The Northwest LYS Tour Day 1

It's May, and that means YARN!

Today was the first day of the 4 day Northwest LYS Tour 2013.  My stitch buddies, Eastside Stitchers, and I will be hitting all 24, count them 24 shops on the tour in 4 days.

Today, alas, I did the first day of the tour all alone, and lonely (not really, I'll explain), because, the main group is doing the Thursday and Friday days after work, so our working members can participate, and I had a prior engagement tonight.

The Fiber Gallery
8212 Greenwood Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98103
206-706-4197

I headed out to The Fiber Gallery first.  They were the farthest from my house, and I figured that I would start way out, and work my way back home.

This shop has parking behind it, just off N 83rd St. All of the shops today had very friendly and helpful people.  This was very evident at The Fiber Gallery.  They are known for carrying natural fibers, and eco-friendly yarns.

They also have the biggest supply of Hazel Knits in the area.  I was impressed by their wall of Malabrigo.  I loved all of the "sock" yarns they had in stock, though, most are what I would call fingering weight not sock, as they did not have nylon in them.

I can't post photos of any of the special patterns that are free to people on the crawl, but I loved every one of them today.  I really liked both the knit and crochet pattern at Fiber Gallery, and hope to make both.

I was not totally lonely, though I was here alone, because I had to text Skeinherder for some info on a pattern on Ravelry.  One of the yarns that was for sale here was a Cascade Eco.  I bought a skein to use in the SavvyGirls CAL (crochet a long), and I needed the yardage.  Thank goodness, Skeinherder was home and could look it up for me.  I don't have a smart phone, just a dumb one, so I needed help.  It's nice to have knit buddies.

Have you only seen Habu at fiber conventions and events?  They carry it at The Fiber Gallery.

The Tea Cozy Yarn Shop
5816 24th Ave NW Seattle, Wa 98107
206-783-3322

The Tea Cozy Yarn Shop is in  Seattle's Ballard neighborhood.

There is only street parking, and a warning for tomorrow evening, Friday, May 17, 4 - 8pm, there will be no parking on the street right in front of the shop.  May 17 is Norwegian Independence Day, so of course there will be a parade in Ballard.  It should be a really fun event, but, parking will be limited during the festivities on Friday.

The motto for this shop is "basics and beyond." 

They have some very nice "beyond." 
Lately, they are very into Euroflax and have a wonderful selection.

They also have embroidery threads.

They have begun to carry yarns from Abstract Fiber of Portland, OR.  And have a large selection.

Loved their yarn crawl featured patterns, and had to forcibly stop myself from buying yarn for it.  I'm sure I have suitable yarn at home.

Bad Woman Yarn
815 N 45th St, Suite 215, Seattle, WA 98103
206-547-5384

This shop is in the Wallingford Center, which has over 17 local and regional based retail boutiques.  There is plenty of parking for the center.

Bad Woman Yarn is down the hall to the left after you enter.  There was a table set up in the hall for people to sit and knit.

I

I arrived close to noon, and the Crawl was in full swing.  The shop was crowded.

This shop is packed.  Packed with very wonderful yarn, not just people!  They had the biggest selection of Madelinetosh I have seen yet.

They also had tons of Berroco.

Again, the "sock" section was interesting.  I wish yarn companies would not call fingering weight yarn "sock" yarn if it does not have at least 10% nylon content.  Call it "fingering" weight, for goodness sake.  That being said, Bad Woman Yarn had some beautiful fingering weight yarns.  And they were open about the types of fingering they featured.

I recommend timing your visit to Bad Woman yarn when you are hungry, as 2 of the restaurants in the Wallingford Center are offering discounts to people on the Crawl, and Trophy Cupcakes and Party

 is offering 10% off to anyone with an LYS passport.

Go on, you deserve a bit of cake by this time.

As I came out of Bad Woman, I found two of my knit buddies going in.  Chockelet and MsWiz were getting an early start (for our Eastside Stitchers) on the tour.  I knew they were out and about.  Still, we could have passed each other on the road.  We could have taken circular paths.  We could have never seen each other.  But we did.  It was so fun, and well, heart-warming, to see familiar faces.  We stopped to chat, exclaim about the yarn selections available at the participating shops, and admit our purchases.  I hope you run into familiar faces on your crawl.

Acorn Street Yarn
2818 NE 55th St, Seattle, WA 98105
206-525-1726

Acorn Street Yarn is tucked away in the U district.  I loved the "neighborhood-ness" of the street.  There is only street parking, and since it was a bit crowded with yarn shoppers, I parked down a block on a side street.

This is not a bit shop, but every inch is packed with yarn.  They pride themselves on having a really really good selection.  They have been in business for 30 years, and they know their yarn.

There are shelves and shelves full of yummy yarns.  I saw a lot of brands that I didn't know.  The owner was so friendly and helpful.  She kept running back and forth, as more and more entered the shop for the crawl, to answer my questions about her shop.

They had a really nice fingering selection, and a real sock yarn selection.  They had a huge selection of Cascade Heritage Sock.  This yarn is very often my go to yarn for knitting socks.

I will be back.

Serial Knitters
8427 122nd Ave NE, Kirkland, WA 98033
(425) 242-0086

This shop is my most local of the yarn shops.  They have a great general selection, and some special yarns.  While they try to carry a wide selection,

they focus on handpainted yarns.

They have a wide variety of price points.  They want to meet the needs of high spending and low spending knitters.  There are quite a few yarns that I have never seen,

The staff is very knowledgeable.  They have one special staff member, Annelie Wallborn, who designs and teaches at the store.

That's all for today.  I will be with the group tomorrow night hitting the shops.  I don't know if I will have energy to blog when I get home, but I'l try.

Good night for now.
Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the world with new yarn (but just one skein.)

Eastside Stitchers Take Over Crossroads

We had a great turn out for Eastside Stitchers tonight at Crossroads Mall..  Lots of stitching and laughing. A really long discussion about phones... with many funny stories about old landlines, and the cords that came with them.

Who was there and what were they stitching?

The evening started with Redbird1 who finished up her Color Affection Shawl.  This is the second color affection knit by an Eastside Stitchers member (GwenS was wearing her gorgeous version), and I have to say, both shawls make it very very tempting to knit one of my own.  Redbird1 finished up the last row, but will wait until the morning to cast off.  She is taking no chances with this beautiful shawl.

When I look at this shawl, after wiping off the drool, I remind myself, "endless garter stitch."

Colleen brought her beautiful raspberry lace scarf.  It makes me think of raspberry sherbert.

Yum!



Tara1682 started a new project... a cowl?

Here is the yarn.  She had just cast on and was working the first few rows.

Love the colors.




Ellyol and Chatzy came together.

Ellyol's first project is a secret!  Shhhhhh!

I wasn't allowed to photograph it, because it is for a swap and is being mailed next week.  Her swap partner is really lucky.  Absolutely adorable.  I was able to get a photo of the baby  blanket Ellyol was hooking later in the evening.

Chatzy was knitting a hat for the Stitch N Pitch Charity.  The group is headed to a Mariner's Game in 2 weeks to join in the Stitch N Pitch fun.  Included in the goody bags was a suggestion to knit hats.  Chatzy has gotten a great start on hers.

Really electric glow in the dark colors.  This cute hat will make some lucky kid very happy.

GwenS, (wearing her color affection) was making good progress on her reversible cowl.

This is another Puget Sound LYS Tour project.

Hvrdmnky brought her blanket squares.

Such even stitches.  She is such a crisp knitter.

Jan wins for the worst photo.  Or I win for taking a horrible photo of Jan's WIP.  She was knitting a cotton washcloth.

Sorry, Jan.  We can almost see the really nice texture pattern you were using.

Allifer came later as usual, after work.  She brought her Infinity Cowl.

 This is another beautiful Puget Sound LYS Tour project.  I believe Allifer bought the yarn at Churchmouse Yarn and Teas, which was our last stop on the yarn shop tour.

I brought my better than French Vanilla socks, then made a stupid error in the seed stitch section and spent a lot of good knitting time trying to redo just those few stitches.  Ugh.  Still I love the yarn for those socks, and had fun (mostly) knitting them with the group.

Where in the World is f1bercat?

Yes!  I made it to the Y today and got in about 6 miles of biking/knitting,  and 1/2 mile of walking.  This puts me at 274.06 total miles and past Brownsville, OR.  I'm getting close to Eugene, OR.  I wonder if there are any good LYS in Eugene that I could visit next week?


View Larger Map


Where am I on the big map?


View Larger Map

I am about half way through Oregon. I can't wait to cross the border into California.  Not because I don't love Oregon.  I do.  I mean, Oregon is a very lovely state.  But I would actually like to reach my  destination.

Good night and sleep well.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet  with some great knitting buds.


MsWiz, WHERE ARE YOU?  We really miss you.