I know you wanna know how the Knitting Divas day out went...

I'm just gonna tell it. What a glorious day! of! yarn! ...Actually I should back up just a titch. Before the actual day came there was a torrent of email between the four of us regarding time and scheduling and driving and maps and many, many exclamation points. We were Excited! Capital. E.

This is my we.
(and if anyone knows how to make blogger let me line these pictures up without overlapping or jumping all to one side... I will take that help. GRR.)

The day dawned cool and a little gray. Not too hot. Not too cold and no blinding sun for the driver (who's name is also Tricia - watch out, it might get confusing!) Anyway, my best yarny girls ( Sonja-navigator, Tricia-driver, Danyelle-general encouragement) and I set out planning to stop at 7 yarn stores in 1 day. At each shop we had food items to drop off, punch cards to punch, drawings to enter, free patterns to pick up and of course, yarn to snuggle. Amazingly each store had it's own appeal and we had tons of fun checking them out. I'll save you from the novel I could write about each and only focus on two of the bestest ones.

StevenBe's Wow . Just wow. This one is in South Minneapolis and felt like NONE of the other shops we went to all day.

It. was. Crazy.

It's a former fire station now owned by the self proclaimed "Glitter Knitter" Steven Berg. Floor to ceiling color and fiber, friendly helpful employees and constant "announcements" made to the room by Steven himself. I had to buy a Vogue Knitting with his full page ad in it just so he would sign it and have his picture taken with me!

If you look closely you can see the blue hair and that the Magazine I'm holding is the one he signed on his ad. I'm just sorry we missed our chance at a photo when he had on 3 separate cowls!

The awesome StevenBe's Firehouse turned Yarn Garage!

The "Yarn Shop of the Day" award goes to Lila and Claudines in Mahtomedi. There were many reasons that we loved it SO so much. Where StevenBe's was entertaining and loud, Lila and Claudines was tranquil and cozy...

1. We ALL bought yarn. This says something. Whilst we all L.O.V.E. yarn, we also tend to be a little thrifty, which doesn't always fit well with fancy yarn shopping. This leads to #2

 2. Bargain bin finds! Danyelle went home with two delicious skeins of angora/merino/yum in pink and brown for only $5 each! (originally marked at $16.50) Her newest bundle is going to have the softest Kenna button top EVER. 

3. SO MUCH YARN. 'nuf said.

4. All around adorableness. Many yarn shops are adorable but this one greeted us with giant knitting needles and yarn. Hello winner!

5. Super sweet helpful women of yarn behind the counter. It's always a bit of a question whether this yarn is right for this project. And always a pleasure to have someone else to help find those answers. (also especially cool but not really related to the awesomeness of the shop was the bumping into of a pattern writer whose pattern we were matching yarn to -talk about HELPFUL and SERENDIPITOUS!)

Thus far there is no prize beyond the four of us knowing this shop made us the most happy during Yarn Quest 2011. Perhaps I will frame and send them this picture of our joy. I bet they would LOVE that.

All in all it was a GREAT day. We were unbelievably dorky about our yarn. BUT how lucky am I to have 3 friends to be that dorky with? Supa. Lucky.  We're totally cute too *wink wink*

This one is outside of the Yarnery in St. Paul. Even the woman who took the picture for us couldn't stop telling us how cute we are! Who wouldn't look cute perched on the steps of a cute little house-turned-yarn-shop full of yarn!?  It's just smart to take a picture there. 

Next time we're inviting more yarny friends to this day of awesomeness. And probably we'll need a bus. Woot!