Yarn anyone?

In the past, I've written a couple of times about Sybil's Yarn Shop outside of Cooperstown, NY. It's housed in 3 storage sheds linked together to make a shop. And it's filled top to bottom with yarn. Good yarn. Cascade, Mirasol, Patons, Noro, Ella Rae, Farmhouse Yarns, Araucania, Online, Elsebeth Lavold, and much more. And they are usually priced below retail.

Well, I went two Saturdays ago with a friend of mine. I wanted to buy some more Queensland "Kathmandu DK". (Yes, that is another brand she has.) And to see what she had in alpaca. I did get two more skeins of the Katmandu I wanted (same color and dyelot) so I now have 9 skeins to make something yummy. I also bought 3 skeins of Mirasol "Sulka" which is 60% merino, 20% alpaca, and 20% silk bulky weight yarn. Sooo soft and yummy! Oh, and a skein of Arancania "Ranco" sock yarn just because she had it and it was new. And all this for about $36.00.

While I was waiting for my friend to finish shopping, I took a couple of pictures with my cell phone so I could show everyone just how full of yarn this place really is.

This picture shows the first room you walk into

Yes, that floor space is all there is to this room. The little room in the back is her "sale room". Almost all the yarn in there is $2.00 a skein. It's mostly Patons "Canadiana" and "Shetland Chunky" but there are some mystery cones, too. The back wall is Ella Rae. The left side is her Noro supply. And on the right wall (which unfortunately you can't see) is mostly baby yarn. Oh, yeah, she has a lot of Sirdar, too.

And then we move to the middle room



This room has Cascade 220 (on the right hand side so you can't really see it), and on the back wall and left side you can find Cascade "Pastanza", Sublime, Queensland "Kathmandu DK", Classic Elite "Skye Tweed", Symphonie "Plassard" and others I can't remember. If you turn and face the front wall, it's mostly Patons and Ella Rae with some other brands tossed into the mix.

I didn't take a picture of the last room as she had customers in there and I didn't think they'd appreciate being photographed. That room is a little larger and is separated by a column. That's where the Farmhouse Yarns, Elsebeth Lavold "Hempathy", cotton yarns, sock yarns and who know what else is found. She doesn't have a lot in the way of books and needles, though. And the pictures show the place as fairly neat but it's definitely not. You are constantly stepping over things or picking up skeins to put back on the shelf. But she is a very nice person and she has wonderful taste in yarn! Just don't take too many people with you because it's very small and rather hard to navigate. I think I want to go back this coming Saturday with a couple of the women from my knitting group.

Now to my current knitting project. I found out last Sunday that there is a surprise baby shower for our pastor's wife on November 23rd. They are expecting their 4th son in December. Naturally, I want to knit something for her. And, since it's another boy, I can't use the Gull Lace sweater I have half done. So I pulled out a couple of unfinished baby sweaters that are appropriate for a boy and didn't like either of them. That's probably why they are still unfinished.

After considering a few patterns, I decided to make another "Moonlight Sleeper" from the April 1990 issue of Workbasket. I made one in October 2005 for a baby shower and really liked how it turned out. You can check my archives to see that one. This one is being made in James C. Brett "Marble" in the Patagonia colorway. I am knitting the front first so I am sure to match the shading. This picture was taken a couple of days ago. I now have 14" done the front. Once I get to 16", I can start the raglan decreases. There shouldn't be any problem getting it done on time as long as I don't get distracted. (Who, me, distracted? Never!)



And finally, here are a couple more pictures of our trip to Cape Cod as I had a request for more photos.

This first one is the whale watch boat going out of Barnstable Harbor. I'm standing in the yard of the house we rented.


And here are Ariane, her boyfriend, Mike, and Alek standing on the beach that is 50 yards from the house looking out at the harbor.



I can't tell you how much I'd like to be there right now.

(ETA: Click on pics to make bigger)