Ahoy Matey!
This weekend seven local yarn stores in the Twin Cities are having a Treasure Hunt. And this is the type of treasure I want to hunt - yarn and knitting supplies! The stores are all over the metro area and if you get your treasure map stamped at every store this weekend, you are entered into a drawing for a treasure chest with over $3,000 worth of yarn, needles, books and other supplies. Of course, I can't resist something like that!
So, my enabler extraordinaire and I took Friday off and started on our mission. First we had to fuel up, though:
A little coffee and a nosh - apple turnover for me. Isn't that mosaic counter beautiful? This coffee shop is across the street from our first stop, The Yarnery. I was only a half-assed blogger, so I forgot to take pictures at most of our stops. I was going to show you what I bought at each shop, but I'm embarrassed to do that, so I'll just give you a taste when I forgot to take a picture of the shop:
I bought a few balls of yarn for some of the hats in the Itty Bitty Hats book. Our next stop was Sheepy Yarn Shop:
You can see a little of the beautiful blue sky in that picture. It was a gorgeous fall day. You can also see a little felted pumpkin in the window - I bought the pattern and yarn for that at Sheepy. They also had some of the merging colors kits there, if you are interested in knitting one of Candace Eisner Strick's kits. Around the corner from the yarn shop was a farmer's market, where I picked up a few veggies - and of course forgot to take a picture. We took a potty break and got some drinks and then hit the road for Three Kittens:
That's a skein of Artyarns Merino in a GORGEOUS purple and black colorway - love it! Each store had drawings for door prizes also. I didn't win any door prizes, but Kerry won one at Three Kittens - yeah! Some of the stores didn't require you to be present to win, so maybe I still have a chance - or maybe I'm just waiting for the grand prize! :-) After all that shopping, we were ready for a break. We had Italian food at the deli at Osteria I Nonni. Since it was such a lovely day, we sat outside and soaked up the sun while we ate. Refortified, we hit the road for Zandy's:
Kerry was nice enough to drive. It was fun tooling around town in her VW Bug, although it was a bit windy to go without the top on. At each store, if you solved a mystery, you could get a little charm:
I'm thinking about making a bracelet for these charms, since it's kind of hard to see them on the pin. Halfway through the treasure hunt, we headed west and stopped at Needlework Unlimited:
There was a pirate theme for the treasure hunt and most of the stores had these cute banners hung:
NU was the busiest store we hit, but it's also a pretty big store and centrally located, so it's usually quite busy. We headed way out west next and I finally got to check out Coldwater Collaborative:
See how cute their sign is? Well, that gives you a flavor for how cute everything inside is. They have so many absolutely wonderful shop models. I just looked at one thing after another, wanting to make it. Cute purses, lots of fun felted stuff, scarves, sweaters and shawls. Loved the store and am kind of glad it's so far away from me, otherwise I might be there every week. Deb works at Coldwater and I tried to get a picture of us (which included her wearing a very fetching pirate hat), but there was some sort of camera error and the picture wasn't there. Or Deb worked some kind of pirate magic and made it disappear. We finished up the day at Amazing Threads, tired but happy!
So, my enabler extraordinaire and I took Friday off and started on our mission. First we had to fuel up, though:
A little coffee and a nosh - apple turnover for me. Isn't that mosaic counter beautiful? This coffee shop is across the street from our first stop, The Yarnery. I was only a half-assed blogger, so I forgot to take pictures at most of our stops. I was going to show you what I bought at each shop, but I'm embarrassed to do that, so I'll just give you a taste when I forgot to take a picture of the shop:
I bought a few balls of yarn for some of the hats in the Itty Bitty Hats book. Our next stop was Sheepy Yarn Shop:
You can see a little of the beautiful blue sky in that picture. It was a gorgeous fall day. You can also see a little felted pumpkin in the window - I bought the pattern and yarn for that at Sheepy. They also had some of the merging colors kits there, if you are interested in knitting one of Candace Eisner Strick's kits. Around the corner from the yarn shop was a farmer's market, where I picked up a few veggies - and of course forgot to take a picture. We took a potty break and got some drinks and then hit the road for Three Kittens:
That's a skein of Artyarns Merino in a GORGEOUS purple and black colorway - love it! Each store had drawings for door prizes also. I didn't win any door prizes, but Kerry won one at Three Kittens - yeah! Some of the stores didn't require you to be present to win, so maybe I still have a chance - or maybe I'm just waiting for the grand prize! :-) After all that shopping, we were ready for a break. We had Italian food at the deli at Osteria I Nonni. Since it was such a lovely day, we sat outside and soaked up the sun while we ate. Refortified, we hit the road for Zandy's:
Kerry was nice enough to drive. It was fun tooling around town in her VW Bug, although it was a bit windy to go without the top on. At each store, if you solved a mystery, you could get a little charm:
I'm thinking about making a bracelet for these charms, since it's kind of hard to see them on the pin. Halfway through the treasure hunt, we headed west and stopped at Needlework Unlimited:
There was a pirate theme for the treasure hunt and most of the stores had these cute banners hung:
NU was the busiest store we hit, but it's also a pretty big store and centrally located, so it's usually quite busy. We headed way out west next and I finally got to check out Coldwater Collaborative:
See how cute their sign is? Well, that gives you a flavor for how cute everything inside is. They have so many absolutely wonderful shop models. I just looked at one thing after another, wanting to make it. Cute purses, lots of fun felted stuff, scarves, sweaters and shawls. Loved the store and am kind of glad it's so far away from me, otherwise I might be there every week. Deb works at Coldwater and I tried to get a picture of us (which included her wearing a very fetching pirate hat), but there was some sort of camera error and the picture wasn't there. Or Deb worked some kind of pirate magic and made it disappear. We finished up the day at Amazing Threads, tired but happy!
rdladd@arnan.com
