What I Learned From The Popup Store

What a wild and wonderful week! Ann’s By Design had a PopUp Store last week with the indie dyer Adelaide Fiber Company. When I went in Monday morning to do Live with Ann, Jan and Melissa, Janice was setting up. WOWIE! ZOWIE! I didn’t realize how much I missed visiting LYS and discovering new fiber. I haven’t been in a LYS except for Ann’s By Design since the end of January. Don’t get me wrong, I love buying yarn at my favorite online LYS but there is just something about picking the skeins up that I love. Janice, the owner, does a magnificent job of dying. Her colors are vibrant and beautiful and her yarn is soft and yummy. Monday I did take a few things home. (Well, not really take, I did pay.)

In the midst of writing What I Learned From ThePopUp Store, the screen on my iPad became unresponsive. After deleting and reloading Weebly several times, I finally decided it was time for a new iPad. Here it is! I named it C3 for Coastal Condo Chick. And here we go!

Last Monday when I went to Ann’s By Design for Live With Ann, Jan and Melissa, something amazing and wonderful was happening.

There was a woman setting up a display using some of the yummiest yarn I’ve ever seen. Not only did I caress it with my eyes, for the first time since January, I could pet and snuggle a new yarn. No more virtual feeling. It was wonderful!

Look at this!

And this!

And this! This is the display where I spent the most time and money. It is the single-ply, fingering yarn. All of a sudden I’ve realized when I buy UD (undesignated) yarn, it is almost always fingering.

This is a wrap Janice had on display to showcase her amazing fiber. It is called The Great British Baking Shawl. Don’t you just love it!?!?!? I fell in love with the pattern and had to buy yarn to do it someday.

This is what I picked out first. I must say that I surprised myself and everyone else by having yellow as part of the mix. I thought it over and came back Thursday to replace the yellow (ick! 🤭) with something else. What was I thinking?!?!?

From left to right, these amazing colors are: You’re Not Yourself When You’re Hungry, She Walks In Beauty, Smoke On The Water and Winter Moss. Not only are the colors amazing, the names are hilarious. You know how much I love yarn names. My two favorite names still are Zombie Prom and Dirty Hippy.

Linda’s birthday was October 14, so I bought yarn to send to Linda. This is Cosmic Brownie. It is the first color my eyes found and my favorite of all Adelaide’s colorways.

This is Muppets Strike Back. It also cried out, “Linda would love me!” I sent the skeins and a scarf made out of Michigan fall colors. You see, Linda is really missing fall colors this year. The package got to her to open during Social Knitting From Afar on Thursday October 8. We had an early impromptu birthday celebration. Now, let’s see what I purchased through the week

This is Friday Night Lights. I don’t know about you but I still miss that heart warming Friday night TV show about high school football in Texas. I really should search Peacock, Netflix and Amazon Prime to see if I can find it.

This is Teenage Dreams.

I brought these for Festival of Stitches. Colors from left to right are Suicide Blonde, Don’t Forget The Flowers and Edward Cullen. One might think this was enough but Saturday I went back for these for me.

After giving Linda Cosmic Brownie and Muppets Strike Back, I realized I love them too much not to have them in the “Collection.”

So what did I learn from the PopUp Store? I learned colors are always more vibrant in person. I learned snuggling and petting yarn is vital to the total experience. I got in touch with the joy of putting colors together for a project. Miss Babs is the only website I’ve found that lets you put colors together to see how they work with each other. I learned how much I miss talking to indie dyers. They are always so humble and proud of their work. I learned how much I miss exploring a new yarn collection, letting my eyes slide over skeins and colors until they suddenly stop at something I can’t live without. I rekindled the feeling of excitement and joy that only an in-person experience provides. I realized how much joy COVID-19 has robbed from me and will be so grateful when a vaccine is available.

Now that I have a reliable, responsive iPad, I will be with you more often. Keep knitting and stay safe.