My knit-tastic day

HILL COUNTRY YARN SPOILER: there will be pictures of my September HCY sock club shipment at the end of this post.

Yesterday was one of those almost perfect days that I rarely see! I had to go to Richmond for a bridal shower (which is about 90 minutes or so away). I figured since I'm up there I'll got to an old friend of the family's new gelato shop but he wouldn't be around until after 4. So, I mapped out a few yarn stores and hit the road! I left for the shower but got there about 20 minutes early so I sat in the car and knit (this will be important later). I went to the shower at the Jefferson Hotel (where the stairway scene of Gone with the Wind was filmed.) It was a great time but only lasted from 10-12. I thought it would go until 2 and I would only have 2 hours to kill, instead I had 4. The best thing that happened in the whole shower was the soon to be mother-in-law of my friend told me I have first dibs on her future alpaca fleece! She has yet to get any alpaca but is planning on getting 2 for her ever expanding farm.

So, the party ends and with my directions in hand I head out to the first yarn store. It was only a few blocks away in the Carytown section of Richmond. The Yarn Lounge. And what a lounge it was!!! First off, let me set the mood for you. I'm driving around and find Carytown, a cute artsy, alternative, part of town. I always FREAK out about parking in cities cause I DO NOT parallel park. I didn't see any parking lots. I get to the block the store should be on and there is one free spot. There was no choice but to parallel park. Usually if my option is parallel park or skip the store, I skip the store! But, look at what I do for the love of yarn:
Yes, that is my boat of a car, parallel parked and not too badly, if I do say so myself!! That traumatic experience behind me, I trek on to the yarn lounge. I walk into the store and there is gorgeous yarn in lots of little cubbies lining the walls of the long narrow store. In the very back of the store are lots of little IKEA chairs and couches to hang out and knit on. And in the middle of the store is a large wooden table with about 8 chairs around it. 5 of which are filled with people knitting. And here's the conversation:
Me: oh, is this a class?
Them: No, we're just knitting
Me: Fun, I have my knitting in the car maybe I should join
Them: Sure, that would be great
Me: running out to car to get yarn!!
I sat with the ladies and worked on my Jaywalker sock for about 2 hours or so. Then did some shopping. In the 2 hours of knitting. I knit about 7 or 8 rows and realized that I had made a mistake in the 20 minutes I did while waiting for the shower to start. I had to frog back past the mistake row and then realized I needed to go back one more row so I had to tink that row. It took forever!! But by the time I started shopping I had at least gotten back to the place I was before I frogged. Speaking of my Jaywalkers:
Isn't it cute! The yarn is Apple Laine, Apple Pie from the Loopy Ewe. The color is English Garden. I got it when I ordered the yarn for my HSKS 3 partner (it shouldn't be giving anything away since the loopy ewe sells about everything!

What about my stash enhancement from the yarn lounge. . . well, I really tried to be good and I think I did a pretty good job. I no longer buy yarn cause it feels good. I buy it with a particular project in mind. I recently got the One Skein book and really wanted to make the baby bolero (although I have no babies to give it to. . . it will sit around the house as an emergency baby present). I got yarn for that, Blue Sky Dyed Cotton in a very light green.
And then I got some sock yarn, Fleece Artist basic merino sock.
I can always find something to do with sock yarn and I always know just how much to buy to make a pair of socks.

That was it for that yarn store and I was off to the next. Unraveled. Now, the Yarn Lounge was a very hard act to follow. I mean really, it was the perfect knitting store experience. Unraveled was in the same shopping plaza as my friend's gelato shop, which was rather convenient. It's in a suburban outskirts of Richmond. I walked in and it was very pleasing to the eye because the yarn was arranged by color. . . all oranges together, all purples together, etc. But it was not so easy to shop in. I was trying to find some vegan yarns for my secret pal and I had a hard time digging through the wools of a certain color to find the vegan yarn and then having to take it across the store to compare it with another color of the same yarn. I did wind up getting two skeins of vegan yarn for my pal. But I didn't get anything for myself. Oh, and the sock yarn was just sad. They had 4 or so types, each in only one color.

I finish up there and meet up with my friend at DeLuca Gelato. If you are ever in Richmond, Virginia I HIGHLY recommend it. I had cannoli flavored gelato with bits of cannoli shell and little mini chocolate chips. It was fantastic!! I hope that they do very well.

I hung out at the gelato shop for about an hour and then started the drive home. When I was about 20 minutes away from home I get a call from my sweetie to see if I want to go out to dinner with some people from the bridal shower. Of course I did since our good friend Pamela was in town from Hotlanta for the night and I only get to see her every few months. I walk in the door and say hi to the pups then turn around and leave for dinner with my sweetie. I grabbed the mail out of the mailbox on the way out and there was a package for me. My September Hill Country Yarns sock club shipment. Good thing this post is so long so I can post a picture but give fair warning to anyone who hasn't gotten their shipment yet. So, are you ready for the last of my yarny goodness for this post? Here goes, Hill Country Yarns color periwinkle:
It's gorgeous. I was just discussing with someone how much I want more semisolid sock yarn. And the pattern looks just precious. I can't wait to start it. I've got too many socks on the needles now though. I really have to finish some of my big projects so I'm not so stressed about my knitting.

That's the end of my knit-tastic day (actually my night went until about 2am when I had to DRAG my sweetie away from our friends cause I was the DD and I just couldn't stay awake any longer.