Yarn Crawl Update

The date of the yarn crawl has shifted towards mid-May, possibly May 14 or 15.

We've also decided to split up the Yarn Crawl into Yarn Crawl South-North (Steveston - Wool & Wicker - the new Yaohan Centre addition - the big Michael's - Daiso - Birkland Brothers - Knit & Stitch Shoppe) and Yarn Crawl West-East (Urban Yarns - A Touch of Wool - Homecraft Importers - the Granville Island place - Dressew - Burnaby Knitworks - the Como Lake Store).

Considering yarn store schedules, we might have to further whittle our list, possibly to Yarn Crawl East (including Sun Bench Fibres, Penelope Fibres, and all the alpaca farms in the Fraser Valley, such as the Maple Lane Alpaca Farm which gives tours starting in May), Yarn Crawl South, Yarn Crawl Vancouver, and Yarn Crawl North (if there are other North Shore yarny places).

Also, does anyone know anything about Knitopia?

I hope everyone is hunting down those must-do patterns for the Crawl!

Accessories

I was just looking up knitting classes in Chicago, when I found Dame Couture.

Now, loooking at the accessories, I found that included, right after veils and pretty things, are men. Hmmm....

Fibrefest International 2005

At last week's Sewing Festival, we met Ayami Stryck of Whaletown and saw her beautiful combination felt and silk scarves. We immediately signed up for her Nuno Felting on Silk class at Fibrefest. The felt on these scarves look like whispy clouds or foaming ocean waves. Plus, after Ms. Stryck's class we'll have a beautiful scarf for far less than what she sells them.

Even if you don't get into her class, check out these other offerings:

• Finger Knitting & Straw Weaving


• Alpaca Fibre Seminar


• Raising Cashmere Goats


• Sheepdog Demos


• Spinning Horsehair the Icelandic Way


• Natural Dyeing Seminar


• Rare and Exotic Yarns from Common Pets (Karen whispered to me that dog wool smells as bad as a real dog when it gets wet)


• Whimsical Felt Hats (check out the green ones!)

The best part about Fibrefest seems to be the animals; llamas, alpacas, cashmere goats, angora goats, cashgoras (!), angora rabbits, and border collies. At the Sewing Festival, I fell in love with alpaca wool. Plus, I can't wait to pet all those bunnies!

Move to Breadgarden?

I think we should move our meeting place over to Breadgarden in Metrotown. I am starting to feel as though Connections isn't really providing us with the optimum atmosphere (lighting is dim, we get ignored when we try ordering stuff, as well when we try to get our bill!).
Could everyone vote on moving or staying?

Yarn Crawl

Ok, we've talked about it and no one's gotten around to organizing it. I propose we get our plans together for an all-day yarn crawl at our favourite knitting stores, starting with coffee and croissants (I like butter) at a central location and ending with dinner and a drink at a knitting-friendly restaurant.

Leanne posted a list of some yarn stores:

• Urban Yarns on West 10th


• Homecraft Importers on West 4th


• Birkland Brothers on Main Street


• The Knit and Stitch Shoppe in West Vancouver


• Dressew


• Wool and Wicker


• A Touch of Wool on Dunbar


• The Granville Island place


• Burnaby Knitworks


• The Coquitlam Como Lake Store


• The snooty place in Steveston

To avoid too many impulse purchases, the rule will be that we need to bring our patterns for future projects and we must only buy yarn for those projects. Anyone who appears to be breaking their budget will be restrained by their fellow yarn crawlers and permitted only to pet the wool. (I left out Daiso, Walmart, Lewiscraft and Michael's so we can focus our attention on the really fun places.)

The people without cars will pair up with the folks with cars so that no one has to bother with transit to the farflung regions of the GVRD. Participants with cars should also let us know if they are willing to accept passengers in the comment section.

I propose a Saturday in the latter part of April or even the beginning of May (though next Saturday appears to bear a good omen as well). Please add your opinions in the comments section. Here are dates to consider:

• March 19


• April 9


• April 16


• April 23


• April 30


• May 7


• May 14

(I left out Daiso, Walmart, Lewiscraft and Michael's so we can focus our attention on the really fun places.)

Once we choose the itinerary, the organizer will prepare a route. All participants can pitch a suggestion for the brunch and dinner places. Participants are encouraged to attend the dinner so we can do show'n'tell with our new yarn.

I also propose that anyone with a digital camera step forward to be the Official Yarn Crawl Photographer and we will post (anonymous) photos here. As all of us are bloggers, we will be a joint Official Yarn Crawl Scribe.

Once we decide on a date, we will inform other knitting groups (i.e. Seamrippers, the Meetup folks, coworkers, the group at Blake's - if anyone's infiltrated that group, and so on). If our group is big, we might even want to alert the yarn stores ahead of time, and we may want to put up signs in their stores to invite other knitters to join us. Ok, ok, I work in marketing so I might be getting too extravagant with this. But maybe the yarn stores might give us special treatment or something.

Let me know via the comments if I am missing anything.