Well, Risa and I hit not one, not two, but three yarn shops, all within two blocks of each other today, in Montclair New Jersey.

First, we went to Modern Yarn on Church Street. I’ve been there once before, and went back now to take advantage of a 15% Knitting Olympics discount, granted because I successfully finished my Olympic sweater (which I wore today).

Risa bought some Cascade 220 for a cardigan, as well as a skein (two?) of sock yarn–which I’m sure she’ll show on her blog.

 I was sorely tempted by some deep purple Blue Sky Alpaca/Silk, but instead, bought 8 skeins of Cascade 220 in color “9459 Yakima Heather,” which is really hard to photograph well. It’s a greenish, mossy brown, not quite so green as in the left-most picture, greener than the middle picture, and darker than the right-most picture . . . the plan is for it to become some sort of cabled sweater, though I have no idea what, exactly. Yet! But I can see already that, whatever it is, it’s going to be hard, hard, hard to show you WIP pictures.

Then, we sent to Stix-n-Stitches, which is about a 2 minute walk–to the end of Church Street, across Bloomfield Avenue, and boom, you’re there. Nice. Roomy. Comfy chairs. People sitting around knitting. Friendly. Nice yarns–Noro, Cascade, Cherry Tree Hill, Elsebeth Lavold, Artyarns…. Risa bought some lace yarn, but I restrained myself. (It’s easier to resist new yarn when you’re already carrying a bag of yarn with you.)

We had lunch at Cafe Eclectic–a wrap-sandwich of chicken, basil, tomato, and fresh mozzarella, plus dessert with coffee, of course–all of which was delicious. (Better, honestly, than I expected it would be, having eaten sandwiches at coffee places before.) Of course, the comfy room with the couches was the smoking section, so we sat in the non-smoking area at a table by the window. (A table for 5, but hey, it’s not like they were crowded yet, or anything.)

After lunch, we stopped at Ely’s Knit-and-Rest, also on Church Street, and frankly, I wasn’t impressed. It was even more crowded than I thought it would be when I walked by in October. All the yarn was still in its plastic bags, which may not have been a bad idea since I’m not sure how clean it was in there, and one woman was friendly, but . . . um, no. The other shops were more my cup of tea.

I also bought some buttons for my Not So Shrunken cardigan at Stix-n-Stitches. (Isn’t it handy that I brought the sweater along in case there was knitting time, so that I was able to see how they looked?) They’re small little buttons, and I think should be just about right.

I got home around 3:15–plenty of time to get Chappy out for a walk, which we both enjoyed.

All in all, a nice day. Lots of nice yarn to look at. Friendly yarn-people to talk to. And, of course, good company. Risa and I always have fun together.

But now, I really, really need to rein in my yarn purchases for a while. I’ve got plenty to last me for at LEAST a month or two… (grin)

• Tags: Friends, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Yarn Crawl //