20% off was our discount, and we had 45 minutes to shop at each place. There's quite an excitement in the air when this happens. A bell rings at half time so we can get in line, and at the 5 minute mark when it's time to go. Luckily, the bus waits while we climb back on board with our purchases.
On arrival at the start, we received this beautiful black and white knitting project bag from Lantern Moon called a Baroque Sling, a $50 value. The side pocket is so large, the organizers put a bottle of water and a snack for us in there! My pic is of it flat, but the website pic is much more stylish.
Plus each attendee won a raffle prize on the bus donated by various knitting vendors. My prize was very cool "Cheep Bag" made of cotton, with a green bird printed on the front, and contained inside, 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Hand Dyed Worsted in a light tan color, along with a Baby Bobbi Bear pattern.
The yarn is so beautiful and soft; a welcome addition to my BSA yarn collection. I'm not sure if I'll make the bear from this yarn as I think I would like to make something that I'll use for myself, but we'll see.
Mostly, I tried to focus on buying yarns that I could not buy in Victoria.
At the first shop Wool 'n Wares, it was a sweet hello to a new owner and goodbye to Marge, who has long supported our guild. She was discontinuing some booklets and magazines for $1, so I picked up a Jaeger Booklet there, along with a booklet I'd been meaning to get for awhile.
Next shop, Make One, was new to me. They had the most comprehensive collection of Cascade Yarn I've ever seen. I fell in love with Cascade Eco Duo in 2 colorways - one is a charcoal grey and white combination:
which stripes pleasantly on a 4" swatch and makes for an interesting pattern when knit in the round, for the sample "PDX Hat", and a brown/tan "pecan" combination
I think someone on Rav coined the color name). Also, one skein of Eco Alpaca in a rich deep chocolate brown color for a pair of mitts.
I had selected more, but put it back as Alpaca is just too hot in this climate to make anything more than smaller projects.
Between the next 3 shops - Yarn Garden, Happy Knits and Close Knit, I purchased Malabrigo Worsted yarn in the colorway Tuareg, which Diamond Yarns, the Canadian Distributor has chosen not to import (too bad) - it's a beautiful colorway -
It was a pleasant surprise at the last shop Twisted, to see Indigo Moon Yarns featured there. Fellow shop hopper grabbed up Trish's yarn, while the rest of us gawked at the wall of sock yarn - Blue Moon, Three Irish Girls, Hazel Knits and many more local indie dyers. I settled on 2 skeins - a Hazel Knits sock yarn in a lovely red-purple colorway (yes, my fave), called Lipstick:
and a skein of medium weight in hot pink, a pastel-ish pink that I'm not too fond of, and the same lovely red-purple colorway (ahem, I couldn't resist):
After carrying it around most of the shop, the gals asked which one I'd decided on; I simply couldn't put it back, so I took book and added a skein of Mal sock in a lovely blue which cost only about $15 with the discount, and NO TAX (Yay!) compared to C$30 + tax here.
I had a great time and enjoyed re-connecting with fellow guild members and old friends. The icing on the cake for me was that the current president approached me after the Shop Hop was over and thanked me for coming up with the Shop Hop idea in the first place; saying that everyone had fun and enjoyed themselves. I'm happy (as is my stash) that they're still continuing with the tradition each year; it's come a long long way from the first year that's for sure.
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