2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl, Day 3

Hello: 
Crazy crazy day on the tour, today.  JulieMustKnit and I headed out to the northern most shops in the 2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl at 8 am as we wanted to be at the first shop, almost on the Canadian border at 10 am when the shop opened.

I am just going to dive right into the shops and the day. 

Beach Basket Yarns & Gifts
7620 Birch Bay Dr.
Birch Bay, WA 98230
360.371.0332
beachbasketyarns@comcast.net

We made it to Beach Basket Yarns about 5 minutes before 10:00 and saw quite a few cars.  It seems that other crawlers had the same idea that we had! 

This shop carries a lot of nice yarns, many of them the standard yarns that you want to use on your regular projects.  They particularly have a nice selection of Berroco.  And, Berroco is the featured yarn in their free patterns, Berroco Boboli Lace.

I really liked both the Knit pattern and the Crochet Pattern.  They are both lace wraps.  They are light and airy, and very summery.  I might make one, or both of them.

There is plenty of parking off the street in front of the shop, and there is a nice coffee shop right next door.

Wear On Earth
504 Front St.
Lynden, WA 98264
360.318.8657
wearonearth.net

Wear on Earth is in Lynden, WA, where you will find more than one Windmill.  I am not kidding.

There is parking on the side of the clothing part of this shop, and the Yarn Shop part is in back.

You know you have found the entrance to the yarn shop by the Yarn Bombing.

This shop carries a nice selection of yarns, and is bigger than it looks at first.  The yarn I noticed the most is the large selection of Spud and Chloe.

I have to admit that the thing I most love about this shop is the wall full of Hiya Hiya needles.  They have the best assortment of these needles I have seen in any shop.  They carry circulars in regular and sharps, as well as the cables and tips of the interchangeables.  They also have a good selection of double pointed needles.  If you like Hiya Hiya needles, and who doesn't? This is a must see shop.

Apple Yarns
1780 Iowa St.
Bellingham, WA 98226
360.756.9992
appleyarns.com

Outside the Apple Yarns shop, in Bellingham, we ran into CathieC, her loving husband, and her puppy!

It is so much fun to see friends on the crawl.


This is a lovely, light filled shop.  They carry a lot of Sweet Georgia Yarns, which is local for them.

This visit, they had a lot of a yarn I have never seen before, Watershed Yarns.  This is quite a lovely yarn. 

This is the featured yarn in their both of their free patterns for the crawl.  Their patterns are these amazingly cute color work hats.  The knit and crochet versions are very similar, and I will definitely make one if not both!

There is ample off street parking in their parking lot.

NW Handspun Yarns
1401 Commercial St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
360.738.0167
nwhandspunyarns.com

We shall recognize our LYS by their Yarn Bombs!  Not only does this shop have a cute tree bombing,

but they have the above knit Dalek guarding their doorway.  I had JulieMustKnit pose with the terrifying alien for me so you could see the scale.

We saw CathieC again in this store, and it was like a bit of an Eastside Stitchers' Party.
This store has such lovely yarns for sale.  They have a great relationship with Huckleberry knits, one of my favorite local hand dyers, and always seem to have her yarn available.

They have a great upstairs space that holds their spinning wheels, tools, and fiber.

They have more spinning fiber than any other shop in the crawl.
They had a group of bobbin lace makers... making lace.

They carry a line of yarn that is spun by one of their own workers.

Spincycle Yarns.  It is just wonderful.

Their free patterns are a cabeled cowl by Cat Bordhi.  yes, you read that right.  Cat Bordhi designed the free pattern for NW Handspun's Free Crawl Pattern.  It uses Frog Tree Pediboo Tonal Worsted.

Their crochet pattern is for fingerless mitts and uses Spincycle Yarns, Dyed in the Wool.  I hope to make both patterns.

(Puzan!  another cowl, pattern 7)

There is no parking lot for the shop, there is street parking or, we parked in a bank parking lot that was across the street and down one block.

Mrs. Hudson's Yarns and Teas
1106 Harris Ave #103
Bellingham, WA  98225
360.543.5883
mrshudsons.com
in Finnegan's Alley

This is a warm and welcoming shop.

They have a nice selection of the types of yarns we want to knit with, but also some sweet special yarns.  I especially liked their  Suri Elegance by the Alpaca Yarn Co. It just felt divine, and I loved the muted colors. 

They had a nice supply of Swan's Island Lace yarn, which I had not seen in a store before.

Their free patterns were a sweet baby jacket in Baah Yarns La Jolla.  And, a wonderful stranded colorwork sock pattern that uses Cascade Heritage Sock yarn (my go to solid sock yarn).  I plan to make both patterns.

We somehow missed CathieC, but we saw her DH as we were walking back to our car.  There is only street parking here, and it was crowded so we ended up parking about 3 blocks away.  Actually, by this time, we were happy to have a chance to stretch our legs. 

As we walked from the car to the shop, we passed another LYS shop that was not on the tour, The Wool Station.  It was closed, and the employees were busy packing up the stock to move the store upstairs from its present location.

PinchKnitter Yarns

8712 271st St.
Stanwood, WA 98292
360.939.0769
pinchknitter.com

I just love this shop.  The owner is Scandinavian, and the shop has the most wonderful stranded colorwork samples on display.  If you want to knit with Dale of Norway yarns, this is your store.

I am making the Carlos and Arne Christmas Balls for my OWL in the HPKCHC, and so am working on learning stranded colorwork.  I bought 3 skeins in Christmas colors to use in my Christmas Balls.

I can't wait to see how it feels to knit it, and what it looks like.  I've been using Cascade 220 for the balls.  I knew I would be coming here on the Crawl, and planned to pick up some of this yarn.  By the way, Arne & Carlos are teaching at the Nordic Knitting Conference '14 this coming Fall, October 3-5 at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard.

The free patterns both feature Dale of Norway yarns.  The knitting pattern is a very cute baby blanket in Dale of Norway Baby Ull.  The crochet pattern is a cowl in Dale of Norway Condor.

There is only street parking for this shop, but we were able to park right in front.

Wild Fibers
706 S First St
Mt. Vernon, WA 98273
360.336.5202
wildfibers.net

 This shop has a wonderful selection of really nice yarns.  They have a terrific room at the back for classes.

The yarn that most caught my eye here was their large supply of Juniper Moon Yarns

in many bases.

They were selling raffle tickets for a sampler afghan.

The proceeds will benefit people hurt in the Oso landslide.  They also have a number of sampler afghans knit by regular customers and shop employees that they are donating to the people hurt in the slide.

We parked on the street around the corner from the shop.

The free pattern is hard to describe.  Depending on how you button it up, it could be a cowl, wrap, shrug... Very versitile and inspirational.

(Puzan!  Cowl Pattern 9)

Ana-Cross Stitch
719 Commercial Ave
Anacortes, WA 98221
360.299.9010
anacrossstitch.com

The first thing I noticed in this shop is that they have moved things around.  Their large selection of cross stitch patterns and embroidery floss is now in the back.

This area is beautifully set up and full of beautiful colors of threads.

The yarn that caught my eye this year was Jojoland. 

Their free Crawl patterns are a really pretty reversible Knit cowl in Hikoo Rylie and a crochet mobius cowl in Malabrigo Silky Wool.  I want to make the knit cowl for sure, and possibly the mobius, too.

 (Puzan! cowl patterns 10 and 11)

Whidbey Isle Yarns Gifts & Teas
910 Pioneer Way #2
Oak Harbor, WA 98277
360.632.4200
whidbeyyarns.net

This shop debuted in last year's crawl.  It was an interesting shop that featured the handspun yarn of the owner.  They have moved and gotten even better! 

They have a bigger space.

and have filled it with yummy yarns.

If any shop shows off the personality of the owner, this shop does.  There are wonderful handspun yarns for sale.

The shop sells its own brand of yarn that looks handspun. Through Think and Thin.

The owner, YouthFiberArts, has some lovely and fun patterns that show off how beautiful this yarn is.

In spite of these delicious yarns, or perhaps in addition to, this shop could be known for it's buttoms.

They are just wonderful.  JulieMustKnit and I, both went home with vintage buttons that have been turned into stitch markers.

The featured patterns are the Katniss inspired Cowl (Hunger Games), which uses a super bulky yarn like Brown Sheep Lanaloft.

The other featured pattern is a really cute little purse in Kraemer Perfection Lights and Perfection Worsted.  I hope to make both.

Knitty Purls
210 First Street
Langley, WA 98260
360.331.2212
knittypurls.com

This was our last stop for the day.  It has moved down the street a bit from where it used to be last year.  The shop seems to be a bit bigger.  They have a large selection of Mountain Colors.  They have the same cheerful helpful staff.

Their free patterns were for 2 cowls.  They are definitely something I would like to make.
(Puzan! cowl pattern 11)

That's all for today.  I need some sleep before I finish up the crawl.

Peace
f1bercat
shaping the planet one shop at a time.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with skeins and skeins of

2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl, Day 2

Hello:

Today was the second day of the 2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl.   25 Shops in 4 days.

JulieMustKnit and I are trying to make it to all 25 shops, and we have made a great start.  Yesterday, we separately hit our first 2 shops, and today, we made it to 8 more shops.  We were going to Crawl with Fiber Friday members of Eastside Stitchers, but Zillalatte was not feeling well (Get Better Soon!), and Pam2 had a conflict.  Luckily, Winterpromise31 was able to come along, so we three made a Crawl group.

Tolt Yarn and Wool
4509 Tolt Ave.
Carnation, WA 98014
425.333.4066
toltyarnandwool.com

I have written about this wonderful shop a few times already so I will keep this short.  If you are on the Eastside, GO. 

Their free patterns were a super cute reversible hat in Y.O.T.H. Big Sister (DK Weight).  That I will definitely make.  By the way, since the YOTH Big Sister is the pattern yarn, it is 10% off this weekend.  It seems that the dyer, Veronika, has her next color grouping for sale as there were the beautiful neutrals and also some lovely blues and greens.

Their crochet pattern is an interesting cowl in bulky with applique rosettes.  Bulky is not my favorite yarn weight, but I did like the cowl.  (Puzan! cowl pattern 1)

This shop has street parking.

Great Yarns!
4023 Rucker Ave
Everett, WA 98201
425.252.8155
greatyarns.com

This shop has some of the most beautiful knitted samples.  There is one main room of yarn, and you see some lovely yarns there. Then you realize that there are 3 more small rooms off the main one, all stocked with lovely yarns.  The yarn here is mostly high end.  Face it, any shop whose free pattern uses Mink Yarn, has high end yarns.

Their free patterns were a Crochet Scarf that had ruffles and for the Knit pattern, a Slip Stitch Infinity Scarf that is really a cowl.  (Puzan!  cowl pattern 2) I want to make the Knit pattern.

Country Yarns
119 Avenue B
Snohomish, WA 98290
360.568.7611
facebook.com/CountryYarns

This lovely little shop is even better than last year.  They have a wider selection of yarns, all of them really cool.  They also carry a really nice selection of spinning fiber (the owner is a spinner).  One of the fun things this year is that they have their own yarn for sale.  It is locally dyed, and is called Artistry. 

The colors are inspired by artists, mainly from the Impressionists.  It is a Made in the USA yarn, from American sheep, locally dyed, and USA spun.  It comes in fingering weight, and is light yet springy.  This is the featured yarn for the free pattern so is 10% off this weekend.  The knitting pattern for the Crawl is a bias knit cowl with beautiful drape.
(Puzan! cowl pattern 3)

There is a parking lot next to the shop, but there will be the motorcycle rally in town on Sunday, and the street will be blocked off so you can't park near the shop.  Last year we walked about 3 blocks from our car; it wasn't bad at all.  Normally, though, there is plenty of parking.

Quintessential Knits
22615 Cherry Valley Rd.
Monroe, WA 98272
425.890.6756
quintessentialknits.com

This is a new shop.  It has been open about 1 1/2 years, but was not on the Crawl last year.

It appears to be in the owner's remodeled garage.  You drive down a tree lined road to make a sharp turn up a narrow gravel driveway to the house and ... find the shop.  The owner was a professional photographer-turned-knitwear-designer.

I didn't expect much, but was really blown away when I got inside.  This shop is full of beautiful high quality yarns.  They don't carry much in the way of art yarns.  Their yarn is meant for knitting and crochet.  They have a large selection of small local dyers like Fiber Fetish.

They also carry lovely "regular" yarns like Spud and Chloe, Noro, Malabrigo, Bergere, Madelinetosh.

I would DEFINITELY come back to this shop.  In fact, I think this shop and Tolt would make a really fun 2 shop day.

Their free pattern is for some boot toppers.  They are cute, but not something I would knit.  The yarn is Swans Island Eco Wash DK and will be 10% off this weekend for the tour.

There is parking on the driveway in front of the shop.

Mad Cow Yarn
18107 Bothell Way NE
Bothell, WA 98011
425.415.6981
madcowyarn.com

This is another new shop, I think it's less than 1 year old.  The shelves are full of Cascade yarns.  I didn't count, but it seemed that they carry every base, in a large variety of colors.  I was especially happy to see all of the Heritage sock yarns, as that is my go-to socks yarn.

While they have a huge selection of Cascade, this is not all they carry.  They had some very different yarns.  They had a beautiful Yak yarn called Tibetan Cloud Worsted.

Their featured free pattern was a Cowl called the Mad Cowl.  There is a knit and a crochet version.  The yarn for the project is by La Jolla superwash fingering weight, and the colors were dyed for the shop for the crawl.  Both versions are cool, and I would make them both.

They had super yummy treats for the crawl patrons to eat.  I had a lemon petit four.

(Puzan! cowl patterns 3 - 4)

Makers' Merchantile
18437 East Valley Hwy #102
Kent, WA 98032
425.251.1239
makersmerchantile.com

This wonderful shop (and gluten free bakery!) has a huge selection of Skacel yarns.  They now carry a small selection of local yarns, as well.

I broke down and bought a skein of Crazy Zouberball  for their crochet pattern, a very cute baby dress.  Their featured knit pattern was a striped hat, but is made with striped yarn, so much easier.

I also bought 2 skeins of yarn by a local dyer, Schmutzerella Yarns.  She has some beautiful yarns in "Harry Potter" colorways.

JulieMustKnit and I got our stitch markers for 8 shops here!

The Knittery
601 S. Grady Way
Renton, WA 98057
425.228.4694
the-knittery.com

This shop has been in business a long time and has a very loyal clientele. Their yarn selection increases every time I visit. I enjoyed looking at the wall of Ella Rae yarns in so many wonderful colors.

Their crochet pattern is for baby booties, and the knit pattern  is for a vest.  I liked both.  The vest uses Eco or Ecological Wool and the booties use Plymouth Encore.

There are plenty of free places to park.

We dropped off Winterpromise31 after this shop, and picked up our new Crawl partners: GwenS and Addie.

The Fiber Gallery
8212 Greenwood Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
206.706.4197
fibergallery.com

This store has a wonderful selection of yarns.  They have lots of great samples of their patterns knit up showing off the yarns all over the shop.  For some reason, I noticed quite a few baby knits, which I don't remember seeing last year.  But, it might just be that I am noticing baby patterns more because of all the new babies in the Eastside Stitchers.  Anyway, they were very cute.  This shop has yarns that you want to knit with.  Their featured free patterns were in Madelintosh ASAP and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino which are both on sale for the weekend, 10% off.

The Knit pattern is for a cowl that uses 2 colors.  If you are careful, you can make 2 cowls with reversed colors.  The crochet pattern is for a toy, and I just loved it!  I really want to make it.  I caved and bought a skein of the Cashmerino, but not for the toy.  I will probably make that in acrylic from my afghan stash.  I plan to make an Aviatrix with this skein.

There is a parking lot on a side street for this shop.

(Puzan! cowl pattern 5)

The Tea Cozy Yarn Shop
5816 24th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
206.783.3322
teacozyyarn.com

This is another shop that gets better every time I visit.  I was very impressed at the knit sweater samples and all of the hats.  JulieMustKnit kept saying, "Look at those hats!"  They have a wonderful selection of yarns.  These yarns are perfect for so many different types of projects.  They have a great selection of yarns for making baby clothes, but also cowls, shawls and ... Hats!  The shop is warm and welcoming. 

The two free patterns are for baby sweaters.  I want to make them both. They use Frog Tree Pediboo Sock Yarn and MadelineTosh Sock which will both be on sale through Sunday.

There is only street parking for this shop.

Bad Woman Yarn
1815 N 45th St.
Suite 215
Seattle, WA 98103
206.547.5384
badwomanyarn.com

This shop has the best selection of MadelineTosh yarns in the Greater Seattle Area.  And that is saying something since many of our local shops carry MadelineTosh and most of them have a nice selection.  But you just can't beat Bad Woman for the number of bases, and the color choices in that base.  Also, they have quite a bit of each color, so you could find a sweater's worth of yarn IN the shop, and not have to order it.

They always have wonderful patterns for the Crawl, and this was true this year, too.  The knit pattern is a cowl! that uses Malabrigo Sock (On sale! this weekend 10% off), and the crochet pattern a lovely lace triangular shawl that uses MadelineTosh  Prairie (also on sale through Sunday).

There is a nice parking lot for the Wallingford Center, which is where this shop is located.

(Puzan! cowl pattern 6)

Whew!  Finished posting for today.  Tomorrow we are hitting the North shops on the Crawl, starting out at the Northmost shop and working our way down and onto Whidbey Island.  I don't know if I will have enough energy when I get home to post the whole day, but I will try.

I just wanted to say that Addie was a wonderful Crawl Partner.  She cooed, and babbled, and was just full of smiles and fun.  To get to Seattle from the Eastside where we all live, we have to drive over one of our famous floating  bridges.  As my friends here know, I always use the I 90 bridge (the other one has a toll), and that route goes through a long tunnel when you get to the Seattle side of the lake.  Both times we went through the long dark tunnel, Addie made a "Tunnel Face" which her mom, GwenS, managed to capture on film.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with Tunnel Face.

Himes is Home!

One down, two to go.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with my kids.

2014 North Sound LYS Crawl, Day 1

Hello:

Once again I am attempting to visit all 25 shops on the 2014 North Puget Sound LYS Tour.

I will be doing my main crawling Friday, Saturday and Sunday with various Eastside Stitchers, mostly JulieMustKnit who is going to do the entire crawl as well.  Tomorrow, the Fiber Friday group of Eastside Stitchers will hit the North Seattle Shops including: Great Yarns, Country Yarns, Mad Cow Yarns, Quintessential Knits, and Tolt Yarn and Wool. 

After we split up so some of us can pick up school kids, we will continue on to the South Seattle shops most likely: Makers Merchantile and The Knittery.

THEN, we will pick up GwenS and the adorable Addie, and hit as many of the Mid-Seattle Shops as we are comfortable visiting.  The shops are staying open until 8 pm on Friday and Saturday, this year, so we will see how many we can hit.

Saturday will be the usual long haul to the far north:  Beach Basket Yarns, Wear On Earth, Apple Yarns, Mrs. Hudson's Yarn and Teas, NW Handspun, Wild Fibers, Ana-Cross Stitch, then over the Deception Pass Bridge and onto Whidbey Island to visit Whidbey Isle Yarns, Gifts and Teas, and Knitty Purls.  Because of the extended Saturday hours, we will then double back up North a bit and hit Pinchknitters Yarns.

Sunday will be for any Seattle shops we missed:  Seattle Yarn, So Much Yarn, and any of the mid shops that we just didn't have energy for on Friday night.  We will then take the ferry to Bainbridge Island and finish the Crawl at Churchmouse Yarn and Teas for the celebratory glass of champaigne.

Wait!  2 shops are missing from the above lists!  This is because JulieMustKnit and I decided to start the crawl separately (we both had to work today)  and hit the first two shops on our own.

Acorn Street Shop
2818 NE 55th St.
Seattle, WA 9105
206.525.1726
acornstreet.com

 This is a gem of a local yarn shop.  As I have said before (and will repeat over and over as I write about the crawl), shops each have their own personality, and reflect the knitting styles and tastes of the owners.  This is not the closest shop to my house, maybe the 2nd or 3rd, but I just love their selection of sock yarns.  And by sock yarns, I mean yarn for knitting socks.  Other shops on the tour will have wonderful selections of fingering weight yarns for making shawls, etc, but Acorn Street always has a good selection of yarn for knitting socks.

They have just a wonderful selection of many different yarns.  I am always surprised when I turn a corner and look at another row of shelves.

The free knitting pattern for the crawl is a lace and cable scarf in Madelintosh which means that the Madeline Tosh yarn for the scarf is on sale!

The only bummer about this shop is that the owner is retiring soon.  The store has been looking for a buyer, and will know by Memorial Day Weekend if this will happen.  If it does not, the inventory will be sold off and the store closed.  It's not like there aren't any shops in Seattle, but this is the one in the U District, and it is really a wonderful neighborhood shop.  Anyone want to buy a Yarn Shop?

There is a very limited amount of off street parking (4 spaces), but you can always find street parking nearby.

The city of Seattle does not allow paper or plastic bags to be given away in shops, so remember to bring a reusable bag to the store.

Serial Knitters Yarn Shop
8427 122nd Ave NE
Kirkland, WA 98033
425.242.0086
serialknitters.com

This is my most local yarn shop.  I love the variety of yarns they carry.  The staff is super friendly, and they really support knitters with questions. 

They love kettle dyed and variegated yarns, and support the work of local dyers.

They have a number of employees who design.  The free knitting pattern for the crawl is a shawl by Annelie Wallbom and is quite lovely.  The featured yarn is Black Trillium Lilt Sock which is from a Pacific Northwest dyer.

They also have a Crochet Hat pattern by Clare Cronkleton that I might make.  I find this shop to be very crochet friendly.

I have so much to write about that is non-crawl but, I need to knit knit knit on my sock madness socks or they will never get finished.

Just some quick photos of my blocked and stiffened Snowflakes:

I love them.

Peace,
f1bercat shaping the planet while crawling.