Sometimes yarn cajoles. Sometimes it bellows.

I went on a bit of a yarn crawl today with several of my SnB friends – Cheryl (our gracious driver), Terry (who provided the cute little GPS gadget) and Nancy, a co-worker at my LYS.

Foolishly I forgot to bring my camera, so all I can do is show the aftermath. We started at Green Planet Yarn – what a beautiful shop! This is very close to the kind of shop I’d open if I had lots of money just lying about when I win the Lotto. The owner, Beth, is a delightful woman, and I wholeheartedly hope that her shop enjoys nothing but success. Her yarns are all organic or eco-friendly, and I couldn’t resist this:

This is Blue Sky Organic cotton – soft as a cloud. It is a bit more rust-colored than this photo shows, and not the sort of color I’d usually pick out, but my friends said it looked good with my coloring.

If my current February Lady Sweater ends up looking good on me, this is what this yarn is destined for. I’d love to have a light weight cotton sweater. The weather right now is miserably hot and I’m having to force myself to work on anything woolly.

Cheryl got the same color too!

Next on the agenda was Bobbin’s Nest, a very sweet little shop with a small but nice selection of yarns and an equally nice selection of Amy Butler fabrics. Now I know where to get those fun, kitchy fabrics that you cannot find at your average Joann Fabrics stores. I didn’t buy any yarn there, but did get a pattern for some very cute fingerless mitts, called Truffle.

Last on the list was Purlescence Yarns, one of the very few shops that stocks Blue Moon yarns. They’d begun to receive some of their fall yarn shipments and the place was crammed and a bit disheveled from its usual clean and neat appearance. While I like the yarns that they stock I have to admit I’ve never been more than tepid about the reception – I think I’ve been there six or seven different times and only once been greeted or acknowledged – until I went to the register to pay for something. Maybe it’s just me…

Anyhoo, after groping the STR and making mental notes about future colorways I’d like to have, I found the Dream In Color yarns and this color was begging to go home with me. Screaming, pleading, and bellowing, actually.

Dream In Color – Baby. Ooooooooh.

No way was this staying behind. 700 yards of lace beauty!

We ate a quick lunch and headed back home, but stopped in to admire Terry’s enviable score of some Wollmeise yarn. Now I see why everyone loves this stuff – the pictures don’t do it justice

I finally slogged through the stockinette section on Rachel’s sweater, so it is nearly done. I’ve got the ends to weave in and buttons to sew on, and I think I’m going to add a crochet chain to the inside of the neckline because it seems to be loose and tends to sag.

I may also reinforce the button band with some old-fashioned grosgrain ribbon since the button band doesn’t look to be quite as stable and firm as I’d like. It is pinned shut for the photo, but it is just short of being wavy.

The linen part of the yarn is making its presence known too – you can see the wrinkles! I’ll get a photo of Ray actually wearing it, but this may have to wait until the temperature cools here a bit – she tried it on for fit (and it did fit!) but couldn’t get it off fast enough… 90 degrees+ is not sweater weather and we don’t have an air conditioner.

The February Lady sweater is moving right along. I’m done with the garter-section of the yoke and am trying to figure out the eyelet spacing. Actually I’m trying to decide if I even want the eyelet row, but this yarn is so springy I don’t think that they’ll show that much. Loving the yarn, in spite of it being wool and all, and too frackin’ hot to even think about wearing right now!

Late breaking new: Miss Rachel has passed her AP exams!! (which hopefully translates to college college credit for my almost-a-high-school-senior-kid) Her comment: "Now Daddy has to buy me something shiny!"

To which I responded "when has he ever done that?" Her: "Well, never, but I can try, can't I?"

Can't fault her optimism!