Sunday, August 05, 2007

Maine Yarn Crawl!

Sorry for the delay in posting the details ... but alas, I bring you the Maine Yarn Crawl Joanne and I did just over a week ago! The main attraction? A wonderful Double Knitting class at Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine. The extra goodyness? 3 more yarn shops to puruse!

Our day started with iced coffee (you simply just can not start a day or leave home without it, right?) and on-the-go breakfast from McDonald's and then we headed North! First stop was
The Knitting Experience Cafe, a great little shop with lots of charm and very friendly staff. The owner wasn't in when we visited, but her lovely sister was.

KnitCafe

There were lots of yummy yarns, great patterns and fabulous bags on hand, but alas due to my "budget" I walked away crying held back from most of the purchases I could've made and came away with a cute Anklet Sock pattern and Wick yarn (to make the socks), both from Knit One Crochet Too.

KnitCafeYARN

Joanne picked up a beautiful shawl pattern while we were there and we both admired the adorable mini sweaters, dresses, socks & more hanging in the store window. We also thought the big comfy couch was wonderful for sitting and looking thru patterns ... and Joanne vowed to return home to clean off the couch in the front room of her yarn shop to make room for sitting (instead of using it to display baskets of yarn)! Great idea!!

Next stop was the super cool, Purl Diva! Her logo alone was enough for us to say "a must stop," but the selection of yarns, patterns and notions was a pleasant surprise! Wonderful!

PurlDiva

Once again, I am proud to say I exhibited much restraint in my purchases. I figured I'd limit myself to only things Matt wouldn't notice as being "new" in the house things I couldn't readily get at one of my LYS or things I absolutely could not live without (again... I'm learning that whole budget thing, not to mention space/storage issues!). Joanne once again walked away with just 1 pattern (the lovely Tulip sweater), while I wound up with just 2 skeins of yarn (after picking up and returning about 20 to their respective bins)...

PurlDivaYARN

I feel in love with the softness of Smooshy sock yarn from Dream in Color - omg, this stuff is delicious!!! With no pun intended, I opted for the delicious sounding colorway of Chinatown Apple. I also grabbed a skein of Donegal Tweed in a purple/wine colorway, which will is slated to become a felted clutch from the One Skein book. Joanne and I both thought Purl Diva's logo was wicked awesome ... don't you? They have the infamous hat on display inside... on a water cooler of all things!

PurlDiva Hat

Now of course, I couldn't leave without having my Knitting Queen pose with the Purl Diva...

PurlDiva Joanne

As we were leaving, the lady at Purl Diva asked if we'd made it over to Ewe & Me yet... we hadn't had it on our list, but decided to give up the idea of a sit down lunch in favor of stopping at another yarn shop (and instead unintentionally made our 2nd visit to McDonald's for the day for some more driving food - oh, the sacraficies we make for yarn stores!!!)...

EweMe

Ewe & Me is a quaint little shop (who shares a buildling with a bank) with a different selection of yarns and patterns - a lot of older stuff. We were promptly greeted by 2 tiny doggies (Japanese Chins I believe) and then realized we recognized the owners from the Knit In at Loon Mountain! We both walked away with only patterns this time - I got "The Heirloom Knitter Presents Heavenly Cotton Face Cloths Vol. 2" and Joanne picked up Vol. 1... it'll be fun to make some fancy-spanchy face cloths!

EweMeBOOK

After that we got our Mickey D's and headed to Halcyon so we wouldn't be late for class! The class... Double Knitting ... wonderful! The only "complaint" would've been that it could've easily been a 4 hour class (it was 3) and/or we had wished we were given the cast on instructions prior to class, so as not to take away from the actual class time. But regardless, we both walked away having learned a lot and were quite pleased! Our instructor was the lovely Ruth...

DoubleKnitClassRuth

She brought some wonderful samples of headbands she had knitted and you can sort of see them in front of her in that picture. We worked on a basic headband for the class and she gave us an instruction booklet for some more intricate designs to try later on. It is a very time consuming technique, especially as you're first learning. It was even more so for myself, as instead of holding both yarns in my right hand, I opted to try to learn to hold on in each hand ... so I was essentially trying to learn to knit continental and double knit at the same time. Here's my work in progress during class...

DoubleKnitClass

After class, we went downstairs to shop til we dropped ... or rather, shop til we got kicked out by the absolutely rude cashier! She was the only one left at 1 minute til 6 - they closed at 6 and she made it quite clear with comments and eye rolls that she really didn't want to ring us up and just wanted to leave. However, I won't let her poor customer service reflect on the store, as everyone else we encountered during our class & shopping was wonderful, and after an overcharging incident for which the rude woman refused to fix, I left my name & number and received a prompt call at 9am on Monday morning to appologize profusely and let me know they were crediting me the overcharged amount)!

So the goods... I did pick up a few more things here than originally planned, however they armed us with 10% off your entire purchase coupons, so what do you expect??? After all - did you notice the great restraint I had at the 3 previous yarn stores??? My Halcyon haul...

HalcyonYARN

On the left, 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca 100% baby alpaca, hand dyed in the fall-ish colorway IND2 (I tried to link this from Misti Alpaca's site and for some reason this yarn isn't on there - I am unsure if they no longer produce it or what??). This is super soft and is destined for a long scarf... I think. On the right, 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca worsted in peony.... for a pair of fingerless mitts or maybe regular gloves. In the middle, 1 hank of Noro Cash Iroha in color 22 (that was on clearance!) and 1 hank of Malabrigo Col China 100% angora that is to die for... ooooh... so very soft. My plan is to combine these 2 together for something... probably a scarf because I can't think of what else would make sense. Ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Well, there you have it folks... one of the best days ever with a wonderful friend (and knitting queen!), great weather, scenic drive (um, which accidentally included Massachusetts on the way home... however that was a "design modification," right Joanne?), good stash enhancement and a wonderful class! Can't wait to do it again!

Now as I was photoing all the yummy yarns for this post, I spotted this guy on the other side of the porch. Feeling the need to play with the super zoom on the digital camera (and maybe secretly hoping the camera would shoot some death ray at him?!?!), I snapped this...

bee

That is super zoom folks... anyone who knows me knows I do NOT do bees, hornets, spiders or snakes... so super zoom. Pretty cool, huh? I'm impressed with the camera if I do say so myself. I took a few scenic shots that'll I'll share as well...

Spotted this plane "sky writing" while photoing the yarn...

Skyplane

View of the willow tree from the deck out back...

WillowTree

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I wanted to mention that sign ups are beginning Aug. 15th for the next Felted Bag Exchange. This one looks like fun and I'm planning to participate. Also, it looks as though my Mom will get to go home tomorrow and then have a visiting nurse. No official results yet, but they said we'd get them on Tueday.

8 comments:

silfert said...

Looks like you're having a terrific time, aside from the budget and the horrible cashier. Looking forward to finished projects!

Grace said...

your yarn purchases are awesome!!!!

Gina House said...

Wow! Look at all the fantastic stuff you did! And found! And bought! I am so interested in the Wick. How is it?

Those shops look great....it's too bad you had such a horrible experience at Halcyon. What a horrid woman!

At least you got some great stash enhancement!

Milly said...

shoot! I'm tired just reading about the yarn crawl! Sounds like a fantastic time! And you can't beat iced coffee or a Frap!

I love that Chinatown Apple!

Sonya said...

I want to go on a yarn crawl with you!! You found some wonderful things.
The shot could be from a horror movie.

Joanne said...

We really did have a WONDERFUL Day and yes, we will be doing it again!! I am already planning...Can you take off on a Monday or Tuesday?? I've got maps and routes!!!!!We just need to track all the Micky D's. The Travel Guide is an awesome addition to anyone summer plans...sold another one on Saturday! I have to be sure to save one for myself! Talk soon...

AllyB said...

Looks like loads of fun! I believe Rena and I will have to plan a trip like that soon. Great hornet shot too!

KimT said...

I am soooooooooooooooooo jealous! Lots of great yarn shops, a great class, wonderful new stash and a great friend to do it all with! Great post! And the bug shot is great. i thought it was a metal sculpture. Amazing detail

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