Yarn crawl

Yesterday I had about 10 different things I could have done.

There was a conference I could have gone to in LA.
There was the SnB LA knit and spin in at the Original Farmers Market.
There was a sale for a yarn business going out of business.
There was an artisan sale here in Pomona in the Fairplex.
I could have stayed home and worked on conference submissions (this is what I will be doing today!)

OK... I exaggerate... there were 5 choices. I was a bit overwhealmed by the choices though. The best ones were all in LA which is about an hour's drive for me with traffic and all events started at 10am. I'm not a big morning person and Friday night I just couldn't commit to any one choice. Saturday morning came and I still couldn't decide. Maybe I should just hang out around the house and just do nothing? Finally the moment to make a choice and get anywhere on time came and I at least took a shower so I could go if I had inspiration while I was wet.

In the end (big suprise) I did some of the yarn related activities. By the time I was dressed, I was committed to not going to the conference. Then S asked me to stay around and have lunch with him. He's working on several big deadlines right now, and this made my choice easy. No early morning yarn related activities -- maybe next time LA SnB. After lunch I still was back and forth... should I drive an hour to go to a sale that may have nothing? What if they have really great stuff (like Cascade for $3 a skein as suggested in the ad)? After a bunch of wasting time I decided to just get in the car and go.

Off to the sale at what used to be Azalia. Traffic was terrible... what gives with the thousands of cars on I10 on a saturday? And the sale... pitiful. Now I didn't get there until 2, so all the good stuff could have been sold in those 4 hours, but there was nothing. No cascade, not a single skein. Not even a big gaping hole on a table where cascade could have been. A bit of a dissapointment.

Well not to waste a trip to the city, S did send me on another shopping errand. Soap from Soaptopia. Have you been to Soaptopia? It's a great little store. We stocked up on soaps and sea salts for ourselves and a few for gifts too.



They gift wrapped one bar of soap (middle left, cellaphane bag). Isn't it cute? I also got a cute little candle, vanilla scented, as a gift (for spending so much money... laugh). You should check the store out... it's in Venice which is a great, funky little community and close by to my next stop, A Mano Yarns.

A Mano was hopping yesterday. There was a group of knitters all hanging out, knitting away. I, of course paralyzed by stupid anxiety, just looked around at yarn but didn't join the group. Have I mentioned this silly social anxiety fact before? Geez... why don't I just get over myself. After time spent amongst the wool, I was off... back to the traffic. (Ohh I just looked at their calendar and A Mano has a garmet finishing class. I need to sign up for that!)

Cleverly, on the way home I decided to hit one more store, Unraveled in Monrovia. A quick detour off the highway and there I was 30 minutes before closing. You know this really is a lovely store... open, friendly staff, good yarn. I fondled a few skeins, considered my next knitting goal and then...



Yep, I came home empty handed. Despite all the great stuff at both A Mano and Unraveled, I didn't buy a thing. How's that for restraint? (I did learn that Unraveled is having a 25% off everything sale next saturday for their anniversary though -- put it on your calendar if you're close).

Of course when I came home I found this...



the Webs Holiday 2007 catalogue. Now this looks like a great tree for the holidays! I wonder how much left over yarn I could scrounge up to do something like this?! I also saw more than one sweater in the catalogue that caught my eye. Maybe there is more shopping in my future....