Canadian Yarn Tour [for Stash Enhancement]

Hello from Up North! We have been traveling across Canada all week and checking up on some yarn stores in our travels. But first, I should fill you in on the rest of the New England and upstate NY stores we stopped into before crossing the border.

First up, the Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, Vermont where we not only browsed the store but were treated to a little impromptu tour of the spinnery from the owner. GMS processes and spins their own yarn and also does custom processing for wool growers. One thing we didn't know before was that they don't do their own dying. It is sent off site. I really liked the organic wool/cotton, which is greenspun (no harsh chemicals in the processing) and I picked up a couple of skeins for a baby sweater.

Next was Saratoga Springs, NY where we stopped into Saratoga Springs Needle Arts. I felt odd vibes in the store, maybe it had something to do with having been directed to the sale bin as soon as I entered the store (hey, I know I look a little scrubby, we're camping here...but no need to jump to conclusions!). But big knitter said he didn't feel the vibe, so maybe I was just having an off day. The two salespeople didn't seem to like each other is all. They did have a large selection of yarn and of wool.


Later that day, we caught a little place called Indigo Yarns in New Hartford, NY (no web link)that really had that "hole in the wall" feel to it. The owner was so friendly and so genuine that we thoroughly enjoyed the visit. Big knitter picked up some lovely green Debbie bliss cashmerino aran for a blanket for our "green loving" granddaughter. I picked up a tiny skein of Debbie Bliss pure silk in pink, I'm thinking baby bootees for that. And then some funky orange and green Stork from Dalegarn for socklets or socks without cuffs or whatever those are called. I will call them cuff-less socks. Then, after a full day at Niagara Falls, which I highly recommend that you see at least once in your life (I have some photos and stuff on my bear store blog about that stop), we headed into Canada. And that's where our Canadian Yarn Tour for Stash Enhancement, aka CYTSE, began.


We by-passed Toronto, which I'm told has some amazing yarn stores. But it also has millions of people who all love to drive their cars around the city, so we took the widest swath around that traffic that we could. By the way, just west and north of Toronto are about a billion wineries, so if you are into wine, it would be a great place to visit.

Being the weekend, we had to wait until Monday for our very first yarn stop in Thunder Bay, on beautiful and BIG Lake Superior. As it turned out, there were two yarn shops in the same block in downtown Thunder Bay. And the street is torn up around there, so you have to hoof it in there, which isn't too good for business. But the first store we stopped at was called Caryll's Yarn Shop. (no web link that I know of) She carries a wonderful supply of Mission Falls 1824 wool and Big Knitter picked up his next TWO new projects, a blankie for our new grandson in navy and light blue and a new blanket for our oldest grandson (Big Knitter will add some red to that one.) Here's the progress so far on the little blankie:

I picked up a skein of wool for felting along with a free felted baby bootee pattern:

I also picked up a Mission Falls pattern book which has a lovely cabled baby sweater in it. But I just couldn't bring myself to buy the yarn for another baby sweater, since I'm smack dab in the middle of my Puddle Jumpers Sweater. I have slaved over this one. (Well, not really, but it's challenging!) I finally got the gauge swatch done. I did a topic search on the knitlist to figure out how to swatch in pattern. What I did was: I knit the 26 stitches of the pattern for about 4 inches, then, since I couldn't steam it or wash/dry it here on the road, I just sorta let it hang off the needles for a day and then I measured it. It seemed to be about 4" on a size 6 needle, so I called it good and cast on the 12 month size sweater on size 6 needles. Here's what I've got so far: (the color is off in my photos tonight...this is a bright green)Oh, also, since I usually knit socks on circs, I thought how hard could it be to convert this pattern onto one big circ? Am I not a glutton for punishment? Noooooo. Crazy? Maybe.

I decreased my number of stitches by 4 on the body and 2 on the sleeves to make up for not having seams. An added bonus is that I don't have to purl as much since I will always be knitting on the right side! One down side is it's hard to do the sleeve increases in a k2,p2 sleeve (more about that at another time, after all, there's only so many hours in a day).

I have about 3 inches done, the sleeves will be 7" and I will stop knitting in the round on the body at 7", at which point I will have to knit the front and back seperately (unless I want to do steeks, which I don't think will work on cotton...and I don't want to experiment on this particular item!)

I'm not sure how I will sew the sleeves in yet and what I'm going to do with that inevitable hole under the arm, but I will have to cross that bridge when I get to it.

But, getting back to the tour. Our second shop in Thunder Bay was a serendipitous find, in that we were leaving Caryll's and spotted an organic food store that offered hot organic coffee and we stopped in for some. There was a great open sitting area in the back of the store and I mentioned to the owner that it would be a fabulous place for a knitting group to meet. We said she should talk to Caryll about sharing some business. Then, she asked if we knew that there was yet another yarn store in town that specialized in natural fibers and that the owner was a weaver? No, we didn't know that. Well, it turned out to be just around the other corner. And, as you can guess, we trucked right over there.

I picked up a couple skeins of Regia silk and a lovely hank of Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino Dream in the "Sugar Maple" colorway. (again bad color; trying to photograph without flash)
And Big Knitter ordered a blanket sized supply of a beautiful colorway of Fleece Artist worsted weight hand dyed merino. And I didn't get a picture of it. But the owner will be mailing it to us when she gets it in. And I might have to claim that blanket.

I can't for the life of me remember the name of that wonderful store, but the owner is a super talented weaver and has some of her large weavings adorning the walls of the shop. I will remember the name, I promise, and include a link in my next post.

And that's about it for now. Stay tuned for the next installment!

Until then, here's a question: if YOU saw this on the side of the road, would you not screech on the brakes and make a hard left turn into this place? I thought so.More CYTSE coming soon!