Yarn Along the Rockies, Part 4 and Part 5

This week I have learned that there is in fact such a thing as too many yarn stores.  We did three on Friday, and three on Saturday, which was nearly too much because a) they were the far away stores, and b) we had to work around me and the kids' belt tests.  I have completely lost track of what I got on those days, however here is a picture of all the swag:

I think I lost something, but can't figure what.  Here's a picture of all the things I bought:

There was also actually a shawl pin, but I discovered this morning that I could also use it to pin up my hair, and forgot that it was attached to my head when I was taking pictures.  So, yarn stores visited on Friday:

Knit Knook:  I got the shawl pin here.  Another yarn store with a little coffee shop inside, except this one actually has muffins and stuff, not just drinks, which was a nice surprise.  Nice big open space in the middle to sit and knit in too.  They also have a restroom, which turned out to be very important to my cute little girls.

Yarn West:  They have a yarn bombed bicycle in front!  This one is kind of hidden in a shopping center - you have to walk down a little path from the parking lot.

The Recycled Lamb:  Happy thirtieth anniversary, Recycled Lamb!  Nice shop, I can see why they would be able to stick around so long.  They were having a yarn tasting that evening that we couldn't stay for, but it looked really cool.  Also, they have coned yarn for weaving.

And on Saturday, we went up to Boulder:

Mew Mew's Yarn Shop:  Cute little shop.  Oldest girl found something called "dragon scales," which are basically aluminum scales you can work into your knitting.  They look extremely cool.

Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins: This is another one you have to walk down a bath through the shopping center to find, at least the way my cell phone told us to go to get there.  This is a BIG shop, which has an adjoining store that is basically all weaving stuff.  So if you weave, go here.  I also found a really clever DPN holder, that I can use over my needles when there's a project on them, which I'll probably talk about some more once I've tried it out.

Gypsy Wools: These guys dye most of the yarn in their shop, it seems.  And it is very nice stuff!  They also carry a wide selection of hand dyed embroidery thread, of which oldest girl got some for her tatting (it's linen!).  Be careful parking around here, most of the roads are one way and it was quite possibly more confusing than down town Denver.  There were fewer places to park, least ways.

So that was the yarn crawl, all twenty and three yarn stores, from Colorado Springs in the South to Boulder in the North.  If I had it to do again, I would figure out how to do in fewer days, because honestly, by the end I was ready to be DONE.  But we pulled it off with an assortment of small children in tow, so I think we did well enough!

Yarn Along the Rockies, Part 1

So me and my mom are participating in the Yarn Along the Rockies yarn crawl this year.  Nine days!  Twenty three yarn stores!  MADNESS!  So I thought I'd give a report on all these yarn stores.  Yesterday we went to five, and received:

Swag: 3 bottles Kookaburra Wash, 1 bottle Kookaburra Delicate (it smells like flowers!), 1 pen, 1 sample Eucalan, 1 nail file with llamas on it, 1 tube chapstick, 1 felted bag pattern.

Purchased: Official yarn crawl tote bag (also received: one pin for each yarn store visited, except one), a bunch of tatting stuff for the big girl's birthday, a 5.5 mm crochet hook (to replace one I lost), 1 ball Kiwi lace weight (it has possums in it!), 1 tiny felted purse.

The stores we visited were:

Green Valley Weavers and Knitters:  I like this store.  They have just about everything, but you have to ask to find anything.  This is where most of the tatting stuff came from.  Also, they had a super cute tortie kitten frolicking by the register.

Wooly Works:  If you like tatting, or thread crochet, or just like thread size #10 or smaller, go to this store.  They have about six MILLION colors.  This is where the rest of the tatting stuff (ie, the thread) came from.  Was suddenly glad I didn't buy thread at Green Valley, there was a better selection here!  These guys didn't have the button to go on my bag, though.  Super annoyed!

Needleworks by Holly Berry:  This is one of those yarn stores that is actually mostly a random rick rack store.  I got lost in their embroidery and needlework thread section.  One of the employees was really grumpy, but I don't blame her because it was SUPER crowded!

Table Rock Llamas:  I actually go to this yarn store all the time, because they are kinda right by my mom's house.  We are super excited because they didn't get burned down this summer!  Remember to go to the back building - that's where all the cool spinning/dying/SALE stuff is.

Stash:  This is my new favorite yarn store, despite them being twenty minutes from my mom's house and nearly forty minutes from mine.  They have tons of super nerdy stuff, like this hat:

As well as super rare yarns - like 100% mink, or 100% Tibetan yak - for super reasonable prices.  This is where I got the tiny felted purse.  It clips onto the belt loops on my pants!

Tomorrow we are planning on going to five more yarn stores, so I will try to keep you posted.  We're doing our best to go to them all this year!