Yarn crawl! (And knitting!)

I have been a spectacularly bad blogger lately. I have no attention span, so I've been making almost zero progress with any knitting. But yesterday was the Sunflower Knitters Guild semi-annual yarn crawl, so we hit every shop on the Missouri side (seven shops) in nine hours! My new car, Kinsey, drove all over the metro area and beyond! (My little Toyota was a six-passenger car — Ana brought Beatrix, and Bendy joined us halfway through the day.)

Our first stop was Textiles a Mano in St. Joseph. We had a really early morning, but it was fun to see Laura's shop! I scored some excellent yarn from the half-price basket — some blue wool/silk and a nice camel-color wool/silk/cashmere. I also got a skein of Alpaca With a Twist Big Baby, bulky baby alpaca in a delicious red. Then it was on to Florilegium in Parkville. What a beautiful store. I didn't get anything there because I couldn't make up my mind. When the yarn is displayed like candy, it makes it nearly impossible to choose. We stopped at Urban Arts and Crafts before lunch. I didn't get any yarn there, either. (Maybe I'm turning into a responsible adult?)

 (I think I've been abusing my camera to the point where it doesn't want to focus much.)

We had a fantastic lunch at a restaurant at Briarcliff called The Cafe. (Real original.) The food was SO. GOOD. I actually ate both halves of a giant sandwich. Then it was off to Stitch Knitch, where I got a skein of the Harry Potter-inspired sock yarn from Opal. I got the Ron colorway. (Love you, Ron! Wish you weren't a fictional character!)

The last stop Kinsey made was at MisKnits (of course.) We had a long day and no one wanted to get back in the car after spending some time at MisKnits. Amber has rearranged the shop, so it's super cozy now, and she had cookies for us. I got a darling set of DPN protectors there, made by PlazaJen. (All her stuff is available at MisKnits.) My point protectors are pirate ducks. They're pretty awesome.

I did actually do some knitting yesterday and today.

I had two skeins of pink Sandnes Garn Lanett and wanted to make socks out of it. So I'm using the Fred & George pattern, but I'm calling them Padma & Parvati, after the very girly twins in Harry Potter.

Hopefully this week I will be a better blogger and post again before next Sunday night.