Same Girl, New City

And the wayward yarn whore returns!

Well, I'm still here. And still knitting. And still voraciously buying yarn faster than I can knit it. But I'm in Philadelphia! For a few weeks, at least. Holed up in the fabulous Rittenhouse Square area (and it is a beautiful area), but my days are spent alone and I seem to have lost my knitting mojo a bit.

Le Sigh.

It's...different. This is my first time "living" away from home (yeah, three weeks isn't exactly living) and it's very nice. Very, very nice. Part of me wishes I could stay here forever, but I'm starting to feel homesick for friends and kittens. Already. And it's only been five (?) days.

Anyway, let's focus on the awesome here. Because, as bored as I can get sometimes, this has still been a pretty nice vacation. Did I mention that I am within walking distance of not one but TWO yarn shops? Loop and Rosie's Yarn Cellar are both within a ten minute walk from our place and I scoped them both out the first chance I got. As you may or may not know, Loop is one of the few flagship shops that sell Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter...and I got some.

Really? Did you think I would resist?

Three beautiful skeins (2 in Embers and 1 in Long Johns) came home with me and now I have no idea what to do with this precious stuff. The colors are phenomenal, the yarn is woolly and lovely, and how can you not love the names? I suspect my next purchase will be a skein of "Button Jar," but, seeing as I am not naturally a green person, I wonder if I may just be buying it for the name. And the girls who work there are really nice...I need some area yarn friends!

Happy Little Bins of Shelter

(Oh, and by the way, Philadelphia is a GREAT city for foursquare. I managed to score 10% off my first purchase at Loop just by checking in. How great is that? I also have gotten two free pints of Lager for checking in...nice!)

And even though I haven't posted an FO in MONTHS (how in the world did that happen?), I do have some ends begging to be woven in. And maybe, maybe, maybe, I will be able to share them soon. For now, here is a little glimpse into my first weekend in Philly.

Happy Knitting!

The day of 95 skeins & a most excellent LYS

Remember when I accidentally ordered 83 skeins of yarn from Little Knits?

Yeah, me too.

Well, I didn't exactly order 83 skeins of yarn all at once. As I mentioned a few posts back, Little Knits holds orders (if you've placed, oh, I don't know, two or three in a week) and then ships them all together. Which is really good (they offer free shipping), but also really bad. Especially when your yarn weight amasses to a whopping 19 pounds. Which is what happened to me.

This is what 19 pounds of yarn looks like.

Using my chubby fluffy cat as reference

As Kate made a point to tell me, when I texted her said photo, "you're crazy." Well, yeah, but now I have some luscious, luscious new yarn. 

Now, dear readers, you may be viewing the post heading and scratching your head. "But Ashley," you may ask, "where did the other 12 skeins come from?" The answer, my dear Watson, is the magical place known as The Fold.

Located in Marengo, which doesn't really seem to offer much to passersby, The Fold is an amazing little yarn shop. They sell some incredible yarns (Blue Moon Fiber Arts! Malabrigo Sock! Frog Tree! Etc.!) and have the best selection of spinning wheels, roving and spindles that I have ever seen in a LYS. And you can really find some amazing deals. Or, in Christie's case, you can walk away with a free skein of Art Yarns Ultramerino ($22).

"It doesn't have a price sticker. It must be free!" - Toni, the owner

While I didn't get any freebies (oh wait, I did...), I did find some incredible steals. My entire haul cost around $60. Did I mention she offers a 10% Guild discount? Even on sale yarns?

2 skeins of Cascade Heritage Paints

This Cascade Heritage Paints cost me $1 (pre-discount). I snatched up the last two skeins. Same thing with this Beatrice I bought. I should have enough for a hat.

2 skeins of Beatrice by Classic Elite Yarn

I also bought two skeins of Artyarns Ultramerino 4 (fingering weight) for $2.25 each. They're two different colors, but Christie suggested I make some funky socks using both skeins. So much sock yarn!

Amazing, right? I also got a freebie mystery skein (I suspect it is Koigu) from the free basket. I'm pretty much in love with the colors.

Can anyone tell what this is?

I also bought some Classic Elite Miracle and Blue Moon Socks that Rock, but I shall save those for the next post. Because they are just that delicious. Plus this post, dedicated mostly to The Fold (and also my yarn hoarding tendencies), deserves its own digs. I will definitely be returning again, because each time we go it just gets better and better. And I'm sure we'll need more yarn in a few lifetimes weeks.