Des Moines yarn crawl...a review

Saturday morning....

Knitted Together
Nice store. Good basic yarn selections. Dale, Dream in Color, a wall of Cascade 220, plenty of sock yarn. The lady working there was really nice, even when the internet (and therefore her credit/debit card scanning ability) went down just as we were checking out. I got some Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in Dusky Aurora, some Dale Svale and Stork for a co-worker with wool allergies, Opal Rainforest in Peacock, and a Lexie Barnes bag in Baja.

Purls, the Yarn Studio (no link)
Smaller store. Very nice help. Selection of Blue Sky Alpaca yarns (including the cotton), Yarn Love sock yarns, some handspun stuff and I know there was more, but I can't think of it right now. I came away with enough Blue Sky organic cotton in Shrimp to make a hooded pullover sweater (got the pattern too), and a skein of Yarn Love's Joan of Arc (merino/tencel sock yarn) in Bliss. Then I got into a little tug-of-war with Cheryl over a Jordana Paige bag. She conceded and I walked away with it.

Creative Corner
AKA the big pink house. In Valley Junction. A smaller knitting selection, but they also carry needlepoint, embroidery, and cross-stitching stuff. I ended up with Louet Gems (both sport and fingering). The sport is a deep burgundy and the fingering is a lavender-grey.

And that's the end of the damage! If you want to hear more of it, check the Lime & Violet blog in the next couple of days. I just helped record a new podcast tonight, so it should be live in the next day or so.

Life is good...

It's been a pretty decent weekend overall.

Friday started off with 2 hours of sleep after working all night, then driving to Des Moines. Mom and I got checked into our motel room, then met up with Cheryl and her knitting group at Borders for their knit night. I spent most of the time spinning up some more CMF roving in I Got You Babe and bought Spin to Knit. Back to the motel by 11 or so.

Saturday, Mom and I met Cheryl at Knitted Together and started our yarn crawl. We hit Knitted Together, Purls the Yarn Studio, and Creative Corner. No bad experiences and I came away with more yarn than I needed too (again) and two new knitting bags.

Then we headed across Des Moines to the surprise party for my Aunt Sandy's 60th birthday. She was shocked and spent the first half hour crying since she had no clue what was going on. Knitting happened while we were there and I've got a very interesting tan line thanks to sitting in the sun a little too long while I was knitting.

Drove back Saturday night and then took naps today so I'll be able to work tomorrow and Tuesday. My church's slow-pitch softball team won our second game of the season (just don't ask how many we've lost) and a group of us went out to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream afterwards.

Life is good.

As ready as I'll ever be...

My suitcase is packed (mostly), my ipod and cell phone are charging. All that's left in the morning is to shower, finish packing, pack the dog's stuff (might do that before work), get the dog to Cindi's and get to the airport by 10 or so. And I've got to stop by the post office somewhere in there. Oy. Not enough hours in the day.

I tried to start Monkey socks last night at work and they were coming out so small! I was using my KP size 1 dpns. I'll be making attempt #2 tonight at work with some size 2 bamboo dpns. Hopefully that'll be enough of a difference.

And the cute neighbor cop is going to watch the house. He even asked for my parents' phone number so he can contact them if something goes really wrong.

So I'll be missing SnB at Touche for the second week in a row and I miss you ladies!!! I'll be back for the one on the 19th. Hopefully with lots and lots of yarny goodness to show you.

I'm back!!!....however briefly

Boston was fantastic (except for the supposed "limo tour" of the city....our limo driver wasn't from the area and had no clue where anything was)! And the conference was actually interesting!

The one place we actually got to stop and see was Cheers!


Sorry to anyone that may have been waiting for me at one of the yarn shops on Tuesday. Our flight was delayed for almost 5 hours at Chicago and we had no time to do anything that afternoon. We did venture out on Wednesday to Newbury Street and visited two yarn stores. Of course we were walking, but it was raining/snowing/sleeting the whole time we were outside and ended up looking like we'd just gotten out a shower fully-clothed.

The first store was Knit and Needlepoint. I wasn't too impressed with the customer service here. As the four of us walked in (looking like drowned rats) the lady behind the counter just gave us a look that said "What the hell do you think you're doing in here". She didn't greet us or as us how we were doing or how she could help us or anything. I did end up buying some yarn that they dye at the shop and then she actually started talking to me, but I was tempted to just turn around and walk out. I've had people tell me that it's just the east-coast mentality, but whatever happened to common curtesy?

Next stop was a couple blocks down and on the opposite side of the street. Newbury Yarns is a fantastic little shop tucked away at the back of a building, but not hard to find at all. I went in and met Meg who it turns out is an LnV listener, but isn't on the messageboards or anything. I bought way too much sock yarn (notice that the counter didn't reset because vacation yarn doesn't count) and had such a different experience there that I was wishing we could have stayed to just sit and knit.

Another day of the conference and we were ready to head out. Two and a half days of knitting during the conference yielded the second sock of the RPMs for my mom. Here's the finished pair.


The flight's home were uneventful beside a couple of delays. And the view out the window was great!


Mom had finished the Inside Out socks for me as well.


And the pup-pups had fun running around my backyard over the weekend and got very very tired out.




And I think that's it! I've got to work the next two nights and then I'm leaving Wednesday for Virginia Beach. Planning on hitting historic Williamsburg and meeting a bunch of my friend Sarah's film school friends. I've already found a couple of yarn stores and I know Sarah's planning on a lot of shopping (especially shoe shopping) while I'm out there. Lots and lots of pics when I get home next week!

And we're off....

I'm leaving for Boston today. My boss is coming to pick me up at 5:30. So what am I doing? Packing is as done as it can be for the moment (need stuff for my shower in the morning), I'm listening to LnV and in a minute I'm going to head downstairs and watch Amazing Race so I can fall asleep. And I want to finish the first RPM sock for my mom out of my STR Monsoon. Then I can knit the second sock uninterrupted on the planes tomorr.....I mean today. Ooops.

Anyone in Boston, I'll be in town by 2 or so this afternoon (Tuesday). A co-worker and I are going to grab a cab together and try to hit as many yarn shops as we can in the afternoon. I've got a list of 5 that we're going to try and see. Not sure on the order or when we'll get to these though, but here they are.

Wild and Wooly (Lexington)
The Knitting Room (Arlington)
Woolcoot & Co (Cambridge)
Mind's Eye Yarn (Cambridge)
Newbury Yarns Inc (Boston)

I'm going to push for the last 3 as the one's we NEED to go to. If anyone wants to stalk me, those three are the best bet.