The last few months have been productive in many ways. But I've decided that, in order to keep my sanity, I'd break it up into a few posts. So this one is about yarn! (Every knitter loves it, no?)
One of my missions while I was home was to stock up on yarn. There's a great selection in Japan, by all means, but imported yarns are pretty hard to find there. (More on this in a future post!) So, let me share with you my new treasures! And, let me add, too, how STUFFED my suitcase is! The zipper looks like it'll pop right at the seams!
While staying with my family in the Buffalo, NY area, not only did I stop at A.C. Moore to pick up some popular standards, including some Patons Bamboo Silk, some Red Heart Heart & Sole and Patons SWS sock yarns, and a bundle of Sugar'n Cream cotton, but I also made several trips to The Elmwood Yarn
Shop on Hertel Avenue in Buffalo (luckily around the corner from my brother's house), where I found a couple of glorious skeins. I am in love with the Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande, 100% Alpaca and soft as a cloud. And the spin of the Filatura di Crosa Malizioso is just hypnotizing to knit with. I'm almost done with that project, and will post it soon--aren't you at the edge of your seat with anticipation? And there was also the Filatura Porto Cervo and Plymouth Sundae Swirl, which are nice, firm cottons that'll be perfect for another project I couldn't quite get to this month, but is in the near
future--more on that, too, in due time.
While state-side, I was also lucky enough to get up to Kitchener and Toronto, Ontario to visit my best friend and attend Toronto's City of Craft. It was a lovely, quaint craft festival on Queen Street, featuring some very talented artists, sewers, bookmakers, silk screeners, knitters, jewelry makers, and crafters of all kinds! For me, of course, I was there with an eye on finding some handspun yarn. And I certainly got lucky! I bought two skeins of the most gorgeous yarn from Pleasurecraft. Kristyn's yarns are to die for! The colorways range from peaceful to invigorating, and I
couldn't help but pick up two! They were all so beautiful, and it was a tough choice. I haven't decided what I'll do with them, yet, but just having them in my stash to hold in those curly little balls just inspire so many ideas. It's like saving
the last piece of cheesecake for a moment you have alone, the perfect moment, the perfect piece of cheesecake. As you can see, though, these two yarns are just glorious. I wish my camera could convey to you the luscious blues in the skein on top--and what a great combination they are, reminiscent of ocean waves beating up against the sky. And the other is a perfect sunrise. They'll be so great to knit up (secretly I did a couple of swatches just to see what it felt like, and I was really pleased--I can't wait to really work with it!)
After I left City of Craft, I had some time, so I meandered down Queen Street, and Lo! Another yarn shop. It was ENORMOUS! Glory behold! Romni Wools boasts one of the largest yarn selections in Canada, and it's easy to see why. Two floors, including unspun wools and spinner's wheels in the basement (if only I could have fit one of those in my suitcase, too...) and probably hundreds of thousands of skeins on the ground floor. I could have gone crazy and emptied my bank account, but I did my best to restrain myself, and only bought two 250 gram skeins of Cascade Yarns' Eco +, for a project you'll have to wait 
and read about when I finally get to it! Looking in Romni Wools, though, I secretly decided that I want a room of my house to look kind of like this. It's just heaven! I highly doubt my boyfriend would appreciate it, but, between his bass and other music equipment and my yarn, I suppose we should both have the opportunity to be surrounded with the things we love! To be honest, though, I have already overflowed my stash boxes, cabinets, and closets, so when I get back to Japan in a couple of days, it'll be a puzzle trying to find space for it all! And what a wonderful problem to have!
