Skagway was my favorite stop on the cruise. Mostly because I got to hold 8 week old sled dog puppies but also because the town was beautiful and so much to do.
I found Auroras Yarn and dropped some tourist money there.
There were two indie dyed yarns in there: Raven Frog Fibers and Alaska Yarn Company. From Raven Frog I picked up a hat kit that was Glacier Bay themed, then a dark green sock yarn and some grey mohair to do more hat/cowl things. Followed by a worsted skeins, one each from Raven Frog and Alaska Yarn Company.
I had to vacuum bag and seal up all the yarn to fit it to go back home. Totally worth it and would do it again 😁😉
I was able to find yarn in Alaska! First stop was Juneau and Juneau Woolies. Walked up a very steep hill to get there but it was worth it.
The shop was quant and did a great job on the window display. My kids preferred the ice cream shop next door though.
I picked up some spinning fiber in a bright purple and it’s a merino/tencel blend. Next up was some Juneau Woolies hand dyed yarns. I picked up a mohair lace for more fuzzy hats with some of their cashmere merino sock yarn. Then two skeins of their worsted for hats and an Aran weight skein for maybe some mittens. And finally a wee mini skein for scrap blankets.
Oh and I grabbed some wool wash in cash I magically need to block something in this trip! Hahahah, wishful thinking.
Next Jellybean and I found a used book store on the way back to the boat!
And the notable highlight of Knitting In The Heartland KC was the marketplace. I only did minor damage this year.
I picked up mostly one skein wonders. From Life’s a Stitch I got some magnesium lotion for my hands and a worsted skein of yarn for my hat stash. From Aunt Steph’s I got a matching small project bag and notions kit.
From Supernatural Yarns, I picked up more hat yarn this time with one DK skein and one tweed worsted skein. My biggest haul was from Potions Yarn. I got a red worsted skein for a Melt The Ice hat and then some fingering yarn and suri alpaca to make Jellybean a new fuzzy hat for next winter in ACID green.
And then lastly, from a new to me dyer I picked up some mini skeins in primary colors to play with to see how their yarn works up. I feel like this is a reasonable haul that helped vendors but didn’t blow my budget or increase my stash TOO hard, lol.
It’s been really tough work this year and I was tempted by the Yarn Barn window while I was on a lunchtime walk during my work day.
I perused the sale section, got a pair of needles to replace ones that broke and didn’t really find anything super exciting. So I went to the malabrigo section and fell in love with this super bulky Caracol. It has a black ply that wraps around a changing core yarn.
I can’t help but think this would knit up to look like stained glass. I think thinking a simple stockinette bulky cowl. I have 180 yards or 300 grams to work with. I can’t decide yet if I will just invent a pattern or find one to work from. And in the meantime this yarn served it’s purpose in lifting my mood!
I have a dear former colleague who is retiring after 35+ years of service to the organization. And we have seen SOME SHIT. So I feel like want to make something special as she was kind to me as a peer and a boss.
This leads me to her favorites. She LOVES the LV Raiders and my Touchdown Beanie pattern just so happens to have that colorwork option. AND TreasureGoddess Yarns sells a Raiders kit. SOOOOO, I bought more yarn.
I got the Raiders kit which is the Pieces of Eight (grey), White Sand Beaches (white) and Gunpowder (black) to make the hat. I even lucked out because she didn’t have a half skein of the light grey and threw in a full one instead. She really is the best.
I also picked up an extra skein of the Ruby Daggers in Warmth Worsted so I would have Chiefs colors on hand again in case I need to whip up more of those hats.
Now I need to get knitting before her party on March 20th!! Happy Knitting!!
Past Rachelle strikes again. I have a vague memory back in December of falling prey to the Cozy Knitter Insta post where she was resurrecting past advent colors.
I started The Cozy Knitter on an annual basis back in 2022. I also have the 2023, 2024 and 2025 skeins finished into socks. And after a glass of wine, I thought it was a good idea to pick up the previous 2018 to 2021 versions. And I messed up (sorta) and accidently got two 2021 skeins. So I may save that for a gift…
No immediate plans to knit these right away. I may pull a Yarn Harlot and grab them randomly in a month and do a mid year advent stripe a day?
I did a DEEP purge in my storage and laundry area this week. I took several bags of kids clothes to the local Boys and Girl Club as well some household stuff to the thrift shop. It felt really good to have more space!
And I did in fact find the tub of knitting items that I knew I was missing. Some of this yarn I had forgotten about. It was a lot of Caron Simply Soft and some chenille for blankets. And weirdly a ton of knit picks back from my craft fair days.
I kept some of the knit picks and put a lot of the rest into my donate pile. And reclaimed an entire storage tub!
I have to admit that I love collecting yarn. And I hold that buying yarn is a completely separate hobby from using it. And I have still been feeling overwhelmed about how much I have and how many places it had scattered in my house. I couldn’t find my favorite sock needles and my WIPs were overflowing.
So I did a big New Year’s round up of everything that I could see or remember from the house and pulled all my yarn storage. It filled my California king sized bed….
I did the stash first and sorted through all the yarns and redid the bin storage. Checked everything for water or bugs and made some decisions to keep or toss. I think I got everything back into (less) stuffed bins and grouped nicely. Not to mention an entire bag of acrylic and novelty yarn from my early days that is going to donate.
I also tossed all my project bags to cull my projects. I frogged or abandoned seven projects and reclaimed like 10 project bags back into my stash. I found so many needles, stitch markers and tape measures and put back into my tool storage. I also consolidated all my WIPs I still love into one large tote bag. I was proud of myself and only pulled yarn for one new project. More on that later…
I really need to get into my laundry room and storage area to clean. I think I am missing one tote of knitting related items that is in a stack somewhere. I also have three totes of kids clothes to sort and just overall reorg the storage area to be more usable. Sigh….so much adulting!
I may or may not have fell down on my wallet at the 2025 Treasure Goddess Yarn party this past October. The kids and I had a free Saturday morning so we headed over to KC to see the Treasure Goddess Farm.
Jellybean grabbed his own first knitting bag some Harry Potter stickers whilst PB chased the ducks and chickens. I meanwhile went insane. I grabbed five skeins of bubblegum pink Treasured DK Luxe. This is 70% alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere base and BABY soft. I am going to make a garment that will highlight the drape of this yarn.
Next up I grabbed two four ounces braids of fiber that are a wool/yak mix. The first is a burgundy and the second is a purple. I think I will spin those singles and ply together for a barber pole. I also grabbed a skein of DEEP blue her Warmth Worsted for my hat stash.
Finally the kids convinced me to grab a Christmas garland kit where they paint the ornaments. Cleverly Christine had some free wooden ornaments out for a craft table and my kids were hooked.
I really need to find more time in my schedule to craft all this yarn! Happy Stashing!!
I didn’t just come home from SSK with market purchases and yarn shop hop goodies, I also won two door prizes!
First up is a lady bug handmade pouch. This would work equally well as a needle/notions pouch or for a pencil case. I might ask if PB wants to use this one? She used to have a thing for Ladybug and Cat Noir cartoon.
Next up are three skeins of sock yarn in coordinating colors. All three are from different dyers but are merino or merino/nylon mixes. The pink is Yarn Cafe Creations, The green is an indie Dyer out of Alaska and the green/pink mix is Unique Sheep sock yarn. I have left these bundled together and I might consider a wrap or faded cropped sweater? I need to marinate more on that….
My Tangled Yarn Knitting Adventures 