Finally! I think Knitting: A Love Story (meaning Jan!) is back on track in a technological sense.  I finally experienced the phrase "from great disasters come great learnings!"  I feel confident that should a post ever disappear again, I will have one more strategy in my bag of trick to find it. That doesn't mean I won't desperately email Catrina for help.  

I definitely have cultivated the biggest yarn stash dump from LYS BUT the biggest one day dumps have always come from Fiber Festivals.  The Washtenaw Fiber Expo definitely has contributed the most.

The weekend of April 14 and 15 was the 2018 Spring Fiber Expo.  I decided I wasn't going to go because Fiber Expo was something Linda and I did together.  I miss Linda so much that I couldn't imagine having fun with anybody else this year.  On Friday (April 13!), I went to Ann's By Design for Social Knitting.  Linda Schwalm asked if I wanted to go to the Spring Fiber Expo and I rudely said, "No.  I've decided I won't have any fun without Linda."  Can you believe I really said that?!?!?!?!?! That just shows you how much I miss Linda.  My social skills have been diminished.  My company manners have been gutted!  Linda Schwalm wasn't offended though, she's a social worker so she understands my Linda Loneliness.  She just said that she wanted to go and wanted me to go, too.  Well, you know how this turns out.  When it comes to fiber, I have no willpower.  So, I said, "Ok.  I'll go."  Thea was going to go too but she had a terrible headache the next morning and bowed out. The next morning, Saturday, April 14, it was pouring cold rain. ICK! But we sucked it up and met at 8:30 for a 9:30 start.  We got there VERY early but that was a good thing because we got a parking place right by the entrance.  That began our great adventure.

Somethings are too good to change.  The first booth when you walk in for the past few years has been Why Knot Fibers.  We walked in before things officially started so we got to see people rushing around to unpack treasures and stock shelves.  Well, we just couldn't wait.  We walked just to the right of Why Knot Fibers and who was there?  

Twisted Fiber Art!  The wonderful Beth was working the booth on Saturday.  I love her.  She is so creative and nice and energetic.  We see each other and it's hugs all around.  See this wrap right in front?  The colorway is called Nessie.  I love it.  An important learning from this adventure: Twisted Fiber Art Evolution looks even better knitted up than it does in the cake.  They weren't really ready for a sale, so we decided to walk around then come back and buy.

Of course, I had to visit my friend Kelly at Knitting On The Fringe.  Kelly said she'd just come from a festival in Pennsylvania where she sold everything she took.  I've always wondered, "What if you pack up all of this product and don't sell much."  How depressing to pack it all up!  While we were looking at all of Kelly's treasures, we heard a mild crash.  Well, really, how loud can a crash of fiber be?????? The top section of several racks of yarn fell over.  I think a vendor on the other side was stocking shelves and accidentally pushed the shelves over.  Then I heard somebody say, "JAN!"  I looked over and there was. . .  

My dear friend, Debbie Krause.  I met Debbie when I was a Strategic Planning consultant to her school district.  You know how when you meet someone and things just click?  That's what happened with Debbie.  We met and it clicked.  See that smile?  That is exactly how Debbie is all of the time.  She just makes me happy when I am with her.  AND if the shelves hadn't crashed, we wouldn't even have noticed each other.  I would have continued looking at and feeling gorgeous fiber, she would have walked by and that was that!  I hope this pushes us into a real get together.

Then there is FiberStory.  I love FiberStory.  I love their fiber and I love their colorways.  I always come away with many skeins of yarn.  The FiberStory fiber is heavenly to touch.  It feels like a very a soft kitten or a Wheaten Terrier or dandelion fluff or, well you get the idea.  I have been known to salivate and swoon in the presence of FiberStory fiber.  

​Then we made the rounds looking at other vendors like. . .  

This was a new vendor I had never seen before. The interesting object wasn't the yarn, it was the jewelry that you see over in the wooden box made of some kind of nut.  Taugne or something like that.  I am too lazy right now to find the card that has the answer.

​Finally it was time to do some buying.

I bought this at Why Knot Fibers.  Isn't it adorable!?!?!?!?!  I can't wait to start it.  

This is the yarn in the kit.  I love kits!  They make decision about "how  am I going to use this UDY (undesignated yarn)" unnecessary.  I may take this to the Coastal Condo to knit on there.  

This is from FiberStory.  It is much more beautiful than my miserable photograph shows.  And Soft!!!!!!!!  It is so soft.  This is UDY. This is the amazingly yummy Glow made from 55% Blue Faced Leicester and 45% silk.  You know my philosophy.  A little silk makes wool feel so much better.  The colors from left to right are: Mist, Flutter and Keen.

This is also the deletable yarn from FiberStory.  The first set had a pink skein and a blue skein with a transition skein in the middle.  This is pink and green and transition.  I have all of these fabulous shawl patterns who are just crying for a trio like this.  These also are Glow with colors left to right Moss, Wander and Emma.  

These are the perfect cakes of Evolution from Twisted Fiber Art.  In case you think this is a small purchase for me at my favorite LYS/online store/Fiber Expo vendor, you would be right.  But the next day I did go online and buy 2 more cakes I decided I couldn't live without adding to Twisted Fiber Art South collection.  Starting from 12 o'clock and going clockwise we have Le Cirque in Ariel, Dusk in Ariel, Pinot Noir in Ariel and Arboretum in Tasty.  Have you read Night Circus?  Le Cirque just reminded me too much of that fabulous book.  I just couldn't leave without it.  Pinot Noir was a festival special.  Arboretum is for a pattern I just found on Pinterest.  I saw something knit with Dusk and it was just too beautiful to pass up.

Really, who among you could resist buying beautiful fiber from this beautiful young woman????  Beth ask me what I thought of a Twisted Fiber Art Art retreat.  I said, "SIGN ME UP!"  That sounds like a blast.  I might even entice Linda to come to Michigan for it.  I'll keep you posted.

This scrumptious Flax is from Knitting On The Fringe.  I bought a pattern for a top that is ever so cute but the picture on the pattern is too faded to take a picture.  Just take my word that it will be very cute. 

Linda and I were both fascinated by the jewelry and shawl pins made from the nut.   

Some day I will knit a shawl that these look perfect with.

Well, that was the day.  It was fun.  I barely missed Linda.  What can I say.  I'm a yarn harlot (in small letters because nobody can be Stephanie Pearl McFee.)  Put beautiful yarn in front of me and I pretty much forget everything else.  Notice I did say "barely."  There were moments when I turned around to say something only Linda would get then realized she wasn't there.  This was a spring festival so it is much smaller than the one in the fall.  I was a bit disappointed because there were no animals which meant no shearing.  I love to watch that.  I was very glad we went Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday because Sunday we woke up to heavy freezing rain.  

Now why do I buy more in one festival than in a LYS?  You have 30 and up LYS in one place.  Without walking more than 5 yards in any direction, you are in the next shop. I really do major damage in a very short time at a festival.  Yarn crawls don't affect me the same way.  I have a chance driving from one shop to the next to come down from my hyper-passion.  At a festival it is literally, "Look at that! I want that! WOW! Is that awesome."  One sight builds on the next with no opportunity to decompress.  One of the things I will do at the Fall Fiber Expo is try new vendors.  I need to expand my horizons.  I met a wonderful retired nurse who has just started her business.  I feel sad I didn't support her with a purchase.  Festivals are just filled with one fabulous vendor after another.

​Next I will tell you about the online stores who have been co-conspirators to the growth of my stash.

Just like magic it reappeared.  My long lost post about the LYS mentioned in Knitting: A Love Story came back! It was restored!  I was just thinking about how long it was going to take me to rewrite it.  I think the tricky part was the date.  I started it on April 2, saved it then posted about Linda on April 4.  Around April 11, I came back to Co-Conspriators, worked on it some more then tried to post it on April 15.  It didn't disappear, it just got in the queue based on the April 2 date not April 15.  Oops!  I told you I'm not a tech person.  I hoped you will enjoy my walk down LYS memory land.  Part 2 on Co-Conspirators will be about Fiber Festivals.  

That's me, top row center.  I don't know what happened.  I worked on a post for 2 weeks about all of the LYS I've written about in my four years with Knitting: A Love Story.  If I must say so myself, it was fine.  It was better than fine, it was amazing.  It was better than amazing, it was spectacular.  I  worked so hard.  I wrote then edited. Then edited again.  It was perfect.  My best.  I hit the post button just like I have several hundred times and IT DISAPPEARED!   It didn't appear on the blog. It wasn't in the draft box.  IT WAS GONE!   

I am going to email Catrina, my technology wizard and see if she can figure out where it is hiding.  In the mean time, I went to the Washtenaw Fiber Expo yesterday.  I will work on my pictures and be back soon.  I AM SO FRUSTRATED!  Technology knows it can easily confuse me and it often does.  See you in a couple of days

I was in the middle of writing a post about all of the marvelous yarn shops (LYS, online, fiber festivals, current and closed) I've written about over the past four years of Knitting: A Love Story when something  marvelous and soul saving happened.  Linda came.  Anyone who has read Knitting: A Love Story knows Linda.  She is a yarn buddy who became a soul-sister.  I have written more about Linda that any other single person.  In the world of knitting, we have done it all, together.

This is my favorite picture of Linda.  Partly because it is taken in the fabulous Knit Purl in Portland (more to come on Knit Purl in text post), partly because it is taken with the amazing Oleya who helped me so many times over the phone with a Knit Purl purchase, and partly because Linda's wearing teal, her favorite color.  When we first met, Linda bought mostly teal fiber but she has branched out.  I like to think I had a small influence on that.  

We have discovered most (but not all) of the LYS written about in Knitting: A Love Story together.  We discovered Twisted Fiber Art together.  We discovered the Washtenaw Fiber Expo together.  We discovered Crafty Lady, The Knitting Room, Lizzie Anne's and the list goes on and on together.  We have taken many knitting classes in many LYS and learned to be quite fabulous knitters together.  We have made Crayon Box Jackets, Yokohama Jackets and magic balls together. We have knit cherished treasures filled with love for each other.  Even though our's is a friendship created by our love of fiber, there is so much more than knitting in our relationship.  There is laughter.  There is no one I laugh more with than Linda.  There is empathy.  We really feel each other's pain and sadness.  I get teary writing about Linda and I realize just how much I miss her.  

A day with Linda would not be complete without a trip to Spun in Ann Arbor.  We love Spun and the wondrous, yummy yarns you find there, many of which are made in Michigan.  

We made it to Spun and had an over-the-top idea.  We're going to do a Linda and Jan KAL from afar.  We picked out the yarn.

I thought we would knit with teal but Linda had other ideas.  This is the scrumptious One Silky from the fabulous FiberStory.  From left to right it is Dappled Rouge, Splendid, Crushed and Truffle.  Once again, my photography doesn't do it justice.  We decided to do something where colors move into each other.  We asked the helpful lady at Spun if she could recommend a pattern but it soon became evident that I already had the pattern.  

It's the beautiful Heaven and Space by Martina Behm that I made for my friend Kay.  It is perfect.  

We have about twice the amount of yarn we need so we can use this beautifulness for a second project!  As soon as Linda gets back in Stevenson, Washington, we are going to start planning our KAL.  If you would like to join us, we would love to have you.

Linda brought me a bag from the Rose City Yarn Crawl in Portland.  The plan is when I go to visit Linda, we will make our own yarn crawl The Friends Forever Yarn Crawl if there isn't an official one happening.  

I gave Linda my favorite glass "Girlfriends Are Therapists You Can Drink With."  We're going to knit and Skype and drink wine together during our KAL.  One more exciting thing.  Linda is going to come to the Coastal Condo in either July or August.  I can't wait.  Knitting in the 4 Seasons Room, taking her to Knit 'N Purl.  It all sounds just too great.  Yesterday was the best day I've had this year.  It is the happiest I've been since Mom died.  Thank you, Linda.  All I can say is "Friends Forever."

As I was reading through Knitting: A Love Story, researching my 4th anniversary post, I started making a list of all of the places LYS, online and at Fiber Festivals where I've written about.  When I started Knitting: A Love Story, I made the commitment I would only say good things.  If my experience wasn't a good one in a shop, I would just  not mention it.  After all, I don't want to encourage the closing of even one of my very favorite places in the world. I am not sure I have EVER walked into a LYS and come out emptied handed.  I've mentioned before my mission to single handedly keep all LYS in business.  As part of my 4th Anniversary reflections, I am going to recap Co-Conspirators to the growth of my yarn stash.  

1.  This anniversary edition (so to speak) would not be complete without mentioning the shop where it all started 48 years ago.  The Little Shop in Addison, Michigan which was owned and operated by Mary Helen Growt, the woman who changed my life.  The Little Shop has been closed for many years and Mary Helen is no longer with us but the effect of that magical place still lives within me.  I hope all of you have your own Little Shop. To answer the question you were about to ask, "No, I do not have yarn from the Little Shop in my yarn stash."

​2.  The winner of the most mentioned establishment would fall under all three categories.  It is a  LYS, online retailer and fiber festival participant.  Now who do you think that is?  If you read Knitting: A Love Story regularly you would know it is Twisted Fiber Art in Mason, Michigan.  I have purchased so much TFA yarn that I call the Stash Studio Twisted Fiber Art South.  I love the staff and the totally unique Evolution yarn.  I love Meg and Beth and Hazel and Anne.  I love their yarn clubs where they try out new colorways on participants.  I must admit that I have not been to their new residence but I still regularly see them at Washtenaw Fiber Expo and buy online.  They send out a newsletter that grabs me every time I see it.  This is the amazing Meg, inventor of the evolution process.    

3.  Long ago, a love affair began at Crafty Lady (now Crafty Lady Trio) in Macomb, Michigan.  I had just met Linda and we decided to go on a yarn tour and discover new LYS.  The first one we went to was Crafty Lady.  I fell in love.  It had the most fabulous inventory I had ever seen.  I bought yarn for three sweaters and shot my wad.  Over the next few years Linda and I attended many classes and went on even more shopping expeditions in this land of magic.  I learned to do mitered knitting, two handed/two color knitting and make a magic ball.  I had classes with Sally Melville, Valentina Devine and Maggie Jackson.  I learned to make the Crayon Box jacket.  This is where I learned that I'm a sucker for a knitted sample.  

4.  On the same day Linda and I became acquainted with Crafty Lady, we were introduced to The Knitting Room in Birmingham. Michigan.  Remember when I said that I shot my wad at Crafty Lady?  Well, I found another wad for The Knitting Room.  It became a place I could relax and knit.  I took the class which led to my beautiful Knit, Swirl sweater.  Remember my Knit, Swirl?  

Unfortunately, The Knitting Room closed some time last year.  I miss my visits.

5.  Just as a trip to Lawrence, Kansas would not be complete, a post about LYS would not be complete without a mention of the Yarn Barn of Kansas, where I first discovered Valentina Devine, modular knitting and Knitters magazine.  Over the years I have done more than my share to keep this Mecca of yarn in business.  I took my prophetic weaving class here which saved us several thousand dollars.  I learned once and for all that weaving is not for me. 

6.  I will lump together all of the fabulous LYS in northwestern North Carolina because I visit them all at the same time.  Silver Threads and Golden Needles in Franklin, NC; Friends and Fiberworks just west of Asheville and Black Mountain Yarn Shop have all provided me with hours of touching beautiful fibers, talking to amazing yarn lovers and knitting.  The first LYS I visited in the area was Yarn Paradise in Asheville but it is closed now.  I was ever so sad when that happened because I loved that shop.  It introduced me to Twisted Sisters yarns and designs.  I always came away with many new and unusual buttons for my button collection.  Even though I only visited the shop in the first week of May, they always knew me.  

​7.  Next I will lump together the amazing shops I visited while in Hawaii. First was Yarn and Needlecraft/Strictly Christmas which wins the award for the most unusual name.  Then came Aloha Yarn where I answered my burning question, "Do LYS carry wool yarn in Hawaii?"

I really wanted to sit on this couch and knit all afternoon but Dick, Evie and Butch were waiting in the car.  I loved the shop and the owner and "YES, LYS in Hawaii do carry wool yarn."  I bought some to prove it and have been waiting 3 years to find the perfect pattern.

8.  Then there are those amazing LYS I frequent when we visit Traverse City.  My favorite WAS Yarn Quest.  It closed about a year and a half ago when someone drove through the shop in July or August.  The damages were  so extensive that restoration would make it impossible for them to open for their winter season.  I was very sad when that happened.  Then I discovered The Yarn Shop in Glen Arbor.  Tiny little Glen Arbor has just been voted one of the best places to vacation.  Some people would think it is because of Sleeping Bear Dunes but I know it is because of The Yarn Shop where I first discovered Madelinetosh's Electric Rainbow yarn.  FANTASTIC!    

I discovered The Yarn Shop right before Dick's heart surgery so it holds a special place in my memories.  

9.  I must shout out to Knit 'N Purl in Myrtle Beach, SC.  Next to Twisted Fiber Art, I am sure I write about this more than any shop.  I love everything about this shop including Molly.  I love the way all of the mannequins are dressed, not just shawls and scarfs but with matching coats.  I love the way the shop is organized and I LOVE the big knitting table.  During our next trip to the coast condo, I will spend much more time at Knit 'N Purl since I wasn't able to in January.  

Knit "N Purl reinforces my addiction to knitted samples.  I came home with yarn for three in January and I was only in the shop twice.   

10.  For the past few years, I have been spending much of my time volunteering at Ann's By Design that delightful, little shop where everyone is family.  I have met many new people (quilters, knitters and crocheters) and greatly appreciate the tranquility that is Ann's.

11.  About 30 minutes from Adrian is Yarn Envy an eclectic shop that lives in the corner of a garden shop.  They have wonderful yarns AND a big knitting table.

They also have this sign hanging up which explains why my yarn stash is so huge.  I don't ever want to have to say this about any yarn.  So, I do buy it when I see it.

12.  My new favorite LYS is Spun in Ann Arbor.  They have an amazing selection of yarn, many from Michigan companies.  The carry Why Not Knit, Fiberstory, Madelinetosh, Malabrigo and much, much more.  I love a visit to Spun.  

​In addition to these LYS, there are many which have closed that greatly contributed to the growth of my yarn stash.  I am going name a few:  Knit-A-Round in Ann Arbor, Knitting On The Fringe in Commerce Township, Yarn Quest in Traverse City, The Village Yarn Shop in Toledo, Fiber Works Knitting and Weaving in Toledo, Yarn Quest in Asheville, NC, The Knitting Room in Birmingham, MI, Lizzie Anne's in Holland and many more.

LYS (both current and closed), online shops and festival Vendors have been co-conspirators in the growth of my yarn stash.  I will write about online shops and festivals in the next posts.  I love fiber, I love buying fiber and I love meeting the wonderful owners of LYS.  I would love to have my readers point me in the direction of new LYS I can visit.