Saturday, October 23, 2010

2010 Yarn Shop Hop


Lara, Jackie, Becca, Amy and I had a full day (& Friday nite) of yarn adventures driving together to 7 of the 9 yarn shops participating in the fourth annual Central Kansas Yarn Hop. The purpose of the hop is to visit each shop for a stamp to be entered into a drawing for gift baskets with each shop providing a different experience:
Sugar Bunny Boulevard - My spinning extraordinaire friend, Laura, and her new yarn shop in El Dorado. She rolled out the carpet for us Friday for a night of soup and knitting. It's a cozy but spacious shop. She provided the best freebie hand dyed yarn.
Yarn. - Our first stop on Saturday where we received the warmest yarn hop welcome making us feel like knitting celebrities when we walked into the door. Good shop notions for purchase such as buttons, project bags, sticky notes, etc...and my favorite - FUDGE!
Newton Beadery - Saw Connie, Cass & Mimi there. I didn't buy any yarn but did get a crystal rosary bracelet.
Laura May's Cottage - Cute little small town shop next to her home. Saw Jan and Maxine there. We liked the free note pads but it was way too warm in there to linger long.
Yarns Sold & Told - Inspired to make their sample sock yarn leftover blanket. Absolutely gorgeous and such a nice lightweight feel. Knitsters: Seriously, we've got to have a leftover swap and make this!
The Shivering Sheep - Abilene, KS is one of my favorite destinations. This shop is a hidden gem that furnishes my knitting room with all kinds of sheep art. This time, a black and white sheep canvas picture, more cool knitting buttons and a project bag. Other mandatory stops included margaritas at LaFiesta and handmade jewelry from Tracine's.
Twist - Twelve hours later we made it back and stopped into our hometown shop at closing time. I may be biased, but Shelly provided the best freebie - a shop notions holder and pen. I used a gift card (thanks, Aunt Vicki!) to get a couple skeins of Tupa, jumping on the bandwagon to make Clockwork.
Also on this trip, each shop provided a free small skein of yarn to make this shop hop scrappy scarf. Lara is our two-time undisputed Fastest Knitter. She represented well on our trip by almost getting her scarf completed. She inspired me to make it to the other two shops tomorrow. So much yarn...so little time!