 and close at 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday, so we wanted to be AT Beach Basket Yarns ready to run inside as it opened.  I can't say enough about what a glorious morning it was.  Again, I was a bit sad I was driving, as I might have been taking photos out the window of the car the whole day.

Stop 1  Beach Basket Yarns & Gifts  Birch Bay, WA

This shop has a very nice space and a view of the ocean.

The shop was a nice size, with lots of gifts and yarn.  The featured pattern was a coffee mug cozy which is very fitting for Washington State.


Because we had a full day planned, we did not stay at any one shop very long.  Once again, because I was driving, I was not able to take notes after each shop, so I don't have many particulars about each shop, but I can say that at almost every shop today, we said it would be worth coming back again planning to hit 3 shops or so with a picnic lunch, etc.  Most of these shops are pretty small, but they are packed with yarn and use their space well.  Quite a few had special yarns that are hard to find, and worth seeing in real life to get the full effect of the colors.  I took some photos, but really, you just can't capture the colors of these yarns.  This was true of the next shop, Apple Yarns.

Stop 2 Apple Yarns    Bellingham, WA


We all loved this shop.  Open and airy.  Cute decor. Super friendly staff.Gwen reminded me that they had some unique yarns including Huckleberry knits and Sweet Georgia.  She was impressed as well by their selections of Cascade and Noro.

When I got home on Friday night, I decided that I had better really organize my sock yarn stash.  See, for the crawl, I wanted to mostly buy solid color sock yarns to be prepared for the Solid Socks Group next year.  I made a list of the ROY G BV (skipping indigo) plus white/cream, and gray or black, then planned to buy solid color sock yarns.  OMG.  Because I like to buy 2 skeins and knit my socks 2-at-a-Time, I actually have a ton of sock yarn left from this year in just about every color.

On Friday, I bought purple (amethyst)

blue (lapis)








a pale pale pink







and the brown alpaca.

However, When I gathered all of my partial balls, and the whole skeins I already had together, I discovered that I DID NOT NEED ANY YARN AT ALL.  Ok, I could possibly use some yellow, and cream /white/ or off white if I every want to knit socks in that color.  Why am I talking about this?  When we got in the car Saturday morning, I specifically told my group that I was not to buy sock yarn.  They were to stop me.  What actually happened?  At Apple Yarns, the 2nd stop on the trip, I bought 2 skeins of sock yarn.  Huckleberry Knits had dyed some in "apple" colors especially for Apple yarns, and well, I just had to buy some.  I bought the Granny Smith, my go to apple for pies, and then was torn between the MacIntosh and the Honeycrisp.  Actually, the Red Delicious was, well delicious.  But, I have enough Red Yarn for next year.  And I don't knit that many multicolor socks.  But I bought some of the honeycrisp anyway!  And I might say that my group actually encouraged me to buy these yarns.  They are all enablers.  But, ooooo, the yarn is gorgeous.

Stop 3  NW Handspun  Bellingham, WA

Another shop we visited in Bellingham, was NW Handspun.  I bought a table swift there.  They also had a very nice selection of the Huckleberry Knits, but as I had just bought 2 skeins of sock yarn that I did not need, I refused to buy yarn there.  They had quite a nice selection of Hazel Knits Yarn as well. Their prices were particularly good.  In fact, the Spud and Chloe was more than $1 cheaper per skein than we had seen anywhere else.    They had a good variety of local and mainstream stuff, as well.  I will definitely go back (when I need sock yarn.)

You can probably guess by the name that they have a very nice selection of roving, too.  This is a shop I would definitely like to visit again.







Stop 4 Knot Just Yarn  Burlington, WA

Another shop with a wonderful selection of yarns.  I especially liked their featured pattern, a crocheted scarf and knit hat (with 4 different brim choices) which both could be made from 2 skeins.  Allifer and I chose the same color yarn, and will make a set... who will get to wear them both?  Not sure. I think all four of our group bought their featured yarn, it was really nice and had a  very reasonable price.





I was impressed at not only the yarns, but all of the extras (not just yarn!) they carried including the dyes. 









Stop 5 Wild Fibers  Mount Vernon, WA

This shop has some super cute children's knits and darling toys.  They were open and inviting.  And the staff was friendly and warm.  The neighborhood was really cute, also.  I could have parked and wandered the block, window shopping, if we had had more time.





Stop 6 Ana-Cross Stitch   Anacortes, WA

This shop had a wonderful featured pattern.  It was so popular that they had run out of the yarn that went with it.  I am not sure if the economy has improved, the pattern was popular, or the tour adding the super cute stitch marker rewards for hitting 7, 14 and 21 shops that made the difference for this shop, but although it was sad for us (I plan to make the pattern in some yarn from my ever expanding stash), I was very happy for this delightful shop.  As the name might suggest, they also had a fabulous selection of embroidery/cross stitch thread.




I loved their yarn bombed sign out front.















Stop 8 Coupeville Yarns  Coupeville, WA

After leaving Anacortes, we drove across the Deception Pass Bridge to Whidbey Island which is the largest island in the mainland USA.  The last 2 shops of our day are both on Whidbey.  This is a wonderful vacation destination spot.  The island is just beautiful, with evergreen forests, beaches, and lots of rolling farms.  Again, I wished I was able to take photos as I was driving, but in the interest of staying alive, I did not.

Coupeville Yarns is a tiny shop in a picturesque little house.

They had a very nice selection of Cascade and Noro.  They had a HUGE variety of Noro colors, more than I have seen anywhere else.







I liked their featured pattern, a very cute purse, and got the materials.  I hope to knit it up as a gift for my niece.  It was a reasonable price, and looks like it will be fast.

Stop 9 Knitty Purls Langley, WA

I just loved the location of this little shop.  There is something about being on an island, and Knitty Purls managed to capture the feeling.  The shop is small, but they used the space very well.  I loved their sock yarn .  Their featured pattern was a sock and they had absolutely delicious colors of yarn choices.  I did not buy it.  It was a horribly tough call, though.  The pattern was named Rhododendron, which is the state flower of Washington, and both the yarn and the pattern captured the flower beautifully.  I hope to knit up their pattern with YARN FROM MY STASH.  Though, the featured yarn was super tempting.  Super tempting.  Did I mention that my sock yarn stash has gotten embarrassingly large and I have vowed to not buy any more (except for yellow....) for the rest of the year?



Knitty Purls also carried some very interesting high end yarns like buffalo and quiviut, as well as sets of Hiya-Hiya interchangeable needles, which are hard to find except online.





When we finished with Knitty Purls, we caught the ferry back to Mukilteo, and made the drive home.  I bought less yarn, and most was designated for specific projects (except the yummy apple socks yarns).  I immediately put the yarn and patterns in bags, ready to cast on.

Another thing I am trying to do, to justify my yarn purchases on this crawl, is Tag all of the yarn with 2012PugetSoundLYSTour on my stash page.  I vow to revisit the purchases before next year's crawl to see just how much I actually knit up.  If I have a good record of usage, I will feel better about going crazy again next year.

I need to eat some breakfast.  Tara, Allifer, GwenS, and Ellyol will be here in about 1 hour.  Today we will visit the last 2 shops on the tour, one in the U district (near the University of Washington) and the other on Bainbridge Island, as well as our local shop, Serial Knitters, again since Tara and Ellyol have not been there during the tour yet.  We might also swing back up to The Tea Cozy Yarns because GwenS won one of the daily drawings!

The day looks gray, but with luck, it won't rain.

Stay safe and well.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with way too much sock yarn.