Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I'm back.

So, posting photos directly from Blogger is a pain in the ass. Using the Blogger link from Picasa causes the surrounding text to blink and vanish. I can use Picasa as long as the photo isn't too tall, because it just refuses to take it. Okay.

I had a wonderful time. I love Asheville - I have serious doubts that I could ever find gainful employment there, but it's a great place to visit. I did buy yarn, but I put one of the purchases to work immediately on a scarf for Boy, so that doesn't count as contributing to stash, and much of it was sock yarn and we all know sock yarn doesn't count, or so they tell me, and laceweight for shawls - pshaw! It takes up no room at all. Like sock yarn, it doesn't count as actual stashing.

So I'll knock out the yarn shop stuff first, since this is allegedly a knitting blog:

Yarn Shop Review:

Purl's Yarn Emporium. Eh. I bought nothing. Smallish stock, arranged by color, nothing that caught my eye. They are downtown in the main tourist shopping district, and I suspect that is the secret to their success.

My advice: Save your money for Yarn Paradise which is a big 10 minutes away in Biltmore Village. The name is not hyperbole, people. It is a large (two story!) shop, and it is loaded. Heavy Debbie Bliss, Noro out the wazoo, Koigu to the eyeballs, and a gazillion other things. Basic wools and 100% silks. Sock yarns and felting yarns. But the Debbie Bliss wall caught me, and I bought Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for a scarf for Boy, and started it immediately so it totally does not count as stashing. I also bought some in red in the baby weight for something lacey for myself. Very restrained, I think.

Earth Guild is a general fiber crafty store with looms and dyes and tools, and a relatively limited selection of yarn, but what they have is very nice indeed. Helpful staff - I found a copy of the Flower Basket Shawl, because I own a thousand knitting magazines but not THAT issue and it's out of print, and the nice store lady pointed out the laceweight Misti Alpaca they'd just gotten in stock, and I fell in love and bought it. Then went back and got a second shawl pattern and some Trekking XXL. Because Sock Yarn Does Not Count, Dammit!

That concludes the yarny portion of the vacation report. Other topics and many more photos to follow.

4 comments:

Nana Sadie said...

May we SEE the yarn? It sounds yummy!
Glad the trip was good - the photos are GORGEOUS!
(((hugs)))

Cursing Mama said...

Glad the trip went well- all except for the might be too expensive to live part :( -
I don't know how you managed to find the will to come home though after seeing all the beautiful fall colors.....

Hope your relaxed & work treats you well.

Catherine said...

Are you serious? I hiked my middle-aged ass all over the mountains to take pictures and you want to see YARN??? Just kidding, of course I'll take pictures of the yarn, but it's not that exciting. The Misti Alpaca is brown and tan, natural colors. The sock yarns are Subdued. Nothing photogenic in the lot, I'm sorry!

Catherine said...

It's not too expensive to live there - it's cheaper than where I live now - it's the small job market that is the deal-killer, unless I get lucky. But I will try to get lucky. The house prices are great - the big fancy monster we walked through was listed at like, $389K. It was huge, way bigger than I could use. Knock a hundred, hundred-fifty thou off and we're talking. IF I can find a job. So no, the economy isn't the scary part, it's the very smmmmaaaallll job market. It's an itty bitty city.