Yarn Shops, Dogs, and Socks!

Thursday, I spent most of the late afternoon and early evening at ThreadBear Fiber Arts Studio - that store is so wonderful! It's quite large - about the size of the average grocery store in the 1970's - think of the size of the old A&P stores or the older Safeway stores. That's HUGE for a yarn shop! And it's chock full of fabulous yarns and patterns! It's "Knitting Nirvana".

I'm definitely a sucker for animals, so I took about 10 pictures of the "store dogs" - Tate and Connor. They're such sweeties! Tate (the brown one) "pretended" to be shy and scurried away every time he saw me with the camera - as a result, I had several photos of him running away or turning his head away. In the end though, vanity got the best of him and he POSED for some pictures as you can see here. Tate was quite the little "ham"....and definitely LOVES attention!

Connor just laid on the footrest and couldn't care less if I took a picture or not. I did manage to get some cute shots of both of them....and i even caught a basket full of my purchases on the couch! The shop has several wonderful seating areas where you can "stage" your purchases, fondle yarns, and peruse patterns. It's a very welcoming place! (And the dogs add a very "homey" touch, especially when you're missing your own doggie!)











Too Cute! What could be more perfect than yarn and a couple of dogs! Gotta love these two "Guardians of the Wool"!



Of course, since it's a yarn shop, I did have to make a few purchases.
I was quite excited to see that they carried an assortment of the Misty Mountain Farm hand-dyed wool! Way to go Linda and Leanna! I was trying not to buy much yarn, but I couldn't help myself. They carried the Hyphen Boy patterns - I'd been lusting after a felted backpack my friend Kelly made and had never been able to find the Hyphen Boy patterns anywhere! So.......since they had the pattern, I HAD to buy the Lamb's Pride in Lotus Pink, Supreme Purple, Aztec Turquoise, and Black. I'm soooo excited! (Yeah, I know, just what I need - yet another "Project-in-Waiting". ) It will be gorgeous though - check out these colors!

I had been doing quite well until I found out that they had many yarns on sale at 50% off - Berrocco Suede and some of the cottons (Butterfly) for dishcloths. They also had a "bag sale" on the 1824 Cotton - so I picked up a bag of a dusty blue and a bag of a sage color.......to make a couple of summer tops/tanks. Of course they had many other yarns on sale too....but I did have to limit myself, right?

I also picked up some fabulous new Noni Bag patterns......the patterns had just arrived, so they hadn't even put the price tags on them yet! There's an absolutely adorable "Pig" purse pattern that I just "had to have". I just love it! There were several others that also worked their way into my purchases. There was another one that I wanted that I couldn't get there - the Prism Bag. (The worst thing about that was that there was a Trunk show of the Noni bags there and the Prism Bag was one of the ones on display! The bag was "taunting me"!) I promptly ordered on line from Diva Knitting as soon as got back to my daughter's. (And first thing today, I saw that Cheryl has already mailed it out to me! Diva Knitting has absolutely fantastic customer service and she ships lightning fast!

Oh...oh...oh! There were numerous felted bag and "critter" patterns from Fiber Space that I was dying to get. They didn't seem to have the ones I wanted at any of my local yarn shops and the "on-line" store for Fiber Space STILL isn't up. Never fear! ThreadBear had almost all of the ones I wanted - including the "Lambie" bag! Wahoo! The only ones I couldn't get there were the Seahorse and the Baseball Bag (plus the Around the World bag that I forgot to pick up!).

Friday, I managed to wander over to Rae's Yarn Boutique. It' may be small, but it's very cozy and chock full of all kinds of knitting patterns and yarn. I didn't get to see Rae this time - she's at TNNA and another show. I met her last fall and was hoping to see her again on this trip. The cool thing about the shops in Lansing is that they all carry totally different yarns - so you "have to" visit more than one! Of course, there is some overlap, but the majority of yarns do differ. I "had" to make a few additional purchases at Rae's as well! I picked up some sock yarn, some lace weight mohair (very similar to Kid Silk Haze) and the pink handles that I'll be using for my "Year of the Pig" Noni bag (I still need to get the custom zipper as well as the Tutu Pink Cascade 220!) AND.....much to my delight, they did have the 3 patterns from Fiber Space that I didn't get at ThreadBear! (I felt very lucky too - I purchased their last copy of the felted Sea Horse pattern!)

But, wait! There's more! As if that weren't enough stash enrichment......I then sent off an order to Astrid's Dutch Obsessions for a skein of Kauni yarn! (Four of us placed an order together so we could split the international shipping and make it a bit more economical!). I can't wait to make a Jeanie shawl (like the one shown on Astrid's website. (Jeanie is also the designer of the "Pretty Petals" sock pattern that I love as well!)

AND.....I'd previously mentioned that I really needed to "buckle down" and finish the cotton/wool Sockotta socks that I'd been making. Well, I FINALLY finished the first sock. I still have to "tuck in" the ends, but other than that, it's done. AND I started the second one! All in all, I'd say I've had a very productive two days!