Tuesday, April 29, 2008

What a Weekend!

I returned last night from a weekend full of events. I apologize in advance, as usual I had my camera with me the whole time and didn't take a single photo! I think Because I hate to be photographed I am reluctant to ask others for photos.





My weekend started with The Elegant Ewe. They were celebrating 10 years in business, and had a 25% off store wide sale. Yes, everything in the store was 25% off. I decided I had to buy a ball winder and swift. I was hoping to buy a large swift, but they were all out of them. I almost chucked the idea all together. I have a few hanks of yarn (one in particular that is a tangled mess) that are just too big for the metal swifts that seem to be the most common. I decided to go for the small (but lovely) wooden swift anyway. I'm glad I did because it was plenty big for that 1/2 pound hank of lace weight that fell right off the metal swift.
You can see in the photo that it is all tangled and crazy. This isn't the full 1/2 pound. I had already wound off a ball when I snapped this photo.

Saturday I spent evening with my Brother. It was a nice time, and I actually got some knitting done. I had very little time to knit last week, and it seemed like for every row I knit I frogged two!

Sunday started out very early with the drive out to Northampton, MA. I Lived in Northampton when I was younger, and I love to go back and visit, but this was a very special visit! At 9:50 I pulled into the Webs parking lot. About 30 seconds later Joansie pulled up right beside me. (see her blog for photos of the event)

It was 10 minutes before store opening, and people were already lining up at the door. We did have a good hour to shop before the Yarn Harlot's book signing began. Joansie had come with a friend, Rebbecca, and we took turns standing in the book signing line while the others paid for our purchases. I also ran outside to call for lunch reservations during this time. We were afraid that every restaurant in town would be flooded with hypoglycemic knitters after Stephanie's talk.

Now Webs is certainly not the same size as your average LYS. Really it's an enormous wonderland of fibery goodness, and Sunday it was JAM PACKED with people, and I was VERY impressed at how well everything was handled by the staff. Staff members (actually I think it was mainly Cathy- the owner) went up and down the line writing names on post-it's so that Stephanie could skip the "and Who am I signing for?" conversation with each of the 1000+ people that showed up to see her, books were brought down the line for people deciding they needed extra copies, and bottled spring water was passed out all over the store. They had several wonderful door prizes, and donated 10% of the days sales, $4698.00, to a local charity.

Yes, I did make a small yarn purchase:

Webs was having their anniversary sale, and there were wonderful discounts all over the store. On top of that, in honour of Stephanie's visit they offered 25% off all sock yarns for the day.

I had realized that my sock stash was devastatingly void of green. I think I have rectified that! I will buy blues next time.

The Cascade 220 is for a project that has been on my mental queue for quite some time. I'm HOPING to get to it this summer. I had to buy the yarn for it while it was under $5 a hank!


After the signing we all headed over to the Calvin Theatre to listen to Stephanie's wonderful comedy. She really is a riot, and I highly recommend seeing her if you get the chance.

After that Joansie, Rebbecca, and I headed over to Paul and Elizabeth's, where we had a wonderful meal. I had tofu fried rice. It was a heaping plate of brown rice, assorted fresh veggies, and tofu. Joansie and Rebbecca both had the Portabello Mozzarella Wrap. Good stuff! I love that place, and really wish I could get there more often. It was a special treat- made even more special because Joansie and Rebbecca were there.

After that I headed into Boston, where I got to catch up with several friends I had not seen in months! When I got home on Tuesday I was wiped out, but it was well worth it.

5 comments:

Lil Knitter said...

Oh I am so jealous! I would love to go see Stephanie! And you got yarn at a discount too..that was an awesome day. Sounds like the three of you had fun. I can totally understand why you're wiped out after that weekend.

I so wish we had a Webs down here.

Hugs!

Joansie said...

Brian, it was so much fun getting together again. The day was filled with great friends, laughter and good food, not to mention fabulous yarn shopping and the Yarn Harlot.

Your swift is beautiful. I much prefer the wooden ones over the metal ones for a variety of reasons.

Unraveling Sophia said...

Everything about your weekend sounds fantastic!! I do love your nice wooden swift and I'm sure it takes a lot of the angst out of de-tangling that yarn. I've only been to Webs once and that was just last month - your description makes me want to again tomorrow but I guess I should let them get stocked up again after You bought all the nice green yarn!!! ;)

Anonymous said...

Oh it sounds like you had such a wonderful time! I am soooo jealous.

Hugs!!!

LDSVenus said...

A yarn swift is on my want list, but I haven't let go of the money to buy one yet, thanks for the insite that made you choose wooden over metal and that the small one worked out fine, it has put me two decisions closer to getting one. :)