Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Eastside Stitchers Babies Babies and More Babies to Come!

Hello!

Tonight, at the regular Wednesday meet up of the Eastside Stitchers at Crossroads in Bellevue, the Eastside Stitchers celebrated the soon to be arrival of yet another new baby Stitcher with a Baby Shower for Anerenbe.  She is due any day now!  so we needed to celebrate with cupcakes, and hand made gifts.

Wajio brought a bundle of practical gifts, wrapped in one of her own receiving blankets.
I recognize those baby socks!

Ok, the sweater is not Blue, but can you see the Tardis on it?  This was knit by GwenS who also made... an Aviatrix hat, of course!

VanesaPolo knit an Elizabeth Zimmerman Flared Baby Jacket.  She used the yarn she dyed herself last summer.  And, knowing what mom's really need, she added in some pacifiers!

Readnitdream brought a beautiful baby set in yellow.  The pattern is free on Ravelry, and is the 5 Hour Baby Sweater.
She added in a matching hat and some adorable matching baby booties.

I brought two crocheted dresses, the first was the Little White Dress (only mine was pink),
a design of my own,
and a matching hat and socks.
We all agreed that knitting for babies is fun!

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a butterfly dress.







2014 South Sound Yarn Crawl, Part 2

Hello:

I'm continuing the report of the 2014 South Sound Yarn Crawl.  If you read my post from Monday, you will know that this yarn crawl includes 9 shops all around South Puget Sound.  I went on the Crawl with 3 of my Eastside Stitchers buddies, JulieMustKnit, Wajio, and WireKnitter.  We started early Saturday morning and finished all 9 stores that day.  My Monday post includes the first 4 stores: Amanda's Art Yarn, Debbie Macomber's A Good Yarn Shop, Rainy Day Yarns, and Allyn Knit Shop.


Fancy Image Yarn
591 Southeast Arcadia Road
Shelton, WA 98584
360.426.5875

This amazing shop is tucked away in the trees in Shelton.  As I wrote in my first post, each shop on this tour reflects the personality of it's owner.  This shop just screams, "COLOR."  The power was out in Shelton, or at least in the section that was near the shop.  The traffic lights were out on the turns coming up to the shop.  There were no lights on in the shop when we entered. 
The lack of artificial light didn't seem to dim the shop as the yarn in side seemed to light up the shop all on it's own.  This shop carries Fancy Image Hand DyedYarn, almost exclusively.
There are a few other basic yarns, to fill out the collection, but the shop is really a showcase for this beautiful local yarn.  There are many many bases.
All dyed in the richest saturated colors.  It was simply a joy to the eyes.  We especially loved the Seahawk's colorways.
The amazing staff worked through the power outage cheerfully, making sales the old fashioned way, with pen and paper.  This shop is only open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, but you can always order on-line.

Canvas Works
525 Columbia St. SW
Olympia, WA, 98501
19.7  mi, 25 min


ha ha ha That photo of the capitol building in Olympia is from last year's tour.  It rained this year, and as I was driving, I didn't have a chance to take photos from the car.

The shop drew gasps of delight from our group.  The rooms are two stories high, with large windows all around, filling the space with light, even on a gray rainy day.





This shop boasts a strong selection of great upscale standard yarns.  These are the kinds of yarns you want to use for most of your best projects.  They have a large selection of Mountain Colors Yarns, and the featured yarn was a Mountain Colors Yarn that was specially dyed for their shop for the 2014 Yarn Crawl.

They also sell fabric,
and have a coffee shop.
With all of these wonderful features, what do they think is their strongest point?  The staff.  People often have questions, they might need to ask about a pattern, a stitch yarn substitution, etc.  They are always willing to help. 
This, and well just about everything else about this welcoming shop, makes it a gathering place for knitters of all levels.

Ok, the Round 4 Pattern for Sock Madness is out, and I'm working every day this week, so I will continue my posts about the Yarn Crawl with the last 3 shops tomorrow.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a wealth of places to shop for yarn.
Canvas Works also carries fiber for felting projects

Monday, May 5, 2014

2014 South Sound Yarn Crawl

Hello: 

On Saturday, May 3, I went to 9 LYS on the South Sound Yarn Crawl.  We have been having weird weather again; if you went on the crawl on May 1 or 2, you would have had sunshine and record breaking heat.  On Saturday (the day I went) and Sunday, we were back to our usual Spring of temperatures in the 50's F, and intermittent rain.

JulieMustKnit, Wajio, and WireKnitter arrived at my house at about 6:30 am and we were on the road south by 7:00 am.  We drove around Puget Sound through Tacoma and up to Poulsbo, WA, where we started the crawl.  This took only about 1.5 hours, and we arrived a bit early as the shops opened at 9:00 am.

We stopped and got some goodies at Sluy's Bakery, the home of the famous Poulsbo Bread.
Poulsbo is like a little Norwegian themed town, and has lots of fun shops.




One of the things I found most interesting on this Yarn Crawl was how each shop reflected the personality of each owner.  At each shop, I asked the owner what made her shop special, or what she would want her shop to be known for.  I almost didn't have to ask.  The personality and speciality of each shop stood out.

18846 Front Street Northeast #200

Poulsbo, WA 98370
360.779.3666


This shop has been in business for 22 years.  She carries her own line of yarn, Color Dance Yarns.
She has lots of her own patterns to support her yarns.
But she also carries many other yarns and lots of fiber.  The shop offers classes in knitting, crochet, spinning and weaving.  The free knitting pattern for the Crawl was a 1 skein lace wrap.  She also had some really unique felting projects on display.  Poulsbo is a fun town, and it would definitely be worth going back to shop.

Debbie Macomber's A Good Yarn Shop
1140 Bethel Ave
Port Orchard, WA 98366
360.876.0377

This is a very cute building, right across from a tea shop.  The shop is a good size, and airy.
They feel that they should be known for the friendly people who work there.  They carry many yarns that are perfect for making baby items.  One local yarn they have, that I had never seen before, is Cantering Crow Colorworks.
The free patterns were fingerless mitts, a crochet version, Simple Crochet Fingerless Mitts by Donna Stein, and a knit version, Mother's Day Fingerless Mitts by Elizabeth E. Bartlett.

The next stop was new to the Crawl, and a New Shop to the South Sound.

Rainy Day Yarns
3200 Tarabochia Street
Gig Harbor, WA 98335
253.514.6890

This shop is a wonderful source of local and USA yarns.  Yes, they carry some standards (if you can call Malabrigo a standard), but they really make an effort to carry USA made yarns, and have a great selection.

Follow this LINK to a list of their USA yarns and indie dyed yarns.  They also carried Cantering Crow Colorworks (a local yarn) but, their selection is unique to their store.
They have a wonderful selection of Rain City Fiber Arts yarns,
and so many new-to-me local yarns, I can't show them all.  But I will show Sleepy Hollow Fiber Farms, because the yarn is "grown" in Washington and Oregon, milled in Washington, and the company is based in Washington and Oregon.
Their label says, "Grown with pride in the PNW."

One other fun thing in this show was that the yarn bowls were made by the owner's sister.
Can't get much more local than that!





Allyn Knit Shop

16590 State Highway 3
Allyn, WA 98524
360.275.4729
This shop has moved and is much larger than last year.  When we got inside, we found a BUSLOAD of Crawlers.
Luckily, they were headed in the other direction than we were taking!  This shop also had some wonderful local and USA yarns, including Dakota Yarn.

They would like to be known as the Cheers of Knit Shops.  They have an outdoor garden area that will open in July for summer knitting.  This shop has a huge amount of wonderful stock.  I was especially impressed at how much fiber they carry.

I need to go tutor two students, so I will finish up the second half of the shop tomorrow.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet on a yarn crawl.
Poulsbo, WA



 
 








Thursday, May 1, 2014

South Sound Yarn Crawl this Saturday


View Larger Map

This is my suggested schedule for our South Sound LYS Crawl on Saturday.  I know we have to back track a bit, but this seems the best order.  I suggest we just drive around rather than taking the ferry.  If you don't have to wait at all for the ferry, the time it takes to drive around is the same.  If you have to wait... well, add that in.  Also, other than the gas, it's free to drive around.

Here is the order of the shops with the miles and time it takes to get to each.



1. Amanda's Art Yarn
18846 Front Street Northeast #200
Poulsbo, WA 98370
360.779.3666
86.1 mi, 1 h 35 min

2. Debbie Macomber's A Good Yarn Shop
1140 Bethel Ave
Port Orchard, WA 98366
360.876.0377
24.6 mi, 31 min

3. Rainy Day Yarns
3200 Tarabochia Street
Gig Harbor, WA 98335
253.514.6890
16.5 mi, 21 min

4. Allyn Knit Shop
16590 State Highway 3
Allyn, WA 98524
360.275.4729
24.2 mi, 34 min

5. Fancy Image Yarn
591 Southeast Arcadia Road
Shelton, WA 98584
360.426.5875
18.1 mi, 24 min

6. Canvas Works
525 Columbia St. SW
Olympia, WA, 98501
19.7  mi, 25 min

7.  Yorkshire Yarns
6122 Motor Ave SW
Lakewood, WA 98499
253.589.9276
22.8 mi, 28 min

8. Fibers Etc.
705 Court C #301
Tacoma, WA 98402
253.531.3257
10.7 mi, 17 min.

9. Firwood Farm Alpacas
8002 48th St. E
Fife, WA 98424
253.926.2582
7.9 mi, 13 min.

The shops open at 9, so I suggest we try to get on the road by 7 am.

It just seemed easier to post in the blog since I could post the map here.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with lots of yarn shops!