Changing Tides is located on the second floor of a downtown building (so you have to be looking for it!). Check out their Facebook page at Changing Tides! And they have cool shop bags!
Yak yarn…who knew there is such a thing?
Mini skeins from Northern Bee!
And beautiful yarn from Alaskan Yarn Company in Homer, Alaska!
From their website at www.ravenshook.com:
Hats, blankets, amigurumi, socks? We carry a variety of acrylic, cotton, wool, and silk yarn for every project. Along with hooks, needles, and all kinds of accessories. We also carry embroidery thread, latch hook, and sewing supplies.
I bought/ invested in Raven Frog Fiber yarn in yummy colors and quviut roving. Quviut comes from the fine undercoat of the muskox. Expensive? Yes, very! But it will motivate me to keep practicing with my drop spindles on less expensive roving until I get much, much better at it.
We took a Cruise along the Inside Passage of Alaska from Seattle to Sitka to Juneau to Skagway to Haines to Icy Strait Point to Ketchikan to Victoria, BC, and back to Seattle.
My spouse and friends were good sports as I obsessively sought out Local Yarn Shops!
I have to brag on my sister Dottie. She makes Fidget Mats and
donates them to St. Al’s Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho.
They are full of color, texture, and a variety of activities for those
dealing with cognitive health issues.
My tiny contribution to her effort: crocheted “squiggles.”
“It is pure potential. Every ball or skein of yarn holds something inside it, and the great mystery of what that might be can be almost spiritual.”
– Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
A winter weekend at a hot springs with old friends, new friends, yarn, great food and laughter!
CAL is short for “Crochet Along” which is an event where a designer creates and releases a known pattern in parts and a huge community all work on it at the same time.
CROJO is derived from “mojo” and means you are motivated about something. CROJO then means you are motivated to crochet.
FROGGING is derived from “ripping out” which sounds like a frog, and means that you have to pull out your already-made stitches and undo your work. Typically you would do that when you have made a mistake or don’t like your project and want to redo it and reuse the yarn. You might frog just a few stitches, or a row or the entire project.
HOTH/ FOTH mean “hot off the hook” or “fresh off the hook” and you are very happy you just finished your project and want to show it off to the world proudly.
ISO means ”in search of”… so you are looking for patterns or yarn or related things.
OCD means “obsessive crocheting disorder”.
PHD means “project half done”
PIGS means “projects in grocery sacks”. You really should invest in cute project bags!
TOAD is almost related to FROG and means “trashed object abandoned in disgust”… so you pretty much gave up on it completely and will not even FROG it.
UFO means “unfinished object” and is basically the same as a WIP. But typically you haven’t touched your UFO in a while whereas WIPs are the ones you are currently working on.
WIP stands for “work in progress” and means that you are currently working on a project, whether it’s crochet, knit or anything else.
A YARNIE is someone who loves to work with yarn. Typically that is a crocheter or a knitter.
YARN BARF means you tried to pull just a strand of yarn from the middle of a yarn skein, but were unsuccessful and you pull a “mini skein” out instead which looks like the yarn skein barfed.
YARN BOMB means someone crocheted something and is displaying it in public on lamps, benches, ground, fences and other places.
YARN CHICKEN is not a thing; it’s a game that knitters and crocheters play. It happens when you either have just enough yarn to finish a project or you don’t have enough and need to get more. It’s like a game and competition between you and the yarn, and no one knows who will win. The yarn or you?
YART means “yarn acquisition road trip” Take me with you! When do we leave?
“Yarn” in Spanish is “hilo.” In French, it is “fil.” In Italian, “filato.” In Maltese, “hjat.” Any way you say it, the search for a Local Yarn Shop was just as exciting for me in Europe as it is in the United States! The first yarn I saw in Spain, however, was from Denmark and made in China (but that didn’t stop me from buying some…).
The rumor is true, you cannot touch the yarn in Spain. Unless it is in a clearance bin, then you can touch it. But they take all the info off the yarn so you don’t know the weight or fiber content… maybe that’s not such a good deal after all.
A lack of Local Yarn Shops (LYS) did not stop me from crocheting on this trip! I was hoping to be able to do a tribute to Dr. Seuss with photos of me crocheting on a train in Spain, on a boat with a goat (you get the idea) but I couldn’t find a goat….
From their website at www.three-loves.com: “Three Loves is a retail yarn store that offers a wide selection of boutique yarns, needles, notions, gift items, and classes for all sorts of stitchers from beginner to seasoned expert. Our goal is to supply, care for, encourage, and grow the community of stitchers in the Treasure Valley and maintain a hands-on shopping and teaching facility which promotes community and celebrates all things colorful and creative.”
Three Loves Yarn is fairly new on the Local Yarn Shop (LYS) scene with an up-and-coming schedule of classes and events. There’s a Wednesday morning gathering from 9am – Noon as well as a Thursday & Friday Night Knit from 5 pm – 9 pm. They will celebrate their Birthday week June 1st – June 4th with fun sales and specials all week! June 11th is National Knit in Public Day, and Three Loves is throwing a big knitting and crocheting party outside on the patio.
The Twisted Ewe in Boise, Idaho
From their website at www.twistedeweidaho.com: “The Twisted Ewe came from the idea of having a place where people felt comfortable gathering around textiles. To sit around a big table, talk about stitches, exchange big ideas, and help each other out is at the core of our yarn shop.”
Owner Carolyn Parkinson and her knowledgeable staff create a place where the presence of comfy chairs, books, coffee, and two shop dogs invite customers to sit and stay for a while. The Twisted Ewe keeps the community involved with their fiber education events throughout the year including the Spring Tangle, Sweater Weather Get Together, Knit-in-Public Day and Fiber Frolic. They also host Trunk Shows and Pop-ups from Indie Dyers across the country.
In addition to all the incredible yarn and gift items they carry, Twisted Ewe offers a great variety of classes. I’ve taken Beginning Knitting, Spinning, Felting Soap, Branch-Weaving, Mesh-Weaving, Macrame, and Tunisian Crochet classes there. Their Semi-Annual Clearance Sales are amazing (my spouse says I am not allowed in there unsupervised…), and their Shop Sample Sales are not to be missed!
Up close and personal. First name basis. I want to know my fiber animals!
I got to visit some critters that belong to a friend, and I am in love!
