Maine Yarn Crawl

Isobel wanted to show you the bit of roving she received at the Portland Fiber Gallery from the spinning lady. She calls it her "fluff". Maybe I'll get her to be the spinner in the family, and I'll knit with her handiwork.

While we were up in Maine, we went on a little yarn crawl after taking Nick to the airport. We visited Knit Wit (just a block down from the Fiber Gallery), which is in a great space, has fun toys up near the front for kids to play with, and a really nice selection of yarn. I bought this GGH Wollywasch on sale and plan to make a yoke sweater with it at some point.

Pale blue (shocking, I know) for the body and brown, fawn, cream, and pink for the yoke. I'm thinking of adapting EZ's pattern from The Opinionated Knitter for the yoke. (Or I may pull a "Kathleen" and research fairisle yoke patterns ad naseum until I master the subject and create my own - you never know.) I also acquired a copy of Loop-de-loop at half the price. What a thought-provoking book, even a few years after publication.

After our visit to the Portland Fiber Gallery, which had lots of lovely roving, some handspun, and information and tools for spinning, dyeing, weaving, and such (which got a little overwhelming in the heat of the late morning, pre-snack), we had organic (in Isobel's case Vegan chocolate chocolate chip) cookies "as big as our heads" at North Star (a very hip cafe next door to the Fiber Gallery), then headed back up to our neck of the woods.

We checked out the Knitting Experience Cafe in Brunswick, which also had a nice selection of yarns (and some toys for 'Bel). I couldn't leave without some pretty blue mohair (my only confusion about this yarn is that I thought Trendsetter distributed Kid Seta but this is labeled "Cascade", but I'm not complaining):



And, of course we visited Ellen at Purl Diva, and I couldn't leave without some Fleece Artist sock yarn from the Great Wall of Socks. Isobel helped me wind it into a cake and declared that I could make her some *gloves* with it. They're always watching you, those little ones: Mommy has gloves for next winter from sock yarn, so Isobel must need them, too. I guess I'll have to look out for a winter coat for her that will match this pretty chocolate covered cherry colorway.




I also took Isobel to visit Romney Ridge Farm. Kelly was very welcoming, and Isobel loved meeting the chickens, ducks, sheep, dog ... in other words "the farm". And I enjoyed checking out all the yarn, including some absolutely gorgeous handspun mohair in a robin's egg blue color that was out of my self-imposed budget. But I did indulge in some of last year's millspun (by the wonderful people at Green Mountain Spinnery) that Kelly dyed a lovely spring green. It seems to be heavy laceweight or light sport, and I am thinking of a shawl for my sister with it, but it will probably have to marinate in the stash for a little while. Kelly said her next batch of millspun yarn should arrive in the next week or so, and then she'll hit the dyepots. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. Apologies for not snapping a picture of the shop, which is an adorable fiber-filled shed, but it was starting to rain. Next time.



And time spent in Bath isn't complete without a visit to Halcyon Yarns. I mean, I can walk there!



Misti Alpaca 2-ply (laceweight) in cherry red, Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo in a beautiful turquoise color (Halcyon is discontinuing Wool Bam Boo from their lineup, and I couldn't resist the color - just wish there had been more! I'll have to find a one-skein project for that), and a skein of Rio de la Plata Sock Yarn in Coral Rose - a lovely, lightly variegated orange that I think I'm going to turn into socks for my grandma. I don't think I mentioned that the Amy March Slippers I made for her for Mother's Day, according to her, didn't even go into the drawer but right on her feet. Now, that's a woman who will appreciate handknit socks!