Destination: Yarn!

Now, this may come as a wee bit of a shock to you, but I kind of have a *thing* for yarn.

I know, I know. Color you surprised.

And when it's yarn done by an indie dyer?

My little heart just goes wild.

And when that indie dyer is, in fact, just a short little jaunt up north?

That sound? That was my heart exploding.

A couple weekends ago, I got to attend Destination Yarn's open house for their new dye studio.

Yep, it's not just another yarn shop. It's a whole new world.

Jeanne has opened a studio to teach people how to dye their own yarn and fiber. It's really incredible!

She also had a beautiful display of all of her current stock of yarn for sale.

Mikayla, Steph, and I were practically kids in a candy store and had to go squish it all.

This was, of course, after I had a minor meltdown about what the hell to wear. Which caused us to be late. Yay, mental illness!

But really, if you're going to a Yarn Thing you need to show off a bit, right? And I have a closet full of shawls to wear. So I got overwhelmed with trying to decide which one was The Right One for the day.

I ended up with my usual "I-Need-To-Impress-Fellow-Knitters" shawl, Celestarium.

A good choice, I guess. Wish I could just get my nerve up to wear them all a bit more often...

Anyway, Steph was on the hunt for a skein of yarn for a Very Important Thing, I promised myself that I just wanted a single skein of heavier yarn for a hat, while Mikayla was trying to be good and only get ONE skein to make socks since she's currently on a sock kick. (heh...)

And because we're all terrible enablers, most of those plans went out the window.

Steph ended up with two yarns to make two Very Important Things, Mikayla bought yarn for another shawl, and I... well... I decided that the yarn I had originally bought for my ceremony shawl wasn't quite perfect.

This, however...

Yeah. I brought them both home. And I have absolutely no regrets.

The color is called Pine Forest. Absolutely perfect for a winter ceremony.

We won't discuss the fact that this also means that I had to change the pattern AGAIN! But I think we really have settled on a winner this time.

I plan on buying both colors that Steph and Mikayla also got because I loved them so much. They can join the ever-growing hoard of colors I have.

Left to right: Irish Bog, Stockholm, and Shark Infested Waters.

Alas, we had to tear ourselves away from the yarny goodness and seek out some sort of caffeine for poor John, who had been dozing in a corner of the shop.

We ended up at Blackbird Baking Company, coincidentally right next to River Colors Studio.

The yarn shop had closed a little bit before we got there, which, honestly was probably the best thing for us. But we did get to meet a lovely fellow knitter in the cafe who happily showed off her Find Your Fade shawl.

I wasn't really impressed with the coffee at Blackbird, but their baked goods were on a whole 'nother level. I had a blue cheese and onion focaccia and thought I was going to die from happiness.

We arrived in time for their happy hour, where everything is half-off. Do you know how tempted I was to clear out their remaining stock? John, the blighter, wouldn't actually let me take it all, but we did get a big bag of goodies to take home for later.

Mikayla had to get going, so we all parted ways, yarn and baked goods in tow.

John and I were trying to decide if we wanted to go check out anything else before heading back home.

We took some adorable selfies...

And decided to at least go drive past the lake. It just doesn't feel right to go to Cleveland and not see it.

I managed to finish Vi's dice bag on the way home.

We're going to ignore the knot in the bind off since some dumbass was so tired that she bound of half her stitches, thought she was done with the whole thing, broke the yarn, pulled it through the last stitch, tried to take her needles back, and became very confused when they wouldn't separate from the project because, you know, HALF THE STITCHES ARE STILL ON THEM!

When you fail, fail spectacularly, right?

I am super in love with the way the colors worked out for this one. It reminds me of something out of my current favorite game, Subnautica.

I just might have to make myself one in this colorway.

But, that'll have to wait since I have to dive headlong into Mojito.

It's a wee bit bigger than this picture shows (I had intended to write this post a cfew days after my last...) I now only have 4 rows of the double sided lace section and the edge chart to go.

But most of those rows...

... are beaded.

And I had to order more beads because I actually didn't have enough of these in my hoard of shiny things.

I couldn't buy more from the place I got them because it closed down. And my usual bead supplier didn't have them. So I had to order them from a company I've never dealt with before, which is always terrifying.

It needs to be done before the 26th for my 10 year class reunion, so I *think* I'll be okay.

But if I'm not....

Well, Celestarium looks pretty good with my dress.