The Yarn Crawl 2014 Report

Well, I have been yarn crawling, and I am wiped out. How glad am I that my plans for the evening fell through, and I don't have to rouse myself from this comatose state? Soooo glad. I got home in time to watch the end of the Bruins matinee (they were up 2-1 when I tuned in, and won 5-1, so it was good), but that's, oh, four hours ago now and I'm still bleary. So much good stuff ... I can't handle it!

To start with, we had what my mother would call a cold snap, and what we up here, after this winter, call a beautiful day. Why, it reached 60 degrees! And was sunny more often than not! How about that, eh? The joy of not needing a parka, of bringing a fleece and throwing it in the back of the car because the shawl is enough, this is significant. (Though I'm still very excited to think of 80s, where I will be in a week's time.)

The shawl I wore, by the way, was my Bigger on the Inside, which I think I wore last year too, a fun shawl to wear around knitters. In fact, several people noticed it, which makes one feel good, and one woman said she'd been planning to make it but wanted to see one in person first, so that was my good deed for the day. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I walked over to B's house this morning, as she was driving (bless her), and we headed toward the best first, i.e., Coveted Yarn in Gloucester. The Crawl is much less claustrophobic in their bigger location! I was able to hit my target there, as I thought I would, and get yarn for the blanket I'm planning. I picked this pattern, Due Passi, and the yarn is Berroco Vintage DK.

Six skeins of that should make a decent-sized blanket, and at $6 a skein (on sale from $8), it doesn't break the bank, either.

Once that decision was made, I wandered around admiring other yarns, naturally. Mad Color had a good-sized display, which I much admired, though I amused myself when I chose, from a vendor named Mad Color, this skein of Rapture, in the colorway Stone:

A mild blue gray. I know. There was a glowing blue skein that I much liked, but the color was so great in the lace-weight and not as much in the thicker weights, that it seemed like a letdown. I like this, and it will make nice all-purpose socks (you can't wear clown barf on your feet every day).

I also brought home some more Frog Tree Periboo, the one I used on that shawl for my aunt that I liked working with. Also on sale, of course; most of the store was. (Robert's good that way. They're also open from 7am to 11pm during the crawl. If I lived closer, well, I'd be in serious debt, but I'd also be there all the time.)

Three deep lovely colors, clearly "bought in winter" colors. Not that I'm planning to use them together, but just so you can see.

Other than a needle, that was it at Coveted. We were there under an hour, including waiting in line time, which isn't bad, and they gave out 20% off coupons for future use, so I'll have an excuse to go up again in a couple of months, when I need a hit.

We weren't quite ready for lunch, but fortunately there's that yarn store in Essex, Hooked Knitting, right near Woodman's, so we went there first. Looking around, admiring this and that, I saw that they, too, had some Mad Color, and picked up a nice skein of green. Ooh, I said to myself, it's blue faced leicester! I'd love to make socks of that ... though do I really need it? And then I saw what she had named the colorway.

"Winter of My Discontent"? Well, really, might as well put my name on it. This year? Sold.

We had lunch after that, delicious as always, then drove on to Yarns in the Farms in Beverly Farms. It's a small shop, but very nice, and with an amusing addition to the samples on the back of the couch.

See there, on the right, just below the big owl?

Nap time! Yes, he was breathing. But otherwise, not moving a bit.

I had trouble putting down a skein of lace-weight cashmere that was so soft (duh) and hey, 30% off means it's almost affordable ... but I was able to put it down. I didn't leave empty-handed, though, finding a vibrant skein of Classic Elite Alpaca Sox that wanted to be mine.

They had a cute way of bagging, too.

Our final stop was Seed Stitch in Salem, always a good time. I liked this bit of purposeful yarn-bombing they had outside:

Inside, as I was getting my passport stamped, the woman mentioned that if anyone found the sheep with a blue scarf, everyone in the store would get a 20%-off-next-time coupon. I started looking around, and what do you know, I found it! So I may have to go back to Seed Stitch at some point. It wouldn't be a hardship, they have nice stuff. Toil and Trouble had a table, and as I've used her worsted-weight but not sock, I got a skein of that to try. It's actually a colorway I used before, Starry Starry Night.

It's mostly blue.

But with enough light to break it up.

So that should be fun.

We had ice cream across the street, then trundled on home. My view for a while after I got in was this:

Along with these.

Someone is still very happy to be an only cat.

Meanwhile, I watched the end of the Bruins game, as I said; eight in a row is the most consecutive wins since they got 10 in a row a few years back, you know, the year they won the Cup, just saying... And I worked a little more on the purse sock, since during the day of being a passenger, I had gotten it almost to the heel, and wanted to make sure I started that in the right place. Now it's ready for knitting at brunch tomorrow, so that's good. I'm off to have some dinner and see what else is on, other than early to bed, because whoa, man. Yarn crawling takes it right out of me.