Souvenirs

Oh there was yarn shopping a plenty on this trip; I knew to look for yarn stores in Portland and Seattle but even Cannon Beach has its own beautiful store. My pre-trip target was just some Raven Clan Socks that Rock as the perfect local souvenir. Howeve it's rare stuff even in the Pacific Northwest and I didn't find any until the last store I visited and it just seemed impossible not to collect a little something from each shop.

It has to be said that I am a dreadful yarn shop yarn shopper - so indecisive - I like to check EVERYTHING out maybe three times and in the end tend to go for a safe skein of sock yarn I know I'll use. Free WIFI or use of networked PC would be such a great addition to any bricks and mortar store. I hinted to see if the assistant would look something up for me in one place but I think I was too subtle! Aaaanyways, I digress - here's the haul:As well as being too shy to ask outright for use of the internet I am also too shy to take photos in stores but I got shots of the outsides for you all! In order visited first there was KnitPurl in downtown Portland, serendipitously (honestly!) opposite my hotel.
This is me looking at their beautiful Autumn Rose display. As befits a downtown boutique the stock here was very deluxe, high end yarn - Habu, Tilli Tomas etc - not somewhere I'd dare to look for a sweaters' worth, but they stock some lovely, unusual, sock yarns - I went for a skein of Chameleon Colorworks merino/tencel - (maybe) for my Mum (if I can bear to part with it!) - she's quite the sock knitter these days.
Up on Alberta there's a lovely pair of stores - CloseKnit and Bolt - feeding the burgeoning sewing interest as well. Lovely things in both. CloseKnit has more the complete range of yarns - basic up to fancy fancy and I bought a fair bit here thinking I might call it quits at two stores. In Bolt I felt like I did the first time in a yarn store - out of my depth - so I was happy to find a pretty little bundle of fat quarters by a local designer and I'm thinking to use them perhaps in Alicia P's Summerhouse Pillow pattern for a real Portland homage.

Out at Cannon Beach was a gem of a find, Coastal Yarns. A great big shop with a great range of stock including STR but no Ravens. Still there are always other sock yarns.
Up to Seattle and I thought I was done but we managed to find a route that went past So Much YarnThis was probably my favourite store as the ladies there were so friendly and the 1TB settled in with the canine inhabitants, Archie and Belinda, leaving me free to agonise FOREVER! Honestly, truly, after this I thought I was done until we were talking about heading out to Bainbridge Island and we were told that they had a yarn store Churchmouse Yarns who stock STR.This is a BIG store packed with lovely stuff, the teas in the name sadly are only in dry form but truly adding a cafe might have meant I'd never have left!
Here finally the STR was purchased, they only had Rooky so I managed to limit it to one skein, and I can dream of Thraven for another day.

So quite a tour of yarn shops we've known and loved, and the 1TB was there faithfully at each stage. His one reward was to choose some yarn to be made in to a Koolhaas hat which is the knitting pattern inspired by the architect of the Seattle Public Library (hence its fame in the knitting world for those of you I managed to baffle in the last post). Clearly I'm training him well:
For me I bought yarn for a Bainbridge Scarf, it may be the wrong Bainbridge but the right name is good enough for me. I have an urge to try and map the world with patterns for each area, maybe as a start you can share a pattern that would be a souvenir for your corner of the world? I might have to design one for Oxford as I'm not that excited by these I found on a quick Ravelry search: this jumper Oxford by Martin Storey or this throw Oxford by Jane Ellison.

Anyway I'm off to knuckle down to some Christmas gift crafting, which in the main amounts to finishing some of the many Christmas socks already in progress.