At least that’s how Tricia referred to it.  We just returned from a wonderful week-long visit (sans girls) with Tricia, Michael and David in Petaluma, California.  This was my first visit to the Left Coast, and we enjoyed lots of time doing the tourist thing, and even more time in fabulouso yarn shops.

Where to start – hmmm.  How about with David, keeping the ball winder warm for us?  He enjoyed the winder way too much, and I’m trying to convince Tricia that “he” needs one.  He and the Chase the cat were both particularly helpful to us with our winding.

We spent some girl time doing the koolaid dyeing thing, and came up with some great colors!  The one in the colander will henceforth be known as “Cabbage Rose”.  I came close to fighting Tricia for this one, since we collaborated on the burgundy, but I must admit that the color scheme was completely her idea, so I let her keep it!

The remainder of our color schemes are as yet unnamed, but we had a great time, and obviously we have a great eye for colors (if you ignore the watermelon yarn.  We didn’t mean for it to look like that, really! It’s the superwash’s fault).

The highlights of the trip, however, were the yarn shops.  We visited Warren at Marin Fiber Arts for a Thursday night Knit Night AND a Saturday morning Fair Isle class, where I began to tackle this in my own grand color scheme (which is awesome, if I do say so myself).  While there, I discovered the joy of Lorna’s Laces, and came home with way more than I can talk about where my husband can read it.  Warren’s shop (and Warren) are both phenomenal, and I can’t wait to visit him again!

We visited Caroline at Philato and came home with a goodly bit more sock yarn.  Her shop is in Petaluma, and is very cute, as are her knitting children!  We made brief stops at Knitterly, Elf Handknits, and the Yarn Collection, but didn’t buy much, as we were saving up for Artfibers.  If you’re ever in San Francisco, Artfibers is a must.  It was recommended highly by Alison Hyde, so I knew it would be fabulous, but I had absolutely no idea just how fabulous.  Artfibers manufactures their own lines of yarn, and sells it at reasonable prices with generous discounts.  They will also make you a free custom garment pattern, based on your gauge, which you can find when you sit down to try out knitting any of their yarns!  Mark was a great sport, and was of course the first to pick out his yarn, Sherlock, in color 07 for a sweater vest with really cool v-shaped cables on the front.  I chose Golden Chai in color 33 for a ballet-neck pullover, and Tricia picked out Gypsy in brown, orange and cream for a striped pullover.  We probably spent 2 hours there, looking, petting, swatching, and working up our patterns!

This last picture is one that Tricia insisted on taking before I finished packing (well, actually it was after I had finished packing, but I gladly unpacked for it).  This is the sum total of all of the yarn bought by the two of us while on this trip.

I’m not going to point out specifically whose is what, but let’s just say that maybe I bought just a wee bit more than some people.  Or all people.  Yikes.  I need to go unpack the suitcase o’ yarn right now, before Mark gets home!  Oh, and speaking of Mark – Happy 16th anniversary Honey!  I love you more than ever!

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