Spring is a fun time of year for me. It brings my birthday, a high pollen count, and my Knitting Guild’s Annual Shop Hop. Saturday morning all the year’s participants rendezvoused at 8:15am. While some waited for the arrival of the rented tourist bus, the rest signed in and grabbed their bag of swag. The straw bag courtesy of Lantern Moon was filled with patterns, a bottle of water, knitting needles, advertisements, copy of our tour schedule, coupons, and even a granola bar to tide us until lunch.
This event is serious business for some. Many women stock up their savings all year so they can buy what yarn they need for big projects. The 20% store discount doesn’t hurt either, nor does the awesomeness of NOT HAVING TO DRIVE AND WORRY ABOUT PARKING.
I personally get a kick out of it. When else can I geek out with fellow Fiber Freaks?
For those of you who don’t get this, whose eyes have glazed over while your head lolls to one side in confusion, allow me to offer this tip: replace “yarn” with “whatever gives you a geek-hard on”. If that’s comics, video games, gardening, beer brewing, or even competitive llama yodeling, good on you. Now envision you and sixty other like-minded geeks touring all the stores that carry what you need to make that hobby happen.
Are you drooling now?
Good. You’ve got it.
We had five stores on the tour and they all treated us like royalty:
Wool ‘n’ Wares
Angelika’s
Happy Knits
A Close Knit
Twisted
With my wallet and margarita in hand, I embraced my inner-pirate and pillaged to my knitter’s delight.
BEHOLD MY PLUNDER!!
Pretty Instagram photo is pretty but it doesn’t do the colours justice or the option to zoom in. However, what you can make out is what I won during the raffle. Raffle?? There was a raffle?? Ah yes. One of the coolest things about Shop Hop is even if you don’t purchase anything you do not go home empty handed. You get the gift bag/basket and you also get a raffle prize. This year I was lucky enough not to win pink yarn and instead skipped merrily home with two bags from Della Q. One “Paws off my knitting” project bag and one foldable interchangeable needle case. In brown. So that appeases my steampunk geek nicely.
Alrighty, going clockwise, first up is some Eucalan wash and 100g of Pur (Wools ‘n’ Wares). One hundred percent merino virgin wool. Pur indeed. The red, black, gray, and white throw-back to the 80’s colour scheme is a beautiful skein of “Lady MacBeth” from Abstract Fiber (Twisted). Next is a double-shot glass from Bread and Badger with a laser etched design of yarn and knitting needles (Twisted). PERFECT for when I want to sip my Patron tequila while working on my latest sock pattern. On your six are two sets of no.1 and no. 2 nickel plated needles from Knit Picks (Happy Knits). Finally, a pair of really cute knee high socks for knitters (Twisted). I know, I know….if I can knit my own why in the hell did I buy socks? Because it would take me forever and then some before I got around to knitting knee highs. Onward!
Continuing clockwise we have a vibrant green skein of hand dyed yarn from Little Red Bicycle called…..wait for it…..”Cthulhu”. I had to get it for the name alone. Okay, not just the name, but I laughed pretty good. One guild member asked me what was so funny and when I told her, I heard crickets. Oh. I suppose not everyone is up to speed on H.P. Lovecraft. Next to that is a pretty skein from Perfection by Kraemer Yarns in “Autumn Drift” that was in my gift basket. The last skein is from Lorna’s Laces (Angelika’s has TONS) and it is my favourite colourway by far, “Zombie BBQ”. I’m currently knitting a pair of zombie socks (pattern found on Ravelry.com, ‘natch) from this. Don’t believe me? See below.
The photo is over a year old and I haven’t even gotten to the gusset yet. Yes, I am a distracted knitter. But see how frakin’ cool that looks?! Of course you do. Which is why you completely understand and support my decision to get some in worsted weight so I can make a matching hat!
Lastly, I took a photo from this angle so one can marvel at how truly MASSIVE this Lantern Moon gift basket is. I swear, if Lantern Moon wasn’t using their awesome powers for good, I would think this was a soul sucking cauldron of doom. Or…something a bit more witty.
That concludes my regaling tale of adventure, travel, and pillaging. It also reminded me that plundering is hard.
Undiluted Type 
Sounds like fun!