Oh look - another Yarn Crawl, and swag!

 OMG - two posts in one month! 

Gadzooks!

This weekend was the KC Yarn Shop Crawl. I love a good shop hop. It's such a great way to get out to shops you haven't been to before, visit old favorites and see what is happening in the local fiber craft scene. I participated in last year's Shop Crawl as well and I was thrilled that it was happening again this year. 

I ordered this sweet crawl bag weeks ago. It's a good quality canvas bag and will hold a decent sized project.  I picked it up at the shop I most often frequent, The Yarn Barn in Lawrence KS.  They have a great deal of weaving stuff and whenever I need something for weaving it's always my first stop. Bonus - you can see the actual colors which really helps me when I'm designing weaving projects. 

Thus my first Shop stop was the Yarn Barn where I acquired some lovely Malabrigo.  This will become a lovely scarf (I HOPE) for my mother. (sorry all the first two pictures are sideways not sure how to fix that at the moment)

My second stop was Yarn Social. This is a nice little shop that has a lot of yarn you won't find elsewhere in KC (at least I haven't).  I bought this cute little sock measuring tool.  I haven't knit many socks over the last couple years (I already have a dresser full of socks to wear) But this looks really useful if I should decide to start knitting all the sock yarn I have in my stash.

My 3rd stop as Unwind Fiber Arts in Lee Summit, MO. I probably shouldn't admit favorites but this is my favorite straight up yarn shop in KC metro. Their variety and selection is outstanding, both yarn and tools. I bought this lovely pile of yarn to make a sweater. It's cotton/wool so there is a chance I'll be able to wear the sweater more than one month a year. So many of my beautiful hand knits don't get much wear because the weather in Kansas is so mild compared to Minnesota/North Dakota. 

Then came the LONG drive over to Excelsior Springs, MO and Knit Ewe Together. This is a really cute little shop in a really cute little town that I need to explore more. I bought a skein of yarn for my mother because it is her colors and I bought a skein for me that is local and small production (the yarn name is the sheep the wool came from).  It's a darn good thing they didn't have sweater quantities in aran weight because I would have NEEDED to bring it home for Macoun, which is a fantastic cabled cardigan I want to make. I bought some yarn for it from Camilla Valley (in Canada). It was a nice yarn, but didn't quite have the look I wanted, being a bit lighter weight and ended up being pretty 'airy' in the swatch. I have since used the yarn for an Adult Surprise Jacket (one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's brilliant ideas, as modified by her grandson Cully). I have almost finished that, just started the sleeves. 

And last, but certainly not least Momo's Knitting Nook in Leavenworth KS. This is another really great shop on a very cute little Main Street and I should spend more time visiting both. I bought some more Malabrigo. This time for an Unlocked cowl. I probably should have checked the pattern to make sure I had the proper weight/amounts. Cross your digits for me.

And here is the last of the swag - Stitch markers (one from each shop) and a tassel maker. Last year it was a WPI tool and markers. Really nice and useful. 

Each shop was also featured local yarn (and it looked like each store had different ones featured!), mostly dyers, but also locally raised/spun wool. I really appreciate them for doing that. Yarn Social had local crafts people selling their wares on the sidewalk in front of their shop last year as well. Momo's also had the dyer in the shop talking to customers about her yarn and her processes.  It was awesome to see the stores supporting creative people that way. 

Let's see if I can get all this yarn used up before next year's Shop Crawl.