Yarn Discovery Tour: Weekend Two

Currently on the needles:

- Dragonscale Shawl

- Victorian Cowl (pictures below!)

Recently finished objects!:

- Leydon Mitts

Apparently, whenever I go out for the yarn tour, the sky weeps mightily for my wallet. But rain aside, John and I had a fabulous day checking out two completely new to me yarn shops! 

Our first stop was at Knit-Wits Knits in Salem. We had some trouble finding this place. It's inside this seemingly unassuming building called Courtyard Square that is just incredible when you walk inside.

Photo courtesy of Courtyard Square facebook page.

The shop itself reminded me of Artist Gallery Yarns in Canton. It wasn't the light, bright yarn shop that I adore. The selection was fine, though it didn't seem to have a lot of the brands that I was used to seeing. There was a wonderful discount section, where I got all of my yarn from.

The shop also had a bit of a strange layout, but that was due to the construction of the actual building. 

All in all, it was a nice place to see and I could imagine going back, if only to sit in that incredible space outside the shop and knit for a while.

I found some more Berroco Vintage, this time in color Ruby. Vintage is a great alternative when you don't want to use straight acrylic. It's a 50/40/10 blend of acrylic, wool, and nylon and just a decent, mid-range yarn. I only paid $5.50 for this hank, which typically retails for around $8. I'm all about the deals, people.

Another deal I got was on some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in color Black Watch. It typically retails for around $14 a hank. I paid $7.50. Shepherd Sport is a 100% superwash merino with 200 yards per hank. These two lovelies will be used for my very first socks.

And I just couldn't say no to these! These are ChiaGoo limited edition painted bamboo knitting needles in the Blue Flower pattern. At only 9 inches in length, they are on the small end of needles. But I think they'll be great if I need a quick project, like a mug cozy, to take with me. 

After Salem, we headed to Boardman in search of lunch. We ended up at the Stonebridge Grille and Tavern. Quite apropo seeing as it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, the high holy day of us Pastafarians.

We started off with some spinach and artichoke dip, and then each had a burger. I opted for the mushroom swiss and he for the bacon cheddar. We both asked for the horseradish mayo to be added and split a basket of fries, per the waiter's suggestion.. An excellent, decision, I might add. That basket was huge! Everything was delicious and very reasonably priced. $35 for everything, before the tip.

By the time we finished up, our dear friend, Caitlin, had finished her shift at The Flaming Ice Cube. Part vegan cafe, part knickknackery, and part yarntopia, Flaming Ice Cube is a very cool and wonderful mix of eclectic treasures. While it's not the largest selection in the world, there's enough variety to keep every yarn lover happy. It is a little cramped, but I like cozier places myself. The cafe is separated from the shop, but you still smell all the wonderful things cooking up there!

If I have to make a list of my favorite yarn shops, the only reason why Flaming Ice Cube isn't on equal footing with Harps and Thistles is due to distance. I also realized that I'm probably biased in this review.

There was wonderful shawl hanging up on display that I fell in love with. Rather than just buying stash yarn, I decided to get the supplies to make it. The store sample of Ridgely by Michelle Hunter was made with HiKoo CoBaSi. I'm not a big cotton fan, so I started looking for a different yarn. 

I swooned over Classic Elite's Fresco in color Passion Fruit. A 60/30/10 wool, baby alpaca, and angora mix, this sport weight yarn is the definition of luxury. But at $11 a hank, I wasn't quite sure if I should spend nearly $60 for the yarn, as opposed to the $30 it would have been for the CoBaSi. Well, Caitlin wasn't going to let me walk away from buying extra yarn, so she decided that she was just going to buy 2 of my skeins as a birthday present. 

Did I mention that I have the best friends ever? 

And lest you think me ungrateful or spoiled, I had brought along a hank of Annadele Alpaca yarn that I had bought her at the Great Lakes Fiber Show. And I have other plans in the works now for her birthday...

Here it is, in all it's glory! And I'm not allowed to play with it until I get some other stuff done first, which is totally not cool. 

Feeling slightly guilty about not spending more money, I also picked up a skein of Malabrigo Rios in Jupiter. A silly name, I might add. This colorway looks like red rose petals. It's absolutely beautiful. Rios is a worsted weight merino superwash with 210 yards per hank. I was so excited by it, I couldn't help but start right away on a quick cowl. This is the Victorian Cowl by Amanda Reed. I'm already starting the fifth repeat out of nine. I'm hoping to have it done in the next day or two.

My biggest problem is that I have to choose between two sets of buttons. Both would be perfect, but which is MORE perfect?

See what I mean? I guess I'll just figure it out later....

I also got to do something at Flaming Ice Cube that I've never had a chance to do before: actually sit and knit in a shop! I've knit in movie theaters, restaurants, concerts and every other venue you could possibly think of, but never at a place that actually sells yarn. 

Usually, we have Alex in tow, so I'm not allowed to just sit and knit. But in a rare instance, it was just John and me. And he was happy to just sit and talk, especially when Caitlin brought Taylor (her husband and our other dear friend) to the shop. 

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful day and a great way to end my Tour.

All of my goodies over two weekends.

Did I mention that John got a gift for being so patient and kind and generous? While he was busy talking, I picked him up a tea for one set. He adores it! And a happy John means a happy Ashtan. Who cares that I had secretly bought him the tea set for his birthday but gave it to him as soon as we got to the car?

I'm terrible at keeping gifts until the date when they're supposed to be given. I ended up giving Grandma Pat her Leydon Mitts on Saturday. She, I'm happy to say, absolutely loves them. 

I also gave my middle sister, Emily, her birthday gift a few days early. As I've mentioned before, I am starting to learn and do bookbinding. I made Emmy a leather bound sketchbook with a hand embroidered rose on the cover.

Showing off the actual binding here. I used Sea Lemon's long stitch binding tutorial. The leather is a scrap piece I picked up from Great Trails.

The rose was done in a silvery grey embroidery floss, while the stem and thorns were done in olive.

None of my remaining pieces of leather were long enough to make a tie, so I had to sew two of them together. 

For only being my second project, I think this came out quite nicely. Emmy certainly seemed to like it. Fun fact, it took me longer to do the embroidery than making the rest of the bloody book.

My victorian cowl is calling to me, so until next week, happy crafting!