2026 yarn crawl

Well that was fun. It’s been a weekend full of lots of different things so this seems like it was forever ago, but in fact it was just Friday. I’ve got some vacation to burn, so I took the day off to have breakfast with a friend after which we moseyed over to the local yarn shop for the first day of this year’s Bay Area Yarn Crawl. Ahem. This is the chaos that resulted. The bag on the left is mine, the pile of books and the basket is hers. We certainly did some shopping!! 

I also snagged a couple of pattern books (free!) but I admit I didn’t have a whole lot of patience to sift through them all. I did, however, do a great job picking through the sale yarn outside and here’s what I got. It’s all cotton or cotton blends, which is something I appreciate so much about this shop - she carries great non-wool options. The four colorful skeins on the right, and possibly the hank, will be headed to my mom. The four neutral balls on the bottom are going to be great for gnomes, particularly the white and gray for beards and noses. I wish I had just one more ball of that fluffy yellow because then I would know exactly what sweater I would make, but as it is I might be a bit too short to want to play yarn chicken. Still, it’s so soft and I’ll find something to make with it. 

 

Once we managed to get inside, it was really fun to look around the trunk shows Kristi had displayed. She ordinarily has a great selection of yarns but boy these indie dyers did not disappoint! The whole bottom row of skeins is from those trunk shows. The left, highly variegated yarn is from Forbidden Fibers Co and will be my first (brave!) foray into a super variegated sweater and learning to alternate skeins. The rest of the bottom row is from a dyer with moody colors I just loved called Dragon Hoard Yarn. I limited myself to tonal skeins for projects I had picked out otherwise I would have come home with many more of her beautiful variegated works. The set of four purpley red will be a sweater, likely an Amrum. The dark slate blue will be an Architexture scarf, and the other one? Well that was kind of a compromise impulse buy. I think it might make a nice second Architexture, if I like knitting that pattern, or I will find something to do with it. I have many fingering weight shawl patterns, and it was too pretty to pass up. The bright green at the top is going to be a Geddy tee, the Noro (another sale yarn) and navy might end up as a sweater or vest - definitely a garment of some sort. And the last skein was a total no plan but I kept walking by the cubby and picking it up. There were many more so I could have gotten another sweater quantity, but this one seems to say accessory to me.

Safe to say I have supported my local yarn shop, and I have plenty of projects planned for the year! These of course are all in addition to the ones I already have queued up from my stash. My I’ve gotten ambitious. There may not be enough hours in a day. I did decide I don’t need to do anymore yarn crawling over the next week. I have a trip down to Pacific Grove next weekend, so I will certainly come home with something fun from my other favorite yarn shop, but other than that this is plenty of yarn to keep me busy for a good while. 

in the lineup

I needed to wind up some more of my sweater yarn, so I also took the time to set myself up for a couple more projects. I have just two things on the needles, both garments, and that just doesn't feel right! (Though it does actually feel kinda good....) 

This first set is yarn I got sometime last year at my local yarn store. I am pretty sure it was an anniversary sale of some sort because I remember buying a bunch of this beautiful cotton yarn on a whim because it was very reasonably priced. At the time I was thinking 'blanket' but wasn't sure what kind. I've picked out what I hope will be an interesting round throw blanket project. 

These lovelies are from a stash dive I took when I saw a recent Wool & Company newsletter featuring the Clint shawl. As both a knitter and a quilter this feels like something I would really enjoy making and wearing. I am feeling inspired to use my stash yarn whenever possible right now (thanks knitting YouTube), so I sorted through my skeins, assisted by Ravelry helping to tell me quantities, to find this combination of colors that I think is unusual but will be effective. My main color will be that bright saffron yellow! 

I have these all tucked into project bags and am happy that I'll have something to cast on when the mood strikes me, no planning necessary. 

drop off and pick up

I got my quilt dropped off today! I am very excited and also nervous. It will take about 6 weeks to get it back, so I will have a while to stew and overthink whether I picked the right pattern and thread color. The folks at the shop were very helpful in that, so I’m pretty sure it’s going to be amazing. 

I couldn’t leave without looking around, of course, and I found a really great canvas mushroom print that I would like to use for a large Firefly Tote. The snail print on black is AMAZING and will be one of the coordinating prints for that. This shop also has lots of great Tula Pink in stock and those birds were singing my name. I ended up spending some time this evening cutting out fabrics from my stash for a couple of small Firefly Totes, but I am looking forward to playing with these soon. 

My crafty spidey sense told me that Fillory Yarn was close by - a fact I was not sure of but a quick check of the map on my phone told me I was right. Since I’d made the drive and it was just 3 miles away I figured I would pop in. I had in mind that I wanted one more color of the worsted wool I used for my dad’s sweater to combine with those leftovers and some other stash yarns to make a fair isle cowl. I didn’t find the coral color I was hoping for but got a beautiful neutral instead. Then I found a sample of a cowl that felt incredibly soft and was a really great geometric colorwork pattern. Upon inspection, it used two colors of Malabrigo Mecha, coincidentally the same as a few skeins of yarn I have had lingering in my stash for quite some time without projects in mind. I bought a neutral to mimic the sample cowl (which was neutral and yellow) and will be using a beautiful variegated purple and blue called Lotus. 

I finished the hat I started on New Year’s this afternoon (it’s blocking), so it’s a great time to start a new project. Did I pick anything that’s in my queue? Of course not, the shiny new yarn got wound, along with the much older skein to pair it with. I am looking forward to another quick knit. 

 

stashing and starting

Yesterday in the craft room was all about stashing and starting. First, here's a round up of all the fabric I acquired on the "tour" of local quilt shops with my parents. The top row are from Golden State Quilting up in Campbell. OMG. The Charley Harper horsey print! The mushroom and fabulous hippy horse from Ruby Star Society (Sarah Watts and Melody Miller... two of my faves)! They have also always had Tula Pink fabrics when I've gone in, which I resisted this time but mom did get some very cute bunnies and owls. It's so nice to have a shop nearby that you know will have the latest from your favorite designers. 

The bottom row big three are from Back Porch Fabrics on our trip down to Pacific Grove. I got the Anna Maria Parry zinnias and the somehow irresistible mustard/hot pink blender and mom snuck in that beautiful Charley Harper butterfly fabric for me. I thought she was getting it for herself! Monarchs are "a thing" down there, so it's a fun thing to remember the trip with. 

Last are a few fat quarters from my true LQS in Morgan Hill, Quilts and Things. Somehow this visit my eye was drawn to all the pinks and oranges, which is quite unusual for me! The checkerboard print in the middle is not coming through quite as eyewateringly neon in the photo as it truly is in person. I am 99.9% sure that's a Tula Pink blender. I'm not sure what any of these will be used for, but in laying these out I can see an interesting project potential taking shape in that bottom row.... 

Mom and I also spent a loooong time winding yarn. The two balls on the right were wound for me at the shop where we got them (Fillory) and will turn into a sweater for my dad - along with 10 of their closest friends when they arrive on order. Realizing I was going to start that sweater project made me want to line up a couple of others that have been on my mind since the yarn crawl in spring. The blue and coral on the left are going to be another Hold Sway Sweater, and the brown is going to be some sort of boxy summery top. Not shown are the yarn hanks for my next Shift cowl I have planned, also with yarn from the crawl supplemented by that aqua peeking in the background (from a trip with mom to A Pop of Color in town). They won't get made if the yarn's not wound! So we wound. And wound. And wound. 14 cakes! I did not snap a picture of them, but it was a lot. They are all now nestled in project bags waiting patiently for me to get started. I think my plan is to get them all cast on and started a bit so that I can work on whatever I'm in the mood for without the barrier of "ugh casting on" to deal with. 

Also part of the day was spent with mom choosing a gnome. I showed her my book of Gnomes of Grimblewood that I got at the workshop in February and suggested she pick one for me to make. I already sent her some cute earrings, but I have been thinking of starting another gnome so it would be fun to send it along to her house. ( I haven't made one since April! So much for doing one a month ;) ) We did some stash diving and came up with a rainbow of colors to use on one of the tall stripey guys. I've already cast on and knit a few rows, so more to come. 

It feels good to be organized in the craft room again, to have infused a few new things, and to have some plans! It was also really fun to take a tour around my favorite shops with my parents. I am lucky in how many great places there are pretty close by. May they continue to thrive.

stash diving

Inspired by my recent foray back into knitting on something that isn't the wrap I was working on forever, I revisited my Ravelry queue, my yarn stash, and my brain to see what is next. I have already started a new shawl when I decided to be brave and go to knit nights at my LYS. Having monogamously knit the last wrap, I'm feeling it's going to be more fun for me to have a few things going and plans for others that I can start when I feel momentum stalling. 

Voila. I wound a bunch of yarn. It always seems like more effort than it actually is to set up the swift and winder. It really is only as slow as clearing off the table is, and it's so magical to do the winding. Plus, it's a good thing to visit one's stash when one is spending one evening a week at a yarn shop surrounded by beautiful skeins! 

These three cakes will find themselves transformed into a Shift cowl. Mom picked out the colors after we saw one made up in the LYS and I think it's going to a be a fun one to work on. And all cotton! 

I have had this kit for a Quadrant cowl for some time. I think Dave and I bought it on our last trip down to Pacific Grove together. Can't wait to work it up. The yarn has some silk in it that makes it have a lovely sheen, and I unexpectedly love that light blush color. What is the world coming to when I like a neutral?? 

I wound up this skein of redwood color today, but the iris leftover is the same yarn that I used for a hat not long ago. I am considering making the same hat with the redwood and maybe adding a brim stripe of the iris. The combination is quite something and may be just the thing to make that orange-y color look good on me. 

Stitches West 2019

Wow, that was fun! Yesterday I spent a couple of hours walking around a convention center hall full of yarn. It was fiber paradise! Stitches West comes to town every year, and I've never gone. This year I looked through some of the classes and thought about signing up, but decided instead to just go to the Market portion of it. I may have bought a few things... 

It was so fun to walk around and meet the folks that spin, dye, and make for a living. There were vendors from all over the US. That cute llama print on the left is a project bag I bought from a pair of sisters that were in town from Chicago. Obviously we chatted about how great the weather is out here. It's cold right now for Californians, but we forget how cold February is everywhere else! I was really happy to meet some more shop owners from around my local area as well. They are further afield than my usual haunts, but I'm excited to go visit their brick and mortar stores and discover new places. I can probably get Dave to go if I sell it as new restaurant and coffee shop discovery, too. 

On to the yarn. The greens on the left are going to turn into a sweater. For SURE the best thing vendors can do is have projects made up with their yarns. Kits are a close second. This particular vendor had a very pretty striped sweater on display that looked doable for me. It's an a-line stye with an interesting hem and raglan sleeves, so it doesn't look overly complicated to make and I think it will be a forgiving style on my frame. I didn't love my last sweater attempt (also my first...) so this is kind of a risk to take with such nice yarn (it's got yak in it!) but I am looking at it as treating myself and getting over this fear of making garments.  

In the middle are some mini skeins that I was happy to find. I recently bought myself a colorwork mitten pattern book and these are destined to become Latvian mittens. Two of them are just 25g and the bright peach is 50g, which should be the perfect amount. I would have liked to see more vendors with mini skeins like these; there were just a couple. 

On the right, continuing in the peach theme, are a couple of skeins that I just really liked when I saw them. It was hard not to buy even MORE yarn from each of those two vendors, but I limited myself to just one each given that I don't know what I'll use them for. My view is that I should take advantage of the supply when it presents itself! There are some really creative dyers out there. I'm not sure why peach was grabbing me so much, but I definitely kept gravitating to it at nearly every stall. Maybe it's the gray days we've been having?

Speaking of creative dyers, THIS lady. Wow. I loved all of her yarns and so many came home with me, both these four and the two below. The silky feel of her fingering weight base also got me. She was from Missouri, so there is no way I would have just happened upon her without going to this market. Lucky me! The four yarns above are a somewhat unusual color combination, but they are a kit she had made up for a shawl that looks like so much fun to make. I was intrigued. Two of the colorways may also be named for characters in Outlander... That was something fun about this vendor - most of her yarns are in collections that are named for characters in movies or shows. Think like Harry Potter, Outlander, Doctor Who... I don't know why it is so much more appealing to buy something named "Jamie Fraser" than "variegated turquoise" but it is. A very clever idea on her part, and likely an endless source of inspiration for colorways. 

I know there are a lot of places to get yarn online, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to walk around and touch the yarns. Apparently I like some nylon and/or cashmere blended in with the wool. There's something I wouldn't have known without seeing like a zillion different yarns. It was also really fun to meet some of the folks behind all the fibers. I'll remember them and their yarns later on when I want to buy more. In like, 5 years. Because this is a lot. So much for a dwindling stash! I'm a lucky lady.

a necessary trip

When one of your local yarn stores has a 9th anniversary sale, what's a girl to do?? I sent Mom the email notice and asked her if she liked any of the yarns on sale and well what do you know, she sent me a request. Obviously I had to go. 

Believe it or not all of these but ONE has a purpose already. From left to right: blue for the background of mittens for Dave from my new Arne and Carlos book, Mom's yarn request, two balls of Regia sock yarn for teddy bears from my new book, variegated green because it was pretty, and the brown skein is going to pair really nicely with some speckled Koigu for a shawl I've been eyeing for a long time. 

Dave was a good sport - I think secretly he likes yarn shopping with me. Happy Anniversary Uncommon Threads!

spoooooky stashing

Scary how yarn just ends up in your stash, isn't it?? :) (Ok so that's a little bit of a stretch, but it's Halloween!) 

While we were away in Kentucky, I kept my eyes peeled for local yarn stores to visit. I was not disappointed! ReBelle in Lexington was a cute house jam packed with yarn in each of its little rooms. I would have loved to move in there and knit all the things. They also had a great selection of mugs, notions, and other fun items as well as many inspiration pieces knitted up to showcase the yarns. I purchased the yarn below, malabrigo arroyo in 'pleiades', for a hat I will be making to have one of my very own of something I saw knitted up in the store. A great way to get people to buy yarn, no? I'm also going to note here (so I don't forget the yarn) that they had a luxurious selection of Cascade Eco Plus wool that was SO SOFT. I didn't get any, but I sure wanted to. I did get a really squishy skein of lavender Cascade alpaca though. Couldn't put it down. 

The second place we found was in a cute little downtown on Main Street in LaGrange. Friends and Fiber is more of a typical storefront, also jam packed with a great selection of yarn. The thing I liked the best about this place was the gaggle of people in there knitting together. The shopkeeper let us know that there was a big group in there most days - it seemed like a great community. There were yarns I hadn't ever seen before in this shop, and a sale rack with epic markdowns. Those fuchsia skeins there were half off, alpaca, and sparkly - how could I not? And the variegated skein came off a stack of just fantastically vibrant sock yarns that were hand dyed in Turkey. I am going to have an epic pair of socks from that one. Last but not least, the pompom will be destined for the aforementioned hat. Navy poof on navy speckled fabric? Yes please.

I'm really happy to have found a couple of local yarn shops to frequent on our trips back to visit Dave's folks! I prefer to go to get yarn in person to shopping online. Not only does it make it easier to choose yarns since I like to feel textures and see colors in person, but it keeps alive the type of shop, craft, and creative community that I think every town needs. Three Bags Full is where I will go back to when I visit my folks, Uncommon Threads and Fengari are my local haunts here in California, and I always keep my eyes open whenever we travel to get a special fiber memento of the trip when I can. 

So, while it's "scary" that my stash is growing again... I'm supporting local shops and I'm certain I'm up to the challenge!

yarn diet. riiiiight....

Last year I was aiming to be really good and work on projects using yarn from my stash rather than acquiring more shiny new yarn. According to my Ravelry stash page, I did pretty good! I had no new yarn in 2017 until Art Fair weekend in September when I got some more Serenipidye yarn. I was aiming to keep it going in 2018, which was going well until this summer when Dave and I wandered into Fengari on one of our sojourns to Half Moon Bay; and again when my folks came to visit; and again at Art Fair this month. This yarn diet thing is hard!  

To my credit, I notice I've been buying yarns that I don't really have - i.e. the big squishy kind - rather than more sock yarn. Except those couple of hanks from Art Fair - one has sparkles, how do you resist? The other lovelies in that pile are Malabrigo Mecha (top 2 and bottom) and one Madelinetosh DK weight (deep purple) that are just gorgeous variegated skeins that I can't wait to dive into. Apparently I'm in a cool colors mood? 

Also as I've been puttering around the kitchen more I've noticed some of my dish cloths have had better days. Time for some new ones! Mom crocheted me a few great ones that I want to try to make more of,  hopefully I can get the pattern from her to do that. And for that we need cotton! These are some fun and bright colors that will look nice in the kitchen.

It was good to take stock of the newbies and realize that I actually did pretty good this year, too. What this also prompted me to do was take out the stash and reorg a little bit. I now have a separate box that has my leftovers in it nice and neatly arranged. Now when I want to do some stash busting I have all my options in front of me at once rather than having to dig through the basket. This way even if I don't have much of a particular yarn I know what I have hanging around that I can combine it with. I feel some color work coming on! 

electric poof

This hat makes me so happy. I picked up this yarn this summer in the sale bin at Fengari in Half Moon Bay and bought the poof to go with it at the same time. It's a Malabrigo single ply yarn that is bright and squishy and perfect for this pattern. I originally planned to do just a simple knit hat to show off the yarn, but I found the Amanda Hat pattern and liked the way it played with variegated yarns. 

There's a couple garter stitch sections with broad bands of a pattern that includes some passed over slip stitches and a plain knit crown. The passed over stitches take the fluffy yarn and make a truly fluffy finished fabric. It's just slightly slouchy -- really what I've been finding in the cold weather this week is that it is plenty long enough to pull down over ears to keep them warm. Making it again for someone else I'd be sure go a little tighter on the gauge, but for me it's a good fit. 

The bright colors and the satisfying squish are pretty awesome, but what really makes this hat is the electric blue poof on the top. I sewed a button on the inside of the crown, and the elastic attached to the poof hooks around that making it removable. Not that I will. Because it's awesome. 

Electric Poof (my Ravelry page)
Pattern: The Amanda Hat, free on Ravelry
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Seleccion Privada in "Z"
Needle: US 9

the long and winding road

So much yarn! There is even more of that navy blue and forest green that remains unwound waiting for some progress to be made on the rather large projects those are destined to become. New, you say? No just newly wound. I buckled down and wound up a bunch of hanks that have been lounging around in the stash for a while. I haven't picked out projects for all of them yet but I found myself wanting to start one of my long planned projects, a shetland shawl from a book of traditional shawls I bought at Powell's on our last trip to Portland in 2015. That deep blue yarn is destined for that. I figured as long as I was winding up a couple of hanks already I would wind up some others and lower the barrier to starting projects with them by having them ready to go. 

Similar to finishing up quilts in progress helping me mentally want to plan a quilt again, I think the same can be said for having a relatively clean yarny slate. I've made so much good progress on whittling down my stash this last year and a half as well as finishing up works in progress. With the exception of the socks I just started and the aforementioned shetland shawl the only other WIP is my gray tree of life afghan. That's pretty amazing. 

The other thing that is pretty amazing is my winding set up. Last year for my birthday I treated myself to a ball winder and swift. What precipitated it was that I bought a lot of yarn all at once last September for making gifts for Dave's family's handmade holiday. There were so many people in the store that I didn't want to wait around for my yarn to be wound (and frankly I don't think they wanted to wind up seven large hanks all at once for me anyway). I figured I would go back in stages when I was ready to start different projects to have hanks wound, but ended up finding another solution.

With my birthday right around the corner in November I started researching ball winders when I got home with my new stash. It took me a few weeks before deciding on what to get, but I ended up dishing out some dough for a nice sturdy hand operated winder and a relatively inexpensive swift. Perhaps at some point I'll upgrade the swift but this ball winder is solid. Like my great grandkids will probably still be able to use it, it's that well made. 

It is really nice to have the ability to wind my own yarn, especially since a lot of the yarn I get now comes in hanks. It saves the winding time for both me and the shopkeepers when I'm buying from brick and mortar stores and is the perfect solution when I buy the occasional hank online. All told I wound about 3600 yards and it only took me an hour or so. Now for more stash busting!

stash supplements

Isn't this a pretty rainbow? Dave and I went on a shopping spree at Uncommon Threads in August... *most* of these are bound for holiday gift knitting for his family. Those deep dark blue hanks at the end are not :). I think I need one more to have enough for the ginormous folk shawl I have in mind, so hopefully at some point I can hunt some down online. 

After being on a yarn diet for the first half of this year and working from stash (for the most part - go me!) I've somehow found myself with quite a few newcomers since summer began in addition to the 'practical' purchases above. Basically I've been the beneficiary of a bevy of thoughtful people who know what keeps me out of trouble.

The two balls at top left my mom bought me on a trip back home in June when she and I went in search of a local yarn store for her to frequent. We found a great one where we certainly did not leave empty handed. I'm sure we will return! The gorgeous alpaca collection at top right are an extremely thoughtful gift from friends who came to stay with us in May. They went to Peru on vacation this year and bought this local yarn. I'm still amazed they would think to do so. The two pictures on the bottom Dave bought  me at the King's Mountain Art Fair this weekend. The red and gray will be a Stanford-spirit scarf for him and the purple lace-weight is, I suppose, payment for the scarf. :)

I actually did make quite a dent in my unknit stash this year. I still have leftovers from many of the skeins, but also ended up using up a few other leftovers along the way. With this latest infusion it looks like I have a lot of stitches in my future!

something for the road

This lovely skein of yarn, and a friend, hopped into my things just hours before hopping on the plane to return home from our Kentucky vacation. We were driving around town with Dave's folks after brunch (at a wonderful restaurant - Butchertown Grocery) and it occurred to me that since I had finished my Summer Sampler I would have no knitting for the plane. The horror! Truth be told, I don't always work on the things I take with me, especially on a red eye when I'd rather be trying to sleep, but it's a comfort to know I'll have the stitches to distract me if the ride gets long. 

Being a busy yarn I found a simple pattern to go with it. This is going to be a small cowl with ribbing on either side and a sort of waffle stitch body. Stockinette in the round with the occasional 1x1 rib row - easy peasy. 

Given that I found this yarn in the discount bin at the back of the Joann's I'm super tickled that I like it so much. It's soft and the gold/copper nylon thread that runs through it is looking so neat. This project is my new TV knitting I think!

weekend fix

Dave and I wandered our way down to Los Altos this Saturday. I had been meaning to check out Uncommon Thread for a while now, but hadn't made the trip. This weekend was a great opportunity to stay out of the rain and pet some wool. And also buy some. 

In my defense, I picked out that little variegated skein down in the corner there. Dave saw a cowl sample made up in the shop and after we decided making it out of the same cashmere yarn was going to be waaay to pricey he picked out some similar colors in a soft cotton silk blend declaring "you're making one of those." Bless his heart.

While we waited for our thousand yards (or so) to be wound up, we checked out their wide variety of books and patterns. This book came home with us. It has a lot of really neat looking patterns that all use variations of slip stitching to accomplish some amazing color work. 

The yarn above is Misti Alpaca pima silk (no alpaca, despite the name) in coral, limon, and shell. The skein below is Madelinetosh (of course!) Vintage in Rocky Mountain High, Colorado. I was excited to see that they had a healthy stock of Madelinetosh in a variety of weights, Malabrigo, and even some brands that I haven't had the pleasure of working with yet like SweetGeorgia and Dragonfly Fibers. If I ever want to spoil myself, there seemed to be plenty of silk and/or cashmere blends around along with some European brands I haven't ever found in the States. Yipee! 

The skein of Madelinetosh was too pretty to pass up so decided to make myself a hat, which I promptly started when we got home. More on that to come!

all. the. yarn.

People! I went to Knit Purl! In Portland!

Dave and I went up there for a long Thanksgiving weekend and stayed downtown at the Ace Hotel. It is across the street from a living room movie theater, a block from Powell's books, and a mere two blocks to Knit Purl. Perfectly situated in my humble opinion. 

Needless to say I came home with some yarn. All Madeline Tosh by coincidence, not design. But with those colors is anyone surprised? I was sorely tempted by a beautiful silvery silky skein of Bumblebirch, but managed to put it down before Dave's head started to spin.

These three skeins of Tosh Merino Light are destined to be a Sunwalker, a relatively recent asymmetrical shawl design by Melanie Berg that caught my eye on Ravelry this summer. The colorway, Shire, is a stunning mix of dark greens and aquas with few streaks of yellow in there. I can't wait to see how it works up. Though, you will notice the yarn is still in hanks. I purposefully left them unwound so I could work on a few other things before tackling this. Aren't I good? 

These two skeins of Tosh DK are going to be a hat for Dave, by special request. He picked out these colors himself, El Greco (above) and Court & Spark (below). I am going to try to do a reversible version of a relatively simple beanie design, Violet Waffles. I think the texture will be easy enough to do and more visually pleasing than the plain stockinette he initially asked for. There will be lots of yardage leftover for some hip looking mitts to go with it, too.

I've been really good about having a project in mind for yarn when I buy it, but of course there is an exception (or several) to every rule. Tosh Chunky in Cloud Dweller was just too pretty to leave behind. Light blues with a lavender blush may make some gloves or a hat. I actually found on this trip, and the subsequent closet scrounging after, that I could use a pair of gloves so that may be the most likely place this will end up. I haven't really committed to that though. The sky's the limit (ha!). Well, the yardage actually but that was just too punny to pass up. 

Like the first time, this trip to Knit Purl was a real treat. Despite how busy they were, the staff were extremely friendly and helpful in taking the time to find me another skein of Shire, winding Dave's yarns, and recommending different neighborhoods to check out. One of them even recognized my Fomhar stole, doing duty as a scarf that day, from their Ravelry finished object forum. I was surprised she remembered let alone thought to say something about it! It made me feel welcome, and certainly impressed the heck out of the husband. ("Honey! You're 'that girl from the internet'!")

I may have had to expand my suitcase on the way home to accommodate my purchase, but I'm totally legit now having received the official Knit Purl tote for buying so much yarn. It was an unexpected but happy surprise and will be a great project bag for my larger endeavors. So go forth! Support your favorite yarn shops! They are little havens of creativity in a busy busy world that should be given every opportunity to flourish. 

shopping extravaganza part 2: yarn

In this latest installment of "what I did on my Mom's summer vacation" I bring you yarn. In addition to visiting a trail of fabric shops, we also ended up at some yarn shops. And really, who goes into a yarn shop and doesn't come out with a little something? I have yet to figure out that skill!

These first skeins technically weren't purchased while Mom was here, but I did get them at a place we visited our first day, Fengari in Half Moon bay. I happened upon Fengari recently while visiting HMB Main Street with Dave, and I am so glad I did. Once inside one wanders through a jumble of colorful yarns piled high and low, in corners and on shelves. The lovelies below are Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK. The color, alizarin, is a wonderful pinky purple with streaks of orange and blueish purple mixed in. I think it's going to look great as a Kir Royale.

On our jaunt over to 'Joann's across the Bay' Mom and I enjoyed walking through their large yarn section. Again, the local store just doesn't have much but this one has more colors and more yarn types. There was a range of Lion Brand yarns including a variety of their beautifully colored fisherman's wool. I was actually really happy to see that many brands are coming out with some high quality acrylic yarns. I love my Madtosh, but wool sometimes gets to me. The yarn below is Red Heart Unforgettable, one of their boutique acrylic yarns, and it is as soft as it looks! All of the color combinations they had were gorgeous, though variegated. It would be nice to see some solids one day. I'm not sure what I'll do with this yarn, but Mom got both me and her a couple skeins to experiment with. 

No trip would be complete without a stop into Nine Rubies in San Mateo. We had fun walking around and looking at all the samples they had knit up and enjoying the orderly shelves of yarn. I'm going to figure out how to make it to a knit night there someday, though that might be hard on my wallet. I can't walk in there without coming out with something. Case in point: the top cake, Tosh Merino Light in Calligraphy, is a wonderful mix of blush, dove gray, and cream. I have decided I'm going to learn to make socks with it. The other two are Tosh DK in Terra and Whiskey Barrel. I've already started knitting them into a Hediye. Mom helped me pick out the colors. I had the brown in my hand and she suggested I branch out into colors I don't usually use (I was looking at greens and purples). The orange is going to make this a great Fall piece. 

After picking up all of that yarn you'd hardly think I needed any more. But the King's Mountain Art Fair was this past weekend and of course we took Mom up the mountain to enjoy it. There's a great mixture of artisans at this event: jewelry, paintings, pottery, clothing, even a haberdashery! In addition to the booths with already-made items, there were a couple of folks who had yarn, much to my delight. I wasn't going to pick any up, but Dave actually mentioned how pretty the variegated skein was and asked if I wanted some. How could I refuse!? We picked out the second to go with it so I can make a larger piece with both of them. They are a merino/nylon blend and feel soft and springy to the touch. Can't wait to wind these up and work with them. I'll probably try a triangle wrap with stripes!

All together this is quite the stash infusion. I've been really good at using yarn from my stash for projects this past year so I do feel like I had some room for these. It also helps that I've tried sticking to picking out a project, or at least a type of project, when I get the yarn rather than just buying willy nilly. That said, keep an eye out for these to start turning into projects soon!