Monday, July 16, 2007

Yarn Crawl in Minnesota, part 1

It has been awhile since I posted. I do not have any pictures of the socks I am working on. Hopefully, I can get them posted shortly. I am also spinning yarn for socks. The yarn will be Christmas presents. Of course, after I finish spinning I have to get it dyed. Won't be able to do that in the hotel room.

However, I am anxious to tell you about my weekend. My daughter, TeAntae, flew in to Minneapolis Thursday evening to spend a long weekend with me. I do not think we had planned to do a yarn crawl weekend but that is what it turned out to be.

We started at Sheepy Yarn Shoppe in White Bear Lake, MN http://www.sheepyyarnmn.com/ . I can only say a fun atmosphere, staff and patrons.

The Yarn Café is more than a store and more than a café. They want you to come in for lunch, then stay and chat a while. Need help with a project you are working on? At the Yarn Café, they welcome the casual diner or the serious knitter as well as everyone in between. The Yarn Café is open for lunch dinner or anytime during the day that you are in the mood for a snack. They offer a selection of sandwiches, salads, soups, sides and pastries, as well as a full beverage service. Their beverage selection includes beer and wine, as well as many different coffees and teas. On Friday nights from 4 to 8 PM they have "Happy Hour" with half price wine and beer. They are also an internet cafe with two terminals and WiFi. The shop opens at 9A.M., I can not believe it...yes, we were there at 9.

Oh...and they have a great selection of yarns and patterns.

My daughter and I decided to go to the "Happy Hour" after yarn shopping all day. We ordered a glass of wine and a cheese platter.

That is my daughter knitting away while we snacked at the Yarn Cafe. (By the way, I wove the top she is wearing, it is a copy of one we saw an an arts & craft show for a couple hundred dollars).

We also met a lovely group of ladies that asked us to come back.

I have every intention of going back to knit with this great bunch.

Don't you think this is a great idea for a yarn shop?

We also went to the Yarn Garage http://www.yarngarage.com/ . I have to go back and take pictures because you have to see to believe. The shop is very small crammed with yarn from floor to ceiling. My daughter said that doing inventory must be a nightmare. The owner, Steven Berg, calls himself the "Glitter Knitter". He has a "Yarn Tasting" on Wednesday nights that I have to try to get to before I leave the area. There is no way to describe this man or the store. Go to his website and surf around. You will be amazed. He is also sponsoring knitting cruises.

Our travels on Friday also took us to Amazing Threads, http://www.amazing-threads.com/ . I purchased some of their original patterns for my collection and brought some yarn to make a hat. My daughter went into the clearance area and brought some yarn and books. You will have to check out her sight to find out about that.

We also went to All About Yarn http://allaboutyarn.biz/ Because we were so hungry, we did not stay long and so I will have to go back and let you know about the store.

I hope I did not miss a shop but that was our Thursday night and Friday yarn adventure. I will let you know later about our Saturday.

All the stores in the area are open on Sunday from 12-4 or 5. In fact, all of the stores are open 7 days a week. I love it.

Sunday, July 01, 2007