A Day in March

This weekend was a lot of fun. My boss's wife, Gretchen, and I went to Minneapolis on my second ever yarn crawl. We started off the day at the Three Kittens yarn store in Mendota Heights. The sales assistants were really friendly and extremely knowledgeable about a number of aspects of the yarns they carried. They had a great selection of yarns, and more importantly, a large selection of yarns that I had never seen or heard of before. My favourite was a yarn that was 50% milk! I initially assumed this just had to be a typo, and so I asked the sales assistant. Nope, it was milk! I never ceased to be amazed what can be spun. I didn't buy any because I was specifically looking for yarn to make a sweater than I plan to make and monochrome yarns to make lacy socks with. I picked up some Fresco by Classic Elite Yarns which I think will become a pair of Monkeys or another pair of Hederas. If or when I visit them again, I may take a less regimental approach to shopping and come home with some milk yarn!!


Our next stop was Borealis Yarns in St. Paul. They have a huge range of yarns spread throughout 3 different rooms, which make for a lovely atmosphere. They had a good mixture of the mainstays as well as more novel yarns. Again, the staff were really friendly. I picked up some Cascade 220 which I intend to use for a sweater and some Cascade sock yarn which I had never come across before.




Finally, we went to Depth of Field yarns, which is obviously very important to visit as a microscopist! This store had a much more laid-back feel. The selection was great and they also carried a wide range of acid dyes. I am definitely going to visit them again when I give dyeing another go. Unfortunately, we shopped through lunch and by the time we got to depth of field, the hypoglycaemia had taken hold! I was completely indecisive, but managed to select some Shirley by Kraemer Yarns which I converted into a pair of newborn size Sheepy Pants on the drive home.


I then dyed them with some acid dyes I picked up in Kansas. The yarn is half cotton and half wool. I love how the yarn stained the fibres in different ways!