Vacation Yarn

I had an incredibly yarny weekend.  Before we pulled away from the front of our apartment on Thursday, I was anticipating two small packages of yarn from Ravelry destashes.  I have become a little nervous about my stash getting out of control, not financially, so much as running out of space to house it all.  But with these two small packages (4.5 skeins in all--1.5 of Rowan Felted Tweed in Clay for a Cecily's Shawl and three more skeins of Ella Rae to go with my Tea leftovers so I can make another, in the right size, for me), came the delight of already knowing that I had big plans for them. 

Phillip and I went to visit a gracious aunt, whom we have visited on many occasions.  She is delightful to spend time with and even better, there are a number of yarn stores on the way--some that I have visited and loved, some that I have only stalked with the help of the knitmap.   

While in Little Rock, I visited one of my favorite Arkansas yarn stores, Yarn Mart.  This store has always impressed me because not only does it have beautiful hand dyed skeins but it also always has medium range work horse yarns like 220 and Eco+, so while I may have something in mind that is "cheap" (like two extra skeins of Vintage for Beauborg) I can also oogle beautiful things like Shibui sock, which I just had to have.  Also being added to my roster, a sweaters worth of Louisa Harding Nautical Cotton (at a great price!), for something that will hold up to the sweltering Oklahoma heat. 

I also had the pleasure of going to Mockingbird Moon, which is a relatively new shop from what I gathered. Not only did they have a great selection of completed projects (including a finished and beaded Jeweled Cowl), but they had colorways of favorites that I can't seem to find in my neck of the woods.  Picked up there were a few skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in Chapel Stone. 

Making a short trek to Fayetteville, I landed at Handheld Knitting, which was a delight to visit.  Not only do they house an amazing selection of beautiful things I had never seen before, but they have a cute little shop cat, whom I was able to pet ((and fall in love with)).  It was obvious the women knitting there were having a regular knitting date, which was really nice to eavesdrop on, but I fell in love with a beautiful skein of Manos Fino, which I had never even seen before. 

The trip was a major knitting success.  I was able to get about 10 hours worth of Rectangle completed, two swatches for Beaubourg and I picked up a printed copy of Knit.Wear, which I have been fawning over since the first issue but can't seem to find in person anywhere here.  I also accidently picked up a Jared Flood pattern (thinking I had Guernsey Triangle in my hand), Romney Kerchief, so I have lots to work on, including a thank you gift to our gracious host whom made my knitters dream possible.