That pretty much sums it up! The Crawl was well attended; I saw lots of very happy yarnophiles. I started the crawl at Twisted, where I had a trunk show on Thursday afternoon, sharing space with Chrissy Gardiner. She brought all the socks from her new book, Indie Socks! (She’s got legs, I’ve got heads, we’ve both got torsos…)
Even though it was the first day of the crawl, Valerie had already visited nine of the 18 shops.
I went crawling on Saturday. Cathy and I decided to visit some shops on the west side that we hadn’t seen before or in a while. We visited four. Luckily, I’m local, so I can visit the rest of the shops at any time.
There should be five buttons (including Twisted) on my bag; I forgot to get a button at one of the shops. I was a little distracted by yarn!
Aren’t the logo colors pretty? They may have influenced my color choice at For Yarn’s Sake. This is Cascade 220 Superwash, 100g/ball.
I bought 3 skeins of each of these colors, thinking that I would knit a log cabin baby blanket for an soon-to-be-born cousin. But I must have been high on yarn fumes; there’s no way I can get that much knitting done soon, while still working on my design projects! So some of this will have to go back. I think one ball of pink will become In Threes, a sweet little cardigan.
Our next stop was at the Knitting Bee, which was new to both me and Cathy. This sweet piece was on the wall, which made me remember that I hadn’t taken any pix at For Yarn’s Sake. High on yarn fumes, I tell ya. The shop was cute! And owner Jami’s pattern for the Vintage Fremont Shawl is lovely. It has an interesting construction and applied lace edging, which is something that I’ve been wanting to try. Winner!
From there we let the car navigation guide us to Northwest Wools. I used to shop there all the time, before there were many yarn shops in town. It’s still a lovely place, organized by yarn weight/fiber and then by color. I couldn’t resist this lovely yarn’s perfect chinaberry red. It’s Cascade Cloud, 70% merino, 30% alpaca.
Look at the construction of it! It’s cabled, or chain plyed. I love it. It will probably be a squooshy seed stitch cowl, which would really show off the yarn’s structure.
From there we went to Pearl Fiber Arts, new to Cathy but not to me. There was a lot of pretty yarn! Not being much of a stasher, I settled for the latest Interweave Knits magazine since I had already bought yarn. Cindy had some seriously big yarn, and the needles to match!
We ended at Twisted, just because it’s home base. And now I’m back to knitting away at my Honey Cardigan. So far, so good!
Did you participate in the yarn crawl? What was your favorite thing? If you’re not local here, you should come visit for the crawl next year. I think it’s going to be February 27-March 2, 2014. Knit on!
PDXKnitterati 
18 shops! Yowza! That is one lucky city.
I think we have five that I would consider *local* to me, but our yarn crawl had 8 on their list. Two of them would have been quite a drive for me, but I have been to 7 of them.
Some of the 18 are in the far-flung suburbs, but they’re all do-able! Portland really is a knitting mecca these days.
Not technically all within ‘one’ city boundary. It includes Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Beaverton, West Linn, and Oregon City shops that are within the greater Portland metropolitan area.
When I mentioned the 18 to Judy Becker while at Pearl Fiber Arts, she corrected me. There are currently 28 on her list – http://www.persistentillusion.com/blogblog/?pagename=portland-lys (There’s 29 since she doesn’t have a Hillsboro shop – Black Sheep at Orenco.(http://www.blacksheepatorenco.com/)
Since the shops pay dues to participate in the Rose City Yarn Crawl (it helps pay for the event they are putting on), the ones really out figure that people won’t come so don’t join in. Oregon City was the furthest out for me.
We truly are blessed!
And back to 28, because Make One is gone. But still, that’s an impressive list!
How fun! I am surprised I didn’t see any “blue” in your private yarn fume stash?! lol. Bee was indeed very cute. I love how she decorated the sign with swatches. Terrific ideas.
Sadly, my plan involuntarily changed due to my dear friend’s schedule. She was coming through…driving back from Canada to Grass Valley and didn’t get to Bend until late Saturday night. I was pretty bummed about not making to the yarn crawl as I actually have some yarn I needed to pick up for projects in progress. Now, I need to have ’em ship and pay postage. Oh well…next year…I may be attending as a “locate.” Glad you all have a blast ;D
No blue, I know it’s crazy! But that red has a bluish undertone, does that count?
Hope to catch up with you soon.
Fatigue was my limiting factor, but I did make it to nine shops. I love how different each was while still focusing on YARN!
Sounds like you had fun! I made it to all 18 shops over the weekend, still finishing up my blog post! The bulky skeins at Pearl Fiber Arts are so much fun – Cindy showed me how to knit a scarf using my hands (no needles) 🙂
18! I’m impressed! DH just got home from 2 weeks travel, so I didn’t feel I could abandon him for the whole weekend…
Looking forward to seeing your hand knit (!) scarf.
Looks like you had a great time and got a great haul! I wish our yarn crawl was this time of year when there’s not much else going on.
A tiny haul, but big enough for me!
This is a great time for a yarn crawl, after the fall shows and before spring really heats up with more shows…
I want one of what everybody’s wearing. Honeycomb looking good
The honeycomb reminded me of a snippet that another blogger had posted and I thought you both might be doing a KAL. Turns out she’s doing this one – http://www.twistcollective.com/collection/component/content/article/104-winter-2012-patterns/1299-uji-by-ann-marie-jackson
The blogger is http://crazyknittinglady.wordpress.com/
Another sweater to tempt you with? 🙂
Too many cables (too fluffy all around) for me! But I love Glenna’s blog. She’s tall and could definitely carry this one off.
I visited Knit Purl and Twisted on Saturday, but wish I had more time to visit other shops!
I only had one day to really hit the yarn shops. I went to Yarnia, Yarn Garden and Happy Knits. I would have hit up Twisted (which I love), too, but my goal was to get into yarn stores I had never been too.
I did really well with my goal of self-discipline until I stop at Knitting Bee on the way home. I saw the Vintage Fremont Shawl, and the yarn that they paired with it, and I was sold! I have two time-sensitive projects that I need to finish up and then I’m casting that on!
P.S. – Still haven’t started that sweater. I have a clear problem with avoidance/denial going on about it.
I really like the Vintage Fremont shawl. Pretty! It’s on my to-do list. Glad you had fun! And don’t worry about the sweater…it will tell you when it’s time.
I made it to all 18 shops! It was exhausting but fun! 🙂
Allie
@ Fiesta Cat Yarn Co
http://www.fiestacatyarn.com
You really do live in yarn heaven!
Oh, yes we do, and we know it and appreciate it!