Crawling to the Airport

Rather than driving directly to the airport for my 6pm return flight home, my sister and I took a leisurely drive to the airport yesterday in order to participate in the Lakeside Yarn Crawl.

Unlike Portland’s 4-day Rose City Yarn Crawl, the Lakeside Yarn Crawl begins in mid-June and runs through Labour Day. That gives you two months to visit the twelve participating LYS (local yarn shops) that rim the Southern end of Georgian Bay in Ontario.

Our first stop was True North Yarn Co. in Barrie.This was the only shop of the 12 in the yarn crawl my sister had been to before. The first shop on a yarn crawl is always tricky. You don’t want to get carried away and spend too much, but you don’t want to walk out without supporting a local yarn shop. I bought a colorful self-striping yarn.

Our next stop was also in Barrie. Eliza’s Buttons and Yarn is a treasure, tucked away in a strip mall just off the 400. That’s a major highway for those of you not from Ontario. Deb, who was manning the store that day, was a gregarious knitter.She and her sister, Lyn, design patterns under the name Cabin Fever.  I was anxious to get to this shop because I knew from the passport that they stocked the signature yarn of the crawl and I wanted to ask about it. Deb told us about Dragon Strings,  the local dyer who produced the yarn, a cashmere blend called Lakeside, dyed to match the colors of Georgian Bay.

I didn’t purchase a skein here, but chose another skein by the dyer in Fall colors. Me & my earth tones! My sister did get one, however, and we left feeling as though we had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

After a bite to eat at Panera, we went off the 400 and onto what William Least Heat Moon calls a blue highway. our destination was Alliston, and two more shops.

The first, Alliston Yarns, is what we like to call a grandma shop. It caters to an older, more traditional knitter. This is not the place to look for hand-dyed Blue-faced Leicester, but you can find a great gran for knitting aster or baby blanket. I got a skein of gradient sock yarn here.

A little further down highway 89 was our last stop, The Knitting Basket, in Rosemont, a tiny town about 10 miles west of Alliston. Angie, the owner of this shop, was my favorite shop person of the day. She runs her small business out of her house in this rural area. My sister and I fantasized about how we could do this when we retire. For a small shop in rural Ontario, she has excellent yarn. She has a lovely mix of everyday yarns and a range of independent dyers. I finally got my skein of Lakeside here! My sister and I each got a gift bag, too. We had a lovely chat with Angie about how her business operates. If you are in the area, you should definitely stop in to see her.

So, here’s my stash.

My sister’s GPS indicated we could get to the airport on more blue highways, so, rather than return to the 400, we meandered through the Central Ontarian landscape and small towns towards Toronto, stopping for a Tim Horton’s in Bolton.

I got to the airport in a timely manner and had a bit of Canadian money left, so, I did what any self-respecting ex-pat should so: I bought the candy I can’t get in the USA!

Here’s my other stash.

March comes in like a lion: A Slice of Life Story

And so it is March. Finally. February might be the shortest month, but if feels the longest. But, thankfully, March is here, and so is the Slice of Life Story Challenge.  And March has come in roaring. This is also the NCTE Regional conference weekend ( more on this tomorrow) and  Rose City Yarn Crawl weekend.

What is that you might ask? An annual Portland experience, the Rose City Yarn Crawl is a four-day event for fiber enthusiasts (knitters, crocheters, spinners, and felters) to explore the many shops in and around Portland. Basically yarn crazed people driving all over the metro Portland area. We recognize each other. Sometimes you see the same people for a couple of shops in a row. Sometimes you see a trainer but recognize him/her by the Rose City Yarn Crawl tote bag and passport she is carrying.

At each shop, you get a stamp on your passport. Last year was extra fun because each of the 19 shops handed out a button to pin on the bag.

The yarn crawl runs from Thursday February 27-Sunday March 2. I visited 3 shops after work yesterday & 2 today. As I entered the third shop last night, two women I’d seen at the previous two shops, entered behind me. They proudly walked up to the counter to get their FINAL stamp on their passports. Yup, they did it all in one day. In previous years, I might have been disheartened by this. But I’m an experienced yarn crawler. I’m in it to have a ball.