A say what now? It's a yarn crawl. But it's only one day and it's only in one store!
The Hands on Knitting Center is located in Redlands, California, and they started an annual event that they call an in-store yarn crawl - where you can get all of the fun and excitement of such an event all in one place!
You know, without having to drive all over the place. Unless you're me. Who drove two hours one way to go check out this one-day yarn crawl.
And I am so glad I did!
Here's my yarn crawl haul:
Y'all. It's been SO long since I've been in a nice yarn store! Since we left Virginia in ... 2019, I think it was, where I taught at Yarn Matters, I've only been in ONE other yarn store. And it was... a bit disappointing. I'll leave it at that.
That means it's been FOUR YEARS since I was last in a cute little local yarn shop!
That's too long, I tell you!
So yeah, I soaked it ALLLLL up.
And I got to meet up with not one but TWO yarnie friends that I had yet to have the pleasure of meeting in person! It was so exciting!!
Maridee is a fellow crochet designer and she was set up at the shop with her samples.
She'll be teaching a class there soon, too, on her latest design, the Box Car Wrap! You can visit Maridee's website at marideecreates.com to see her crochet designs and more!
I also met up with another friend for some post yarn shopping lunch!
We headed into this cute little downtown area of Redlands where we also wandered into a candy store, ha ha. Had to get some treats to take back home for my boys!
Okay, that box on the bottom was for me, I admit it! They're sea salt chocolate covered caramels and they're living in my desk now. Delicious!! You can find Village Candy Kitchen on Facebook here.
All right, I know you want to see the yarn, right!?
Here we go.
First up is a cute little springy colored skein of non-superwash merino and silk from Lazer Sheep Yarns. It's called Sheep of Honesty and the base? It's called Silky Sheep, of course!
I also could not resist these cute yarnie stickers. Which one is your favorite?? I think mine is the Abaaaaminable Snow Ram!
You can shop Lazer Sheep Yarns at lazersheepyarns.com and follow Leslie on Instagram here.
Next up is a trio of lightly speckled yarns from Oink Pigments on their Jewls base, which is superwash merino and nylon PLUS 30% bamboo! So I'm excited to try these out.
The colorways are called Space Rocks and Raisins on a Cake. And yeah, I think I'm going to use all three of them together. Any imaginings on what I might make??
Be sure to visit Oink Pigments over on Instagram or shop their website at oinkpigments.com for allllll the fun colors!
I also picked out some glass buttons that I might or might not use with my Oink purchase. What do you think? Buttoned shawl of some sort??
These are from Becky Caraco Designs.
Another fun thing I found was this cute little pair of scissors that look just like a pair of flipflops! Or maybe I just have our impending move to Hawaii on the brain... Either way, I decided that the seahorse tape measure would be a good compliment to the island theme!
And that tape measure seems like it's way sturdier than most of the other ones I've had (and broken) throughout the years. I'm looking forward to seeing how it holds up! It's from a French company called Bohin and they actually have TONS of cute tape measure designs! You can check them out here.
I actually hadn't been in the shop for very long at all when they did one of their door prize drawings AND I WON!!! They had a basket full of goodies hidden inside brown paper bags that I got to choose from and after weighing my options, I went for the one that gave me these two pretty little skeins of black and silver yarn from GGH Wolle, distributed here in the US by Trendsetter Yarns.
You can browse yarns from GGH here, but heads up that the site isn't in English!
This yarn actually compliments the very last skein I have to share with you quite nicely. This colorway is called Writing's on the Wall by Sew Happy Jane - and it was a gift from my friend whom I met up with!!!!
Isn't it just lovely!? And it was such a wonderful surprise, too.
What would you do with this delightful little skein of yarn? Got any favorite one skein project go tos? Comment below and let me know!
Oh and don't forget to check out Sew Happy Jane's website, too! You can also find her on Instagram here.
There were a couple other dyers there, too, from whom I did not make purchases. Even though Alyson's beautifully rich autumn colors were absolutely singing to me! I will definitely be ordering some yarn from her after we move!
Check out Aly Bee yarns at alybeeworkshop.com or on Instagram here.
Amy of Peekaboo Yarns was also there. You can peruse her Etsy shop or find her on Instagram here.
I wish I could have bought yarn from everyone! But, you know, moving in less than two months.... *cries*
And ALL of the dyers I met and the yarns I brought home are new to me! Which is so so exciting!! I love getting to meet new indie dyers. And new yarns.
So. That was my adventure. And now I have several new skeins of yarn to tempt me away from any and all other things! Which one is your favorite color? What would you make??