Another Yarn Store Outing

Yesterday, The Dublin Knit Collective and I ventured out to meet Doogarry in The Yarn Room. I loved this store the last time I visited and I had heard that they'd moved to new larger premises recently, so naturally I jumped at the chance to go. It's about an hours drive from my house, so not too far.

What a pretty shopfront! The sun came out to greet us as we arrived.

Aren't the crocheted window flowers fab?

Inside the store there's a lovely comfy area to sit, knit and soak in all the yarn fumes.

There are literally TONS of goodies in this shop. Here's just a sample of what was on display:

Everywhere I looked I kept finding more yummy yarn, notions and unusual things like this:

Wrapping paper, made from recycled sheep poo! I just had to buy some. They also do greeting cards from the same source:

I also bought some more stash. I know, I know, I need to seek some help for my addiction, but this stuff was so cheap I just couldn't leave it there.

Austermann Merino Lace. In black. I must be off my trolley. BUT, it's so soft and so reasonable! These two skeins contain 764 yards for less than €10. Sorry about the superfluous tea towel in the background, there. Blame my lack of photo proofing.

I also bought this:

Yum Icelandic laceweight in a gorgeous shade of gold/mustard. 546 yards of scrum for something like €7.95. Just fab.

Now to find something to make with it all!

I must say this is a really great store, packed to the rafters with great fibres for knitting, crochet, spinning & weaving. A birdie told me they will shortly be stocking fabric too. Classes are available in all of the above crafts too and they have a great knit night every Thursday evening.

I definitely won't be leaving it so long again until I go.

My knitty travels continue. Tomorrow hubby, Alice & I are heading down to Cork for a few days break. On Saturday, a lovely knitter, WrapNTurn (Twitter Link) is graciously hosting a FibreFeis™ for all manner of crafty people to come along and camp on her land if we want, and a BBQ on Saturday night. There'll be spinning, knitting, crochet, etc etc. Can't wait! Although I won't be camping, I will be there on Saturday morning with bells on. It's going to be GREAT!

Yarn Store Outing

A knitty friend of mine, BionicLaura works in a yarn store on the other side of Dublin, Winnie's Craft Café. To my shame, I hadn't yet made the trip to visit her or scope out the shop.
Well, I fixed that last Friday. I bundled Alice in the car and off I went.

I must say that it's a lovely shop. I was greeted with a really gorgeous window display of a knitted teddy bears picnic. So cute. I've no pictures, sadly, I was a bit remiss there.

Inside, the store has a great selection of yarns not available elsewhere along with the usual staples. There is also a huge selection of beads & jewellery making accessories. Needless to say the magpie in me made me buy some beads:


Miyuki Japanese Seed Beads 6/0 Round in Turquoise. Yum. I've no idea how many are in the tube, but I'm sure I'll find a use for them soon.

They also have lots of knitting notions, including these lovely stitch markers hand made by a woman in Uganda. I just had to get some:



I spied this lonely skein of laceweight in a basket on a table and snapped it up:



It's Garnstudio Drops Alpaca Lace. 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% Mulberry Silk. You can see the price, great value for 870 yards of laceweight. I think I might try to dye it.

You may remember I visited Cushendale Woollen Mills in Kilkenny last year, and absolutely loved the mills and their yarns. When I saw these skeins of DK I had to get them. I love the shade of charcoal:



There's also a really scrummy café in the back of the shop. While I was there two other lovely Dublin Knitters, (both Helens) arrived and we decided to have lunch together. I had the most delicious rocky road I've had in a long time. Alice also seemed to enjoy the millionaires shortbread!

Overall I must say it's a really lovely store with a great selection of yarns reasonably priced and the added bonus of the café in the back makes it a must visit. It's a shame it's a bit difficult to get to for me, but I'll definitely go back!

In knitting progress news, I've finished the yucca chart repeats on my Aeolian Shawl:



This took longer than I thought. The pattern states to repeat the yucca chart 12 times and you'll have 293 stitches. Not so. I think I ended up doing 15 or 16 repeats of the chart to get that stitch count. Still, I'm there now and ready to move on to the transition chart. This portion of the shawl used 22g of yarn, so I have 77g left. Hopefully it will be enough!

Good knitting!

Basic Stitch

Beware, this post contains lots of exclamation marks.

Yesterday, hubby was working in Celbridge, Co. Kildare. It's not that far from our home, maybe 13 miles. We actually lived here for 3 years when we first got married, but moved back to my old stomping ground almost 10 years ago.

When he told me where he was going, I immediately replied, "Oh, are you? I believe there's a yarn store there now..." Heh. So, being the obliging bloke that he is, he stopped in on his lunch break for me.

The store is called Basic Stitch. No website, unfortunately. tsk tsk.


He said it's a small store, with a nice table in the middle to sit & knit. The staff were very friendly, and it is stocked with mostly the same yarns you'll find in almost every Irish yarn store (Sirdar, Tivoli, King Cole, etc) BUT they do have Brown Sheep Lambs Pride worsted and Crystal Palace yarns. He phoned me when he was in there, to tell me what they had and when I heard Crystal Palace, I asked him what types. I can't remember the names of the others, but they were slub yarns which are not really a fave of mine. When he mentioned this, though, I got a bit excited:



Crystal Palace Kid Merino. I suppose you could say it's their version of Rowan KidSilk haze. They had a fair selection of colours, but when he mentioned one that looked like Key Lime Pie, I knew that was the one. Plus, it was on sale! €3 a ball! Whoop!

When he came home he produced this nice surprise purchase for me. (Aw)



Now I know, I know it's tantamount to toy knitting, but look! So cute! (Warning, this is where the exclamation mark frenzy begins).

The Invisible Man!! So cool. I love his umbrella, glasses and gladstone bag.



There's lots of Hallowe'en stuff, and we all know I loves me Hallowe'en.

Spooky trees! With dangly spoooky bats!!



Mummies!! Squee! I love mummies. Alice has already ordered two, to make her own Egyptian tomb.



Spooky ghost! With ball and chain! And lots of little spookies like cats, spiders (ick, won't be making them) and black kitty!



And last, but definitely not least.... OWLS!!!!! Blurry owls, I admit, but still, OWLS!



There are loads more treats in it, but my cup runneth over. I itch to cast on for some, even though I know the sewing up at the end is a right pain in the derrière.

In other knitty news, I found out at knit night last night that a new yarn store has opened up in the last week in Dunboyne, Co. Meath (about 15 mins drive away). I'm off work on Friday, guess where I'm going! More yarn store reviews to come!

Good knitting!

Yarn Stores Galore!

So I said I'd blog about my yarn store visits on my recent holiday. Well here you go!
I uploaded them in the wrong order, so we're going with last store visited first. Oh well!

The last store I visited was Knitch in Atlanta, Georgia. Hubby took the pictures in this shop, so they're MUCH nicer than the rest :)



I was super excited to go to this store because of BrooklynTweed's SHELTER yarn. I made a bee line for the shelf it was on!



Their store display was absolutely gorgeous. Everything was beautifully laid out, and there was loads of space and light.



Their samples were lovely too, here's some felted bags they had on a shelf. I could have spent hours wandering round it, just looking at everything.



The colours they had together were really striking, here's a display of Colinette Jitterbug. Really vibrant!



At the back of the store they had a really nice area for classes & knitting groups. A huge table right under a window, and a blackboard announcing upcoming events etc.



Everything was really thoughtfully arranged.



This had to be the best thing of all though. Chicken Run! Apparently one of the customers made it. Isn't it brilliant? It sat on a shelf by the till.



So that was Knitch! Next up is Four Purls in WinterHaven, Florida.



This was a lovely store that was a bit hidden away. It took a couple of drives around the block to find it!



This store was a flying visit when I was trying to buy a replacement dpn for my Everglades Socks. I can't remember the name of the owner, but she was a really lovely person who tried her best to help me. There was also an impromptu knitting group going on, so I was a bit sneaky taking my pictures. I only took pictures of alcoved areas of the shop, and not the main floor area.



She had a great selection of yarn, the biggest brand was Cascade. She had a lot of Italian yarns too.



I liked this shop and would have liked to spend more time there, but alas it wasn't to be. If I go back next year, I'll definitely go for a longer poke around.

My last store for you is my favourite, Sip & Knit in Maitland, Florida. this store is about an hours drive from the house we stay in, in Orlando. Doni the owner is just lovely. She remembers me every year, and I was greeted with a big hug when we arrived. Alice loves to play with her dog Tucker too.



Look at the sheep outside the door. Isn't it the best? I wish I could have one of those :)



Inside the store is a treasure trove. It's like a converted house, so you walk down hallways to find more rooms filled to the brim with lovely yarn, notions and patterns. I could spend all day (and all my money) here.
This is the main room of the store. *sigh* yarn heaven. She has lots of brands of yarn, and some really exotic stuff too. This is where hubby got me my Qiviut for Christmas last year.



This is the back room of the store, where I probably get most excited. It's the sock yarn room. Squee! Look at all the sock yarn! And the cutie sheep on the top shelf. Aww!



She also had Della Q bags, and lots of notions. This room is the notions and pattern room. I could sit here for hours going through all the books and magazines, not to mention the button jars! This store is a must-visit for me every time. I can't wait to go back!




Other random yarny/crafty spottings were made too. On Hallowe'en we went to Celebration for lunch on our way to Disneyworld and there was a farmers/craft market on. It was brill!

There were the most amazing looking vegetables, fruit and cakes there. We got some delicious organic Orange Blossom Honey, hand candied fruit (NOM) and of course some sweet stuff. This stall was all about gingerbread and it was good, let me tell you.



Although I was a bit distracted looking at all the lovely hand sewn aprons, oven mitts, tablecoths etc. I have a soft spot for gingham.

Then we found this stall. I'd forgotten all about this one, we've seen it before. The stall holder is usually knitting socks when we arrive, but not today. She was mainly selling quilts.



Although, if I'm honest, I don't think they're "proper" quilts per se. They don't look like the designs were made from fabric shapes, more like a sheet of pre printed fabric that was then wadded and sewn to look like it was quilted.



They were still pretty though.



So there you have it! My yarn store adventures from my holidays. Writing this post has given me a real longing to go back. Fingers crossed!

Good knitting!