We’re in the homestretch. Four more shops. Here we go! Here it is, Northwest Wools, a darling, tiny store just chocked full of amazing yarn and knitted samples. There wasn’t an empty space. As I walked around the store, I felt like a child at the end of a birthday party. I wanted more yarn (cake) but even I knew that wasn’t a good idea. Just like the birthday party child was stuffed with cake and ice cream and candy, I was stuffed with yarn. It’s not that there wasn’t beautiful fibers, it was just that I was over loaded. NorthWest Wool has yummy yarn that look like they belong in a shop named NorthWest Wool. Warm wools, tantalizing tweeds, winter worsted. Everything looked like a shop getting ready for a long winter’s nap. In all fairness, Linda and I need to go back here next time and put it first on our list. We left Northwest Wools and went on to Close Knit. Isn’t that a great name for a yarn shop. I always thought if I had my own shop it would be called In Stitches. Linda even bought a bag for me many years ago monogrammed with In Stitches. I couldn’t get my enthusiasm up to buy anything at Close Knit either. It was with a heavy heart and a light wallet that we decided it was time to go home. We didn’t visit Fiber Rhythm or Starlight. We’re saving them for next time. These are the shops we did and didn’t go to. It was a great two days but I definitely had fiber exhaustion. You may be wondering about the buttons you get when you visit a LYS on the Rose City Yarn Crawl. Linda gave me all of the buttons, even the ones we didn’t visit so I could have a complete set. Is she a great friend or what?!?! We settled in for dinner with Linda’s son Joe who I adore. Dick was Joe’s golf coach in high school. When Joe married Jenny (Joe is an avid Detroit Lions fan and Jenny an avid Green Bay Packers fan) we gave them tickets to the Lions/Packers game on Thanksgiving Day. Joe said it was the best wedding gift ever. Linda and I ended our day with some knitting just like we end all days. Wait until you see what I accomplished! Remember this before I left? The fabulous Issey scarf my favorite travel knitting. After waiting in the airport, knitting on the flight to Portland and knitting with Linda, it became this. Pretty impressive even if I do say so myself. Issey will be my travel knitting when we go to the Coastal Condo in September. I’ll tell you all about it then. Saturday, my last day with Linda and Denny, we went to Mt Hood. There it is in the distance. This marvelous day of memories, gave me many peeks at, well, peaks! I saw Mt Jefferson, The Three Sisters and far in the distance the very tippy top of the big guy, Mt Rainier. We went to the lodge where one of the scariest movies of all time, The Shining, was filmed. As I looked at the doors to the rooms all I could think of was, “Here’s Johnny!”, the famous Jack Nicholson line. You may think my yarn shopping was over but you would be wrong. Our last stop on our unforgettable fiber crawl was Knot Another Hat in Hood River. Tremendous little town and fabulous fiber store. I loved this quaint little shop just overflowing with personal attention and amazing yarn. Realizing this would be nostalgically my last hurrah at a yarn shop in the Pacific Northwest, I felt it was my duty to make a purchase. I didn’t buy this but loved it. It is one of the Wonderland Yarns gradient sets. I took a picture so I would remember it for future purchase. I did buy a little something. Once again horrible photograph, sorry about that, but the yarn is amazing. It is Pam Wilkins’ Fine Hand Spun Yarn in merino and bamboo in colorway Sunrise. I could not resist this because this is a local company and I never will have the chance to purchase Pam Wilkins until I go back to Linda’s again. It is a huge skein of 760 yards. This is also a local fiber company Havirland Pax Sock in The Final Girls. I loved the colors. Linda thought it looked like Halloween. I just couldn’t resist. We explored Hood River a little more and then went home for my last night in the gorge. It was an over the top trip with fun and surprises at every turn. Here I am back at PDX, taking the parting picture of my feet on the famous carpet. It was a fabulous trip. If you ever get to Portland in March, I courage you, no I dare you, to take the Rose City Yarn Crawl. It won’t be as much fun as my private crawl because you won’t be with Linda but it will be an amazing experience. Kathy fell in love with the Forest Grove kit and bought one online from The Knotty Lamb. You could do that, too. Writing this has reminded me of how much I brought home. I left my clothes and had a suitcase packed full of yarn. Going through TSA, I was pulled out of line to have my suitcase opened (and searched). When the young man got it open he said, “So that’s what it is.” I guess my abundance of yarn confused the x-ray machine. Well, the yarn and Jan got home safely. Can’t wait for the next Linda and Jan Yarn Crawl.
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jan parsonThis blog is dedicated to Mary Helen Growt my first knitting teacher and the woman who changed my life. The mission of Knitting: A Love Story is to preserve, share and promote the love of knitting. Archives
April 2021
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