Du Nord

Late in April, my parents and I went up north to visit family. I asked to stop at the yarn shop previously missed in last year’s somewhat local yarn shop crawl, Unraveled in Pequot Lakes. (The address is listed at the bottom of the linked post; I can’t find a web presence for the shop.)

We got there too late, and the store was closed for the day. Rats! It looks like a cute shop, here’s a picture. more »

Today’s post is brought to you by the letters E, L, and V

Las Vegas was… exhilarating! Mom usually travels to Las Vegas once a year for a trade show, and I always ask if I can tag along. I know that I probably never would get a chance to visit the so-called Sin City otherwise.

It was so much fun to see all the places shown on TV and movies, like Caesar’s Palace, MGM Grand, or the Bellagio. Everywhere we went, there were slot machines and card tables. I can certainly understand the allure of winning money. I have the worst luck when it comes to card games, so I only dabbled a bit at the penny slots. I’m not a big fan of multi-line slots but Wheel of Fortune was fun to play. Also, the smoke wasn’t as bad as I expected, because most of the time, it was only the casino area open to smokers.

Las Vegas was… exotic! At the trade show, Andrew Zimmern, local (as in MN, not NV) chef and TV/radio personality (he is host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods), spoke a couple of times. Afterwards, he had “bug candy” to pass out and share. (I did not eat any, but I saw the boxes. The “candy” included Mexican-spiced larvae and crickets spiced with a flavor I’ve since forgotten.) This is my Mom with Andrew.

The Hilton has a cute Star Trek store and restaurant/casino. I never did see any Klingons or Ferengi, just people who were wearing the Deep Space 9 uniform. I didn’t take any pictures or try the Romulan Ale. (Guess I’m not a good Trekkie.)

Las Vegas was…. exhausting! Seriously, I had no idea how much walking was involved! The Strip with the newer casinos is closed to pedestrian traffic, so you either have to drive and brave the traffic, or cross the street via bridges. Mom says it this is a fairly recent development with the arrival of the mega-casinos and the increased influx of tourists and workers.

On the other hand, while my Mom was busy with seminars and meetings, I got a ton of knitting and reading done. It was nice to have a break from the computer (I didn’t try very hard to find free WiFi).

Las Vegas was… expensive! The shows and restaurants were all pricey. (At least the food we were served was both delicious and generously portioned.) It was mentioned somewhere that the average visitor spends $600 in the casinos during a visit! We went to the Fremont Street Experience (downtown Las Vegas, where the old casinos are) and were made dizzy by the light show every hour or so. The Forum Shops was a gorgeous place with its artificial sky and high-end stores that I rarely see. We missed out on the Fashion Show Mall and its outlet shops; by the third night, we were too tired to go out.

Las Vegas was… extreme! There was so much going on that it was impossible to even see everything. The convention center had three different events running concurrently, the MTV Awards had taken place a few days before we arrived, and a volleyball tournament was winding down. (The Las Vegas Convention center was a bit nicer in the food department than the one in Chicago; in addition to a pricey self-service cafeteria with tons of seating, there also was a Starbucks, Sbarro, and Nathan’s.) The temperature reached 106°F while we were there. At least it was a dry heat, as the saying goes.

Las Vegas had… evidence of fiber! There are three yarn shops,* and we had time before our flight home to stop in at two of them. I forgot to take a picture of Gail Knits, which was rather spacious. There was a couch in the front and plenty of tables. And the yarn? It filled the neatly arranged shelves along the sides and in the back section. I may have misunderstood, but they didn’t seem to have much cotton in stock (blends, mostly). As I was leaving, I noticed several carousels of Berroco pamphlets and Rebecca magazines near the door.

We almost didn’t go to the second store, Wooly Wonders because the website address no longer works and the phone seemed to be out of service. Luckily, the people at Gail’s told us it was still open. Wooly Wonders is tiny, but chock-full of yarn, and includes supplies and classes for weaving and spinning.

There wasn’t much sock yarn at either store (TOFUsties and Fixation at Gail’s Knits, and JaWoll and Wildfoote at Wooly Wonders). I guess it’s too hot most of the time to wear socks in Las Vegas? I got a gorgeous hot pink skein of TOFUsties and a rose pink skein of Hempathy to take home with me.

Here are more pictures. (They aren’t exactly in order… I thought I had uploaded them in a coherent order, but apparently not.) 

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Knitter’s Virtual Vacation Swap Questionnaire

Bonjour swap pal! Feel free to leave a comment or email if anything here isn’t clear. Looking forward to a fun swap. : )

1. If you could visit any state in the US, which would it be and why?

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Stitches Midwest 2006

I was so tired when I got home from Chicago that I actually went to bed at 8:00 PM that evening. Such a quick trip, and I didn’t get to make any side forays into Chicago as I hoped (Millennium Park, or the King Tut exhibit at The Field Museum, for example). (It also was a bit extra stressful traveling due to heightened security.)

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Weekend Shopping

I mentioned earlier this week that I did buy a few things at each of the three stores in Bemidji that stocked anything fibery or knitting-related. I thought I’d also share my experience at each store, in case anyone goes up to that area.

I didn’t know until a few months ago that Ben Franklin stocked yarn, much less Cascade, Plymouth, and Classic Elite! So the store was at the top of my To See list when up there. Their selection is small, yet varied. There was a good amount of Sugar ‘n’ Cream, in many colors, more than I’ve ever seen at once in either Michael’s or Jo-Ann. Likewise, I saw a nicely sized and colorful assortment of crochet cotton. I bought two different colors of Sugar ‘n’ Cream for my Secret Pal 8. There was a small selection of Cascade 220, but I don’t remember seeing many colors–dark red, navy, and forest green, for sure. Another nice yarn in stock was Plymouth Galway, also in mostly dark colors. Two more things I noticed was a variety of novelty yarn, both inexpensive (eg: Lion Brand), and moderate price level (eg: Sandesgarten Funny eyelash), and they also had some Red Heart in stock. Oh yes, there were some nice knitting books and individual patterns (eg: Fiber Trends), and Addi Turbo circular needles.

Pamida is more like K-Mart, and I didn’t even know they had yarn until my Aunt told us. Their selection is very small, mostly Bernat boa or bouclé. They did have some of these gigantic Bernat skeins (300 g) which would come in handy for afghans. Two skeins of CottonTots at about 50% off jumped into my basket: Mom picked out a couple colors, and I can make about 3 washcloths with each skein.

The name, Bemidji Woolen Mills, should give you a big hint at what they carry. Lots of woolen outerwear, blankets, and more. They also have their own yarn, “Bemidji’s Original Homespun” which is worsted weight, tweedy, and lanolin-rich, yum. The hanks are a generous 225 yards and less than $5. The Homespun also comes in Natural (off-white), Oatmeal Heather, Oxford Gray, Sandy Heather, and Charcoal Heather. But that’s not all! Their yarn selection is composed mostly of Lamb’s Pride Worsted, and I do believe they stock just about every color Brown Sheep produces. The rest of their yarn stock is mostly Lopi and a miscellany of mohair, alpaca, etc. Most of the books and patterns available there were, not surprisingly, by Reynolds Lopi and Fiber Trends. Needles in stock were Susan Bates Quicksilver and Pony Pearl plastic.

So what did I get there? No yarn, I’m sorry to say, though the wool is always so tempting. My purchases were quite the June Project Spectrum:

Turquoise Pony Pearl DPNs (these are my first Pony set… looking forward to trying them out), and a pair of purple and gray wool, blue cotton lined mittens. We found some shelves filled with these yummy, colorful, and generously-sized mittens. They are available in XS, S, M (mine), L, and XL. I used to have a wonderful pair of black ribbed double thick mittens with the BWM label, but I lost one in college. These are very similar, but they’re not the store brand. I checked out the website listed on the tag, and it appears to be defunct (replaced by a generic search engine site :/) so I’ll quote the information here, since I found it interesting.

Mittens with a Mission: Our mittens are carefully cut and assembled by the workers at our Winona Occupational Rehabilitation Center, a sheltered workshop for people with disabilities. Each mitten is made from the wool & cotton fabric or yarn, which remains after the sweater parts are cut. Sweaters for your hands…only from Winona, Minnesota. Minnesota Mittens 507-452-1845; www.minnesotamittens.com

I don’t know if the Winona ORC is still doing this, the website I found doesn’t have any information. And funnily enough, I couldn’t find them at the online BWM store, either. Did you read through all of this? Yay you! But I need to mention one more thing… if you order the Homespun yarn online from BWM, be warned that it may take several weeks or even a few months… it’s very popular!

I’m back!

Who woulda thunk?

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Knitting Spots

kat knits is holding this fun contest/meme: Name 5 places (other than home and LYS) where you’ve knitted.

It’s been fun reading all the various answers. Here’s mine!

Knitting update:
The Madder Ribbed socks are nearly to the point where I will have to start the heel flap. I’m trying to decide whether they are too tight before continuing (or frogging).

The Sixth Sense socks are coming along well. I’m about halfway through the instep and hope to get to the toe decreases by the end of today.