Back in the U.S., Back in the U.S, Back in the....

We had a great time in Canada and just the most lovely scenery. And some wonderful yarn stores. But, there's nothing like the feeling of coming "home" to the United States of America! Despite all its flaws (which maybe we'll have a chance to do something about next election...but that's another story), we really do live in an amazing country. It is my hope all of us could feel the same feeling every day that we felt when Customs officials said "welcome back!"

Anyway, a couple of yarn store stops happened in Seattle while we were waiting to get on the big cruise ship with our family. (To see photos of our cruise, etc., visit my bear store blog here)


First up was a place called So Much Yarn, a little alcove right in the middle of the city. Some lovely yarn and fun books. As soon as we got there, one of the sales ladys offered Big Knitter a seat on the couch at the back of the store! Wow! I couldn't resist telling them that he was a much Bigger Knitter than myself. (what I wanted to say, was, geesh, you just lost a big sale, but I refrained)

I found this...

...which I've been looking for ever since I got that really amazing organic cotton yarn from the Green Mountain Spinnery...thousands of miles and more days ago than I can remember. So now I'm ready to make the adorable kimono sweater.

Later, I asked Big Knittter if he felt discriminated against as a guy knitter?! His response: "Who cares, I'm just glad they had a bathroom." So that was that.


Next up was Tricoter, a high class knittin' joint located just north of the city center. What a great store if you like the most wonderful yarn. And who doesn't?

There was an amazing staff person (a guy) whose name I can't remember, who was just finishing up a lovely lace shawl. And I got interested in the beauty of that piece. It was gorgeous. (And he was getting ready to teach that shawl in an upcoming class at the store). Anyway, long story short, I got a basic primer on lace knitting from him and I got this:
And someday, I will make a shawl.

And the Big Knitter wasn't discriminated against for being a guy. He saw an incredible blanket with these huge cables in it, like 20- stitch cables all the way across the thing. It was a large throw size. And we found the pattern in one of Tricoter's own books. The saleslady who was helping Big Knitter showed us the cashmere yarn that it was made from. Some little balls of cashmere, 50 gm., using three strands held together. And all you needed was 66 of them for the blanket! And that would have cost just a little under a thousand dollars for the yarn!! No joke!


Oh, I also found some Socks That Rock yarn here:


Colorways Titania (greens) and Ruby Slippers (reds)


And that's it for our cross-country-and-back trip. And now it's off to home, back to reality, gotta pay the bills for this trip for awhile before we do any more stash enhancement. Next up, I will give a little update on my cabled sweater project, which is Almost Done!