Wool Hop

You know what a shop hop is, right? It’s when several stores join together to encourage customers to spend a day or more visiting each shop – and spending money too. Well, last Friday I did my own personal yarn shop hop. I invited my friend, Chris C. to join me.

(When Chris tried to explain to her daughter-in-law how we were going to spend the day, Chris said we were going on a “wool hop”. I think that’s charming.)

Chris and I started out at The Yarn Market, in Beulah. Then we drove to Traverse City, hitting Yarn Quest first, and Lost Art Yarn Shoppe second. After that, we drove up to Suttons Bay and met Sylvia VM for lunch at Martha’s Leelanau Table. What a fabulous café; the rhubarb ice cream we had for dessert was unforgettable. (Just imagine Nat King Cole singing about ice cream.) We finished up the hopping by going next door to Thistledown Shoppe.

I bought yarn. Really, I was on a mission. I had a reason for shop hopping. This year, I am teaching my workshop, Spinning With Commercial Yarns, four times:  at Mid Atlantic Fiber Association Conference in June, for the Sunrise Spinning Guild in July, at the Michigan Fiber Festival in August, and at Spin Off Autumn Retreat in October. Usually, I just dig into my current yarn stash for supplies for this workshop, but since I’m teaching it four times -- and twice it’ll be a 3-day workshop -- I really needed to get more yarn for supplies.

I had three specific kinds of yarn in mind that I wanted to get. First, I needed a heavy-worsted to bulky, plied, 100% wool yarn in at least 2 colors. Second, I was looking for some smooth cotton or cotton-blend yarns (something non-elastic). Third, I was in need of some “novelty” textured yarns. I am happy to report that I found exactly what I was looking for, and mostly in the sales bins. Here are some of my finds:

Naturally, I did not stop there. I did buy some yarn for myself: some very interesting super skinny 100% hemp yarn (I’m thinking of knitting a summer top), and 3 different sock yarns. See?

I’d like to point out, for Chris’s sake, that not all the yarns I purchased were strictly wool. Hemp, cotton, silk, rayon, polyamide were also in the mix. I love yarn. I love yarn. I love yarn.