Friday, July 11, 2008

Put the Yarn in the Basket....

....and no one gets hurt!

Today I had to travel to the coast for a meeting, and of course this meant a little time before and after to indulge in yarn and tea. I've been feeling a little sad lately, and melancholy and credit cards is a very dangerous combination! LOL

It was a beautiful, warm day today - full of sun. I wore a sleeveless embroidered sundress and I was still too hot. But early, early in the morning not many shops were open, so I started my day at a cafe called Popovers. I spent a lovely hour at a little table in the window with a crusty (soft inside) popover the size of my head and cup of Irish Breakfast tea from The Portsmouth Tea Company and my iphone tuned to Ravelry. There was a little tempest on a nice friendly group that had been visited by "the phantom disagreer" so I enjoyed giving the group a lot of "love" and "agree" to restore the balance of the universe!

My real reason for wandering these ocean-front brick lanes was to find a certain locally produced hand-painted yarn for my swap partner in Iceland! For years this coastal town has had a little tiny yarn shop tucked into a little tiny side street... but when I got there, the shop was empty! Luckily, there was a sign in the window with a map, that showed they had moved to the corner of High Street and Hanover, right across the street from the parking garage...

The Yarn Basket -

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Inside it was spacious, light, and friendly -

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And I did way too much damage to the budget! I found the perfect yarn for the swap box, and of course I had to get one for myself too!

The owner was a most wonderful and kind lady who sold me her copy of Yarn Forward magazine in which she has a beautiful sock pattern of her own design!! She is going to be carrying Yarn Forward from now on. And when I told her that I had done some sample knitting for knitonthenet's upcoming book Stitches in Time, she wrote it down and said that she would get some copies in when it's published in September.

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I spent such a happy hour here, and was actually sorry to leave to make the trip across the state and go back to work....

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But when I got home from work, there was a very intriguing box on my doorstep from a very dear friend in Germany. Nad is a kind and generous person. I have known her for years and we have shared a passion for both tea and knitting. We've both "grown up" in our professions over that decade, too!

BR, (before Ravelry) we were each other's swap partners. Now we swap with so many all over the world. But we still exchange special treats and celebrate special occasions and birthdays and such... She knows that, as a Pisces, I am a goldfish lover and so she sent me.....
This: (!)

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KOI!! and RED KOI!! And a Beautiful Mystery Colour!!! Tausendschon!! Isn't it the most beautiful yarn you've ever seen??? I can't wait to discover what I'll make with this. (she also sent me some gorgeous Noro cashmere and two huge skeins that I think are locally spun natural yarns - perfect for a fall sweater)

Do you covet these gorgeous German yarns from far across the sea? I'd bet that Nad could be bribed to trade with you for some Socks That Rock... hee hee (even though her current collection is as big as mine right now!!)

2 comments:

pia said...

Oh! That's my hometown yarn store! It's a great one.

Unraveling Sophia said...

Oh really! How exciting! Its new location is so lovely and spacious and its just across on the other side of the parking garage....