Lots of ‘New and Exciting’

Yesterday I went somewhere new…

and it was exciting!

I took pictures. I couldn’t decide if I felt more like a stealthy ninja-blogger, or a ridiculous yarn-store tourist (it was my first time at a yarn store!). I didn’t ask the other customers what they thought. They had lots of yarns I’d never heard of before, along with many ‘famous’ brands. There was, for instance, a wall in the back full of Manos del Uruguay:

Dang, that’s a lot of big, pretty yarn. Also fun things like Baby Alpaca Grande, Noro, some really lovely Patagonia Nature Cotton, lots of sock yarns, lots of other yarns; silk and alpaca and mohair, oh my! I think. It was a little much to take in all at once. I didn’t even duck into the room with the books, which is ridiculous, since (as you may recall) I have a full-blown case of PAS (pattern-acquisition syndrome) that is only rendered sillier by the fact that I almost never use someone else’s pattern. You know. The whole thing. I just looked: the last time I used a pattern was for Greg’s Christmas gloves. Almost six months ago. Only because I had never done gloves before. Sigh. I should probably invest in some good stitch dictionaries instead.

Anyway! I saw a sample in the ‘specialty’ yarn area that reminded me of something the Yarn Harlot did last week:

Actually, it’s the same thing. Same yarn, everything. Look over on the left side of the picture – that red/orange/yellow ball even looks like the same color. At the time, I mentioned it to Melanie (the owner), and used words like “yarn harlot” and “blog” in public conversation and she knew what I was talking about (or, at the very least, pretended to quite gracefully. She said she’s not much of a blog reader. Hello, she owns a yarn store. Would you be on the computer?). It was surreal.

Speaking of Melanie, I asked her if I could get a picture of her for the blog. After a brief pause (I think she was trying to decide whether I was a crazy person) she agreed.

See? She’s very nice, and helpful, and seems to know a lot about the yarns and notions in the shop. (She endorses the Knitpicks Options needles, although of course she can’t sell them – she has good taste, too! I’m in love with my Knitpicks dpns…I’m going to get the Options. Eventually.) On the left there is Sheila the Dressform, Melanie of course is in the middle, and on the right is a selection of yarns dyed by the Yarnivore staff. See that skein just left of the yellow one? 100% Silk, and the color is lovely. A leetle bit out of my preferred price range, though.

I snapped the shot of the storefront while we were leaving, and as I was editing the photo today I noticed something interesting reflected in the window:

See? It’s us! There I am, taking pictures in full-blown blogging dork mode, while Greg looks in the bag and says to himself, “She spent 20 bucks on what?”

Now on to the yarn, of course:

It’s pretty.

I got two balls of Cashcotton DK in Sage, which I think, with care, will produce a shrug. I can do that with 284 yards, right?