Crawling Around on the Cape

This weekend was the first, and I hope annual, Cape Cod Yarn Crawl.  Six yarn shops ended up participating and it was a blast! We printed out our passports form the Internet here, and visited all of the stores to have them stamped. Full passports were dropped off at our last stop to be eligible for prize drawings. I had not intended to go because I had visited a nice shop the previous weekend in an field trip with my knitting group, but when Pat suggested she'd like to go I agreed and I was glad I did. It's a measure of how successful the promotion was that everywhere I went it was just too crowded to take pictures, so you'll just have my general impressions.

I had to go to work at 4:00 pm so I left the house in my work clothes and we drove out to the farthest shop first. That was  the Yarn Basket in Eastham, which shares a building with a hardware store. The Yarn Basket is a smallish shop in area, but their stock is fairly comprehensive and the owner is super helpful (even when the throngs were there!). Their selection of sock yarn is very good - I couldn't resist some Regia Blitzcolor that looked exactly like Virginia Tech colors.

We proceeded on to A Stitch in Thyme in Orleans. This is a beautiful shop, with some really stunning special yarns. Their classroom was especially appealing.  I bought an Interweave publication about traditional crochet and resisted the siren song of some gorgeous yarns. By this time the knitters were beginning to recognize each other and a party atmosphere was taking hold.

Next stop was Adventures in Knitting in Harwich Port. They have a great selection of Noro and Frogtree yarns and some really lovely samples on display. This is where our paths crossed with some knitters from our very own Stitch & Bitch of Cape Cod (hilarity ensued!).  They also have a good selection of knitting books, so if you've been thinking about a book purchase this would be a good place to get a first hand look at the one you want.

We pressed on to Ladybug Knitting shop in Dennis. After  brief stop for lunch we popped in to check it out. I think Ladybug has the best pattern selection on the Cape. They not only stock loads of books but also have a fabulous selection of single patterns (including the famous Lobster Sweater) This store is also the source of the popular yarn magnet for your car.  Here I picked up a set of Addi Turbos to replace the second set destroyed by The Worst Dog Ever. Ladybug Knitting also has a super selection of reduced price yarns if you are budget minded.

Then we drove down 6A to Black Purls in Sandwich, which I had visited last week. I succumbed to a beautiful skein of blue sock yarn here. Black Purls has gorgeous yarn, and a particularly tempting assortment of laceweight and fingering weight yarns. My opinion is that you get more knitting fun for your money with these finer yarns, but of course YMMV.

I was unable to go on the Sage in Falmouth - I just barely made it to work on time, but Pat took my passport to be validated and I'll be visiting there soon. It was the first yarn store I ever visited on the Cape and I stop in there every time I go to downtown Falmouth.

In all I think the crawl was a great success. The knitter were in a festive mood and the owners were happy and friendly. If you've never visited a particular store or you'd heard they were unfriendly this would put that idea to rest. The weather was perfect, the drives scenic - couldn't be better.



My finished sock picture is the Schoppel Wolle Zauberball socks that have been going to Stitch and Bitch with me lately. I'm hoping they end up on my own feet because the last pair of Zauberball socks I knit ended up as a gift.