Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Subterfuge

Dave and I have an unspoken truce about my yarn consumption. Sort of a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of thing. If he doesn't see it, it doesn't exist. And he doesn't read my blog. It's a knitting blog (theoretically) and he isn't interested in my knitting, so...

So yesterday when I took part in the infamous South Denver Yarn Crawl of '07, I knew he'd be home before me so I gave my purchases to My Blogless Rachel H. to hold for me overnight. All of them. What was I THINKing?


I'm completely feening for my new stuff. I want to cast it ALL on immediately! I scored some small discounts for us and I got some Jitterbug and some SWTC Bamboo. Some Cotton Fleece and one large and two small skeins of hand-dyed sock yarn. Oh and some Cadenza. And some tweedy teal colored yarn. (I'd been squirreling money away here and there so I could get a much needed haircut and color. My last one was in January. My next one won't be anytime soon!)


The last two were purchased at String. The owner had a baby boy, so anything blue (or with a speck of blue in it) is half off!! The sale goes through this Saturday. And they have an enormous table of yarn in the back room that is also all half off. I was walking around with my arms full of the tweedy teal yarn, feeling (and looking, I'm sure) rather shell-shocked.


And the company I kept yesterday! Too much fun! I picked up La in the hoopty van.
That's my almost-80-year-old FIL (and D2) with his new van. Notice the license plate?
My inlaws wanted to take the 4 year old to the museum to see some animals and there's no place in their van for a car seat. So they took the minivan and I had the hoopty. I told La that I brought our Yarn Transport and that we were to fill the back of it, full. The other knitters immediately took to calling it the pumpkin. As we drove from shop to shop, they kept saying, "We'll just follow the pumpkin." And I had to keep reminding them that I'm new here and don't know where anything is!

We met up with Imbrium, Nake-id Knits, and Yarn Thing at Knitty Cat. Nobody found anything they wanted there. It's a sweet yet small shop that was somewhat lacking in the organization of yarn department. Plus it was our first stop and there was some talk about pacing ourselves.

We caravaned to A Knitted Peace. Wow. What a beautiful, well-organized, helpful place! They offered coffee and showed us around. La discovered that they had a good selection of the Barbara Walker Treasury books and all three of the First Treasury were snapped up immediately. (One may've fell into my basket, I don't know.) Purchases were tossed into baskets and restraint was summarily kicked out the door.

A Knitted Peace has this yarn. The proprietor said she believed they were the only shop to carry it in the US. But she wasn't sure.

We went to a much needed lunch after this. We were eating at Chammps and My Blogless Rachel H. was to meet us there. She called before we left A Knitted Peace and said, "I think I'm at the wrong place." Marly gave her directions to the eatery and we met up there.

We were a rowdy bunch! We were laughing our asses off. Risque subjects were not only broached but thoroughly explored. Not much talk of knitting there!

Feeling replenished (and maybe a bit tipsy), we saddled up and moved on to the next store. It was Colorful Yarns. A small but lovely shop! The owner does a special thing if you're doing something special too (say, a loud, overly gleeful yarn crawl). Call and let her know in advance and not only does she provide a small, useful discount, she makes treats! She had homemade brownies and delicious ginger cookies (also made by the owner) and some sodas to refresh throats grown raw with laughter and dry with dropped jaws agog at the sensory overload that comes with visiting multiple yarn shops.

At Colorful Yarns we were joined by the incomparable Miss Wanda. She and Nake-id Knits were the models of restraint. A testament to forbearance. A fine example to us all of self-discipline. An example that was resoundingly... ignored. By us all. Except to note that they weren't making many purchases and what was wrong with them anyway?? (Just kiddin')
We ended our crawl at String. I already mentioned my String follies at the beginning of this post. There's also a very beautiful bead store two doors down. Hugs were given (they weren't strangers to me, so I was OK). Unsuspecting bead boys
were commandeered to take pictures.
And we all went home. At least we tried to. The hoopty needed a jump and Imbrium was kind enough to give us one. Rachel lives around the corner for me so she led the way home (and halfway there, when she got behind us to go throught the toll booth, let me know I had no taillights! That's what all the smoke was about after our battery jump!) She stayed behind us the rest of the way, giving directions by phone. We got La and ourselves home safe and sound and last night I dreamed of Koigu.
Missing my new stuff, Ruth!

15 comments:

Olga said...

You are a lucky lucky Dawg!!!
I think the coolest part is the hoopty van! How cool is that van?
Never let it be said Ruth doesn't know how to show a knitter a good time!

Yarnhog said...

Oh, wow, that sounds like so much fun! All my knitting friends are imaginary, so I've never done a yarn crawl. As for the hair...well, hair styling is temporary, yarn is forever (which explains the grey-rooted mess piled on top of my head).

knitnzu said...

Whoa mama! That sounds like a hootin good time!! And that hoopty van owned by your 80 yr old FIL??? Wow! Did you ever ask what kindof hoopty he'd got himself up to in that thing? Or would that just be tmi?

sophanne said...

I've taken to cutting the dead ends off of my hair myself- It seems to work-

The yarn crawl sounds like it was grand fun. I too like something being called hoopty.

Unknown said...

Looks like you guys had a great time! I love that hoopty!

I also sneak yarn into my house. I used to sneak in shoes but now it's definitely yarn.

Gingersnaps with Tea... said...

oooh Jitterbug AND Cadenza, lucky you. Don't ask don't tell is definitely the best policy when it comes to yarn. Sounds like you had a blast.

Chris said...

It sounds like SO much fun!

Diane said...

That sounds like a fun day for sure.

YarnThing said...

AWESOME...makes me want to do it again :-)

I had so much fun!

Marly

Sheepish Annie said...

Wow! How I yearn to go on a yarn crawl in a hoopty van...I never get to do anything cool. :( Sounds like a great time!!

Romi said...

I am *so* jealous! It looks like a great time. :)

WandaWoman said...

It was a fun day, thanks for inviting me!

Quail Hill Knits said...

Sounds like you had great fun. I've done one yarn crawl and had a blast with all the people i met. It is amazing houw many came up and just introduced themselves. Knitters are generally a great group of people.

Anonymous said...

You know, I've noticed that NO ONE involved with the yarn crawl mentioned La's purchases...I'm beginning to think she's making up for lost purchases after her KFYS...

Speaking of the KFYS yarn fairy...she quit, unfortunately. The last time I saw her she was flying around mattering something about "damn knitters" and some other things not really mentionable here, and off she went.

Anonymous said...

I had such a blast! And what a wonderful surprise when Rachel and Wanda joined us!

Thank you so much for co-arranging everything, for picking my ass up, and for such wonderful driving conversation! I only wish we could have filled up that Hoopty!

Looks like you made it home! I sure hope the electrical problem is fixable.

Oh, and pressure Rachel to start blogging!