a holiday yarn

holiday yarn
Originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

on my annual summer pilgrimage out to the west coast, I made sure I hit the local and not-so-local yarn shops. This in lieu of my usual trapline of yoga prop supply stores and Banyen Books, since (as unlikely as it may sound) I actually have all the yoga stuff I need right now, as well as piles of unread books.

The large picture at Flickr is annotated, but in summary:

from Knit Cafe in Walnut Grove: Confetti sock yarn and 2 skeins 6 ply all hemp (not shown- acquired after the pic)

from Kept in Stitches in Fort Langley: 7 skeins Silky Tweed, 3 small and one large skeins Fortissima sock yarn

from Knitopia in White Rock: 2 skeins Handmaiden Silk Cashmere 2 ply, 1 skein Handmaiden Sea Silk

from Urban Yarns in Vancouver: 2 skeins Fleece Artist Merino Sock

from Marilyn's Yarn Barn in Bellingham, WA: 6 skeins Wildefoote, 1 Socks that Rock, 3 skeins Jamieson and Smith laceweight Shetland wool.

This doesn't even show the books I acquired - Stahmans Shawls and Scarves, as well as the Knitting Heretic, gifted to me by my friend and knitting mentor Loretta.

I definately indulged, but all the yarns with the exception of the Silky Tweed and Fortissima are yarns I can't find at my local yarn shops. And those were 50% off because Kept in Stitches is going completely to quilting supplies. My mom is bummed about that, understandably.

I've already started knitting the silk cashmere up into Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy Scarf, and the Confetti sock yarn into Pepperknit's Anastasia socks. The Sea Silk started out as a DFS, but I decided after a few rows that the very open stitch pattern was better suited to a yarn that will bloom a bit. It's kind of cool - to me, at least - that Knitopia and Urban Yarns are both shops where Sivia teaches, and after joining her Yahoo group I learned that she knit both the samples I saw (and swooned over) when I visited those shops.

All in all, very exciting stash enhancement, and I think I'm going to enjoy every ounce of wooly, silky, goaty goodness in the months to come.