Yarn Diet? What Yarn Diet?

Bonne Marie and I headed down to Columbus on Saturday in search of fibery adventure. There's just nothing like a good road trip. And when you've got good company, the distance between Chicago and Indianapolis just doesn't seem that great.

I must say, you just can't go visit Rob and Matt and be on a "yarn diet". That would be like going to Disney Land and having an allergy to Mickey Mouse. Walking into ThreadBear on Saturday was like walking into my dream yarn store -- the place I would want to open if I had a store of my own. Wall to wall wonderful wool and fibers of every blend and color and people who make you feel like you've come home. That whole yarn diet thing went out the window as soon as I saw the front door. As my dad would say "Yarn diet? We don't need no steeeenking yarn diet!"

Just a Small Part of What I Wanted to Bring Home...

1. Cascade 220 in 9448 (dark olivey green) and 9460 (light)
2. Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Evergreen -- Socks for John
3. Cascade Indulgence in 507 (white) -- Headband for John
4. Cascade Fixation in 9843 -- Special Delivery for Emma
5. S.R. Kertzer Fizz in Shade 21 -- for Mom's felted hat
6. Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille in 2615, 1317 and 1404 -- flower face cloths
7. Manos del Uraguay, Color 109 (woodland) and Color 54 -- Knit Kit felted bag
8. Lamb's Pride in black and green for Marie
9. Noro Kureyon, #52 for Chicago Bag shop model
10. Noro Big Kureyon, #7 for test felting
11. 10 skeins of Sweet Grass Wool -- Sweater for John
12. Cascade 220 in 9336 (dark blue with purple accents) and 9324 for Chicago bag shop model
13. Not pictured: special goodies for a certain rabbit...

So many good things -- and most of them have purposes! I'm particularly pleased with the Indulgence -- an incredible blend of alpaca and angora -- and the Sweet Grass wool. Sweet Grass wool comes from Targhee sheep and it's an unscoured wool so it has a soft quality that you wouldn't expect from just looking at it. It's also got an incredible springi-ness. And since it was in a perfect manly color, I just couldn't pass it up. I'm going to use it for a sweater for the hubster... he has a pattern he likes, but I decided it would never get finished if I made it out of DK weight yarn. So I am going to modify the pattern I have to use the Sweet Grass.

Hiding in the back where it is hard to make out the incredible colors is some of the most stunning Manos that I have ever put my grabby little fingers on:

Woodlands

It is destined to become Janet Scanlon's AllAround Companion. As a felter, I am fascinated by Janet's shapes and construction techniques. I'll probably do the bag with the variagated skeins in the center and the solid color for the top and bottom. When I told John I was going to felt this yarn he got this horrified look on his face and told me that I couldn't felt something that beautiful. And I sort of feel that way about it, too. But I hear it creates a wonderful boucle like fabric. And it would make a perfect little winter bag.

While I had great fun picking out the goods, probably the best part of the afternoon was hanging out with Rob and Matt and Bonne Marie at the table in the back and just working on our respective projects together. You'd have thought we'd all known each other forever. It was such a pleasure to meet Rob and Matt in real life after so much electronic communication. Rob was a great source of encouragement as I workeed on Chicago and Matt has done some fabulous color work for two Charlotte's Web shawls for me. I wish these guys were closer to my home stomping ground! In spite of there being so many stores to choose from, I still haven't found one that I would want to hang out in . ThreadBear has a warmth that comes from more than all the wooly goodness.

Probably the only "down" point of the day was that in spite of my best intentions, my Chicago bag stayed in Chicago instead of coming to Columbus (that'll teach me to name bags after locations). You see, I set it on the roof of my car as I was loading things in it... you can probably guess what happens after that. Fortunately, I noticed while we were getting gas and John was able to go out and rescue it from my alleyway.

(While the felted model didn't make it to Columbus, a few printed copies of the Chicago pattern did. I'll be knitting up a store models in Cascade and Kureyon -- stay tuned this week for pictures of the Kureyon test... and if you want to see another Chicago knitted, check out Steph's version in Patton's Classic Wool -- she kindly volunteered to do a test felting for me, and so far I think it looks very fab!).

I had planned to take lots of pictures so that you could be amazed by the fabulous walls of Koigu, Cascade, Lana Grossa, Noro and sock yarn, but somehow I managed to not even pick my camera up except for one picture. Fortunately, that one picture turned out to be a good one. Bonne Marie's furry Bucket-o-Chic came along for the ride -- and I got this pic as deep discussion of bucket hat technique and architecture ensued.

Rob and Bonne Marie and a Furry Bucket-o-Chic

Happy Monday!