Round 2: LYS Shop Hop 2007

Saturday morning we met again, armed with travel knitting, snacks, beverages (yes, at one point there was drinking, driving and knitting all occurring simultaneously!), and two additional adventurers: Shirley and Barb, who manned the tail-gunner positions in the van ("wheee"). Some of us accomplished a fair bit of knitting on the ride from Monterey to San Jose, where we picked up the Shop Hop tour with
Commuknity


Wow! What a gorgeous place. Spacious, with amazing multi-use areas, class space, cozy lounging spots, an incredible selection of books and wonderful yarns. And coffee. And snacks. And lovely staff. And surprise! Virtual life coincided with real life and I got to meet Lara who so kindly helped me several times with my CPH both on the KAL and Ravelry Sadly, I wasn't wearing it, as the day promised to be too warm, but I want to revisit this store and will be sure to wear it. Thanks again, Lara. Next stop was Los Altos, with two stores to visit:
Uncommon Threads and Full Thread Ahead
which are within walking distance of each other, and in a beautiful, interesting neighborhood, so worth another visit as well.


There was an opportunity to see and fondle some unfamiliar or new yarns in person.

Shokay Shambala, used by Jared for the Koolhass Hat
Curious Creek Fibers
and Chasing Rainbows were two other beautiful yarns that I had not seen in person before.
The stores were quite different in feel; one store owner seemed very tense with the whole Shop Hop thing, us, staff, something. It was definitely uncomfortable. It seems odd, even though we all showed financial support for the store. Oh well, the gorgeous weather and autumn leaves soon lightened our spirits.



Back on the road, our next stop was Nine Rubies, in San Mateo.

This warm, friendly store and helpful, patient staff is another valuable gem, and we soon forgot the previous stop. Such a delight; I connected with another virtual acquaintance, and managed to score some gorgeous sock yarn named in her honor. Down the street was a restaurant we agreed looked promising, Astaria. My roasted beet and goat cheese salad was good enough; the rest of the crew had uneven experience with their meals.
We were waylaid heading back to the van by Ichiban Kan, a fabulous Japanese $1 store, absolutely full of wonderful, ingenious items, some which are perfect knitting tools and accessories.
Next stop took us around Robin Hood's Barn, thanks to an argument with MapQuest. Apparently there are alternate universes with the same address. Eventually we arrived at Creative Hands, in Belmont


A cute store, absolutely packed with yarn and students in the midst of a knitting class. The aisles were so narrow, it was hard to see and appreciate the wealth of yarns and possibilities. The staff were friendly and helpful, and gave us great directions on to the next stop, Knitter's Studio, in Menlo Park.


There was a street craft show going on, so we had to stay focused and alert to find the shop, the sign is pretty small. The store is spacious, full of gorgeous yarn, artfully arranged by color. The owner is incredibly vivacious and energetic, staff were friendly and helpful, however it was stunning that they had run out of copies of their one-skein project pattern! Also disappointing was the fact that the yarn for the project was more than $60 per skein. Throughout the tour we found a lot of variety in terms of creativity and thought put into the projects and yarn, as well as presentation. In some stores the pattern was delivered in a protective sleeve, there was a discount given for purchasing the one-skein yarn, all yarn purchases carefully wrapped in tissue, the bags for completed purchases were sturdy and useful as project bags for years to come, we were welcomed and treated as though we were regular faithful customers. In other stores...not so much. This made store #15 on the tour, we had one to go, and miles, before we sleep. It was almost dark when we arrived in Morgan Hill, at The Continental Stitch


The owner is very sweet, patient and helpful, and actually stayed open late to accommodate us. The store has a nice selection of yarn and books, and has a lovely warm feel. I was able to find a rare knitting book, so I'm tickled.
There was snoozing on the drive back, thankfully not by our pilot Marie. What a great experience this was, challenging and daunting and fun; the good company made all the difference. Not something I'd want to do again next month, but probably next year might be just right. Finally, here's the proof:

Round 1: LYS Shop Hop 2007

I feel like I've been rode hard and put up wet. We hit 8 yarn stores on Day One of the 2007 Peninsula to Pier Yarn Shop Tour. But it was fun.

Round 1.5 was today, I went to only one place, Knitting by-the-Sea, in Carmel. Then I came home and lay down for an hour. Must save my strength for tomorrow, when we do the last 7 stores.
Many thanks to Marie, who did the research and mapped out the battle plan and scientifically figured the routes, plotting and printing all for the navigator (me) and backseat co-pilot, Martha. We had such fun, and adventures, too. One of the high points wasn't even a yarn shop, but this: Transilvania Restaurant in Los Gatos. We were magnetically drawn there purely by chance, and empty tummies; we had already conquered 5 yarn stores and were running on fumes. "Sushi?" "Nope." "Pizza?" "Nope." "Gelato?" "Well, it seems appealing, but probably not a good idea." This cozy and unusual place materialized in the nick of time, and we were saved from what could have been sugar overdose tragedies. The waitress was a gem, and the food was absolutely divine. Definitely worth a trip back.


Back to business, theoretically this post isn't about food. We started the day at 9 sharp, drove to Capitola for our first stop, arriving with about ten minutes to spare. Unbelievably, they weren't open yet!
We had to be content with just pressing our noses to the glass of The Yarn Place. Very nice place, cheerful, helpful staff, good selection of interesting yarns. Definitely skeins up.




Next we drove on into Santa Cruz, for The Golden Fleece
What a treasure this shop is!
Great yarn, lovely people, their one-skein pattern is adorable, the coziest mary-jane style slippers, I'm so excited to get started on them.
They also had these on display:
Knit characters from Wallace and Gromit, available as a kit. Be still my heart!


From there we drove on to The Swift Stitch, tucked into the corner of an interesting collection of shops and cafes, worth exploring at leisure some future time.
Another very nice store, though the lighting was not great, but still an interesting variety of yarns, very helpful staff, and a unique one-skein pattern and yarn being offered for this Shop Hop. They also had an amazing scarf made of sculpted roving, and a wild collection of knit-clothed dolls.










We had a bit of a drive through redwood scenery to Felton, to Luminous Threads.
They had an absolutely stunning quilt in the window,

and the store itself is quite lovely, with a great collection of fabrics, buttons and yarn, quite charming and helpful staff, again, worth another visit at leisure in future.

We soldiered on, driving over the winding mountain trail that is scary Highway 17, and arriving in beautiful Los Gatos. With my affinity for all things cat, I'm shocked I haven't found a way to live here.
Equally shocking is to find a yarn store called Yarndogs
but it's true.
Yarndogs


Such a great store, really a delight. Fabulous variety of yarn, great staff, really warm feeling overall. Even though we were almost starving, we hated to leave. We knew we had to find something to eat when we started imagining that the skeins of yarn resembled food.





Los Gatos itself is like a piece of art, the trees are turning colors, the park in the center of town gleamed like an emerald, all quite beautiful.
After our fortifying lunch, we drove over the mountains down into Santa Clara valley to
The Rug & Yarn Hut, in Campbell.

I should only say we had been spoiled up to this point. There are reviews of this store online that say it all.




We encountered a slight navigational storm after departing and had to circle the area a few times to reach escape velocity, but we made it to our next stop, The Knitting Room, in San Jose.
Very sweet, patient people, vast selection of plentiful, quality yarns, worth another visit. They also have a knitting group for men, yay.



At this point, we were hot, tired, needing coffee and the rejuvenating sweet air of our own Peninsula, so we sped home.

Marie and I ended up meeting independently at Monarch Knitting, for the perfect end to the day.
I've said it many times, before, I love this store, and the people therein (and I'm counting Sakura and Charlie as people, though they might take umbrage at that).