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| Amazing Threads - all together |
Before I get started, I just want to say that the opinions
expressed below are mine and mine alone. If you want to know more about the trip be
sure to ask someone who attended. They’ll
probably enjoy talking about it.
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| Golden Eggs |
I love the Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop. It happens every year, (well, except that 1
year I think, but I’m blocking that out) in early-mid April. This year the dates were April 11-14. It combines many of my favorite things,
shopping and yarn, friends from CTC, supporting local businesses, and free
patterns! This year, purchasing the
passport included a tote bag to display the pins collected at each shop.
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| Gloria & Lily
|
We had a little bit of a late start on Friday.
Once the 10 (AJ, Brenda, Chris, Diane,
Gloria, Nancy, Joy, Stephanie & me) of us loaded into Brenda’s 15-passenger
van, it headed out from Edina.
Fortunately,
as the organizer, my job is over, so I get to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Brenda is simply a wonderful driver,
maneuvering that big van in even the tightest of spots.
Joy does a great job as navigator.
Gloria is our shop ambassador, enchanting the shop
staff with this year’s mascot Lily.
Gloria designed the Lily, the yarn fairy, to accompany us on the hop and
the two of them capture hearts and pictures wherever they go.
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Amazing Threads
Sample |
Our first stop is Amazing Threads in Maple Grove. In keeping with the theme of fairy tales, Amazing
Threads is decorated for Jack & the Beanstalk. This fun shop goes all out decorating, props and photo station large
enough to accommodate all 10, wait no, there are 12 of us, including Lily and
one member, Barb who met us at the shop and joined us for the group photo. The crochet pattern, “Up the Beanstalk”
scarf, has some lovely detail, a nod to the climbing vine. There were 3 colorways to choose from:
Beanstalk (green), Golden Egg (yellow) and Magic Beans (pink). The store was quite busy when we arrived, so
the addition of 10 crocheters caused a bit of a traffic jam, but we all managed
to make our purchases and get back in the van to the to head to Minneapolis.
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| Knit & Bolt |
Minneapolis has 2 yarn shops that participate in the hop. First
up is
Knit & Bolt; they chose Baba Yaga as their fairytale and the Baba
Yaga yarn by Fiber MacGyver has beautiful earth tones. I am looking forward to
working up the Three Nights Hat crochet pattern with it; I mentioned to my
husband that I thought it would be good yarn for a man’s hat and he suggested a
sweater, if only I had bought more yarn.
As a side note, I really appreciate the theme and variety of colorways
this year.
Last year’s ocean-related
theme led to blue and blue-green colorways being offered at most stores.
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| Lily & Steven Be |
Steven Be’s is an explosion of texture, color, and fun, and
that’s on a “normal” day.
With a theme
like the “Emperor’s New Clothes”, the shop is even more of a treat!
The
crochet pattern from the store is for a Tunisian cowl using some very bulky
yarn and size R hook. I fell in love with some gorgeous yarn Steven brought
back from Africa – it jumped in my hands and made me late getting back to the
van.
Fortunately, the driver is very
patient and no crocheters are left behind.
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| Lily @The Yarnery |
Our next stop (after lunch) is
The Yarnery, in St.
Paul.
The Yarnery had a cute photo stand,
and the store was a “Fairy Trail”, like a walk through the woods, The patterns
were for a trio of knit hats, “Trail Mix” or a crochet scarf, “Trail Magic”.
The yarn
was pretty and colorway choices were neatly packaged in a box; A+ for
presentation.
In addition to the shop
hop yarn, Polka Dot Sheep provides yarn that supports the One Yarn collection.
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Muse 2320 Fiber Co, Hastings
|
It's a bit of a hike from St. Paul to Hastings, but the time
flies by when you are in good company.
And let’s face it,
Muse 2320 Fiber Co. is well worth the trip. This tiny
shop is a real treasure, managing to feel cozy and welcoming in what could be a
very cramped space. Muse 2320 is the smallest yarn shop in size only, they offer
a great selection and some truly unique yarns & items.
For the hop, the theme was Red Riding
Hood.
Muse 2320 offered 5 colorways for
the Hood pattern (knit & crochet versions), each one was simply beautiful.
It was a tough choice.
I did finally settle on Pretty Flowers
Everywhere, which I had to pre-order.
On
the way out, I always
have to drop some quarters in the gumball machines.
Buttons and stitch markers, you betcha!
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| Northfield Yarn |
Our last Friday shop is
Northfield Yarn.
A local author Trung Le Nguyen published a
graphic novel, “The Magic Fish” in 2020.
Northfield Yarn used the book as their inspiration for the 2024
hop.
The knit and crochet patterns and the
yarn Kitty Pride Fibers custom dyed for Northfield Yarns were inspired by the
tale of a boy navigating life through fairy tales. And, yeah, I’m all about the
crochet and crochet pattern, but even I have to admit the texture and design on
the knit pattern are tempting.
It’s always
a struggle to pick and choose which yarns to purchase, I want to collect them
all!
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Northfield Yarn
Knit pattern |
As we drive back to our parking lot, we pass Lakeville, it’s
not even 6 pm. I remember local yarn shops that don’t
participate in the shop hop.
I wonder if
we should try to squeeze some of them in as well next year.
I decide to postpone thinking about it until
next year’s hop.
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| Needle & Skein |
Saturday, April 13 is a beautiful day, the sun is shining, and we have 6 more shops to visit.
And,
yeah, since I’m writing the blog, I’m going to say it: April 13
th
was Stephanie’s 40
th birthday. Everyone from yesterday’s group is
back, plus 2, Kate & Lina.
Everyone arrived in Edina at the parking lot more
or less on time.
Side note: I know I’ve mentioned the itinerary and schedule
a couple of times. If you know us, you
know that we are not really that ridged.
Having a schedule and route gives us guide to work with. Last year, we had 8 people at most, and we were
back to Edina by 4pm each day. This
year, with 10 and 12 people, we spent more time loading and unloading, and we
started about a half hour late one day. Once
we determined it worked for everyone in the group, we could adjust. The van was in the parking lot by 6:30pm on
Friday and I was home around 5:30pm on Saturday. Now back to the hop:
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| Harriet & Alice |
Chris & Nancy were both familiar with the Edina area; they
suggested we adjust our route from last year.
This year, our first stop was Harriet & Alice. I am embarrassed to say that I had never
heard of the fairy tale “The Daring Princess”.
It’s a re-telling of Grimm’s The Iron Stove, in which the princess
rescues the prince. There were fun
pictures of the characters around the shop and the yarn was very pretty.
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| Needle & Skein |
Unfortunately, this was one of only two shops
that did not have a crochet pattern.
The
volunteers staffing the check in table said that the pattern would be published
after the hop and even furnished a QR code but couldn’t tell us anything about
the pattern (was it a hat, a cowl, a tiara?), because they hadn’t seen it.
When I went back to check the QR code failed
to lead to a pattern.
After a couple of
days, I followed up with the shop.
I was
informed that the volunteers had misinformed me and unfortunately, there would
be no pattern; or if they do get one eventually, they’ll post about it on their
social media.
It's not far to Needle & Skein. The theme is Adventures in Wonderland/Purl
the Squirrell (I was a little confused about the squirrel, but then again, it
was Wonderland-
where confusion is the status quo). The shop was a tribute to one of my all-time
favorite stories (I even read “Through the Looking Glass”). While checking in, we had time to get a
picture, grab a tea party cookie and watch a few moments of the Disney animated
movie. The Red Queens Court Cowl crochet pattern features
yarn by Dream in Color. The colorway is fabulous.
It's a longer drive to White Bear Lake’s A Sheepy Yarn
Shoppe. I wasn’t familiar with The
Nightengale story, and the shop did not offer a crochet pattern. It was disappointing, but not unexpected;
last year they were the only shop that didn’t have a crochet pattern.
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| Darn Knit Anyway group photo |
We decided to drive to Stillwater and find a place to eat
there; we forgot that it was the kind of day, weatherwise, that ensured
Stillwater restaurants were swamped.
To
make things easier in the restaurants, we split into smaller groups.
Note for next year:
do not try to eat lunch in Stillwater on a
nice day during the weekend. I really like Stillwater, and one of the things
that I really like about Stillwater is Darn Knit It Anyway. I mean, this shop
has a Makers Space, River cruise, Sweater Camp (ok, that’s knit, not crochet,
but still way cool!). One of the things I like about DKA is that they are
unique.
DKA chose a real-life “fairy-tale”,
the Cottingley Fairies hoax, for their inspiration.
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| DKA - Story |
Darn Knit Anyway is one of those places where we must take a
group photo to commemorate the day.
The
group photo doesn’t show off the fairy wings in the background – they work
better with selfies, and I saw a lot of people taking them.
DKA’s
yarn is called “Deep Fake” by Fiber MacGyver and the crochet pattern is called “Seeing
is Believing”.
It’s a kerchief, I think
I’m going to look for a solid color yarn to better show off the stitches and save
my Deep Fake for a project that will show off the yarn.
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Knitting From
The Heart |
On the way to Woodbury, I realized there are only two more
shops. The day has been so much fun I know I need to make the most of the
remaining time.
Knitting from the Heart is a great LYS, with a great selection and lots of classes. Last year's crochet pattern was a lovely shoulder cozy; ask Gloria to show you a picture. Some things are too cute, and some things are not cute at all, – the knit pattern for the 3 Bears hats is just the right amount of cute, with a pattern for each of the bears!
The Goldilocks Cowl crochet
pattern looks pretty good, too. The two colorways by Dream in Color were delightful,
and really, really hard to choose between.
The final stop is in Mendota Heights,
3 Kittens NeedleArts.
The color ways, Snow White and
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3 Kittens
crochet sample |
Happy were understandably sold out.
The
crochet pattern was available through Ravelery with a QR code.
The Heigh Ho cowl sample was in Happy, but I think
it would be striking in Snow White as well.
Those of us with passports turned them in for the drawings. Spoiler
Alert: Gloria won the grand prize: a $250 gift card good at any of the participating
shops, but we didn’t find that out until after the hop was complete.
Brenda won a store prize from Needle & Skein.
Seems like we were a lucky group!
Wowser! *Okay, I don't know where that came from, not sure I wanna know*.
Two very fun
days, twelve very different shops, about 230 miles and 5 hours of driving.
I’m not much on math, but to me that all adds
up to a great weekend and successful event.
I hope the 11 members who accompanied me on the fairy tale tour enjoyed
it as much as I did!
Thank you all for
sharing a fun event!
