So, I had this brilliant idea for my vacation this year. Because of the abundance of wonderful knit shops relatively close to where I live, I figured there had to be tons of them between here and Tennessee, especially since we were taking that detour to Indianapolis to get Marcus’ computer and to see the Harlot.
Since I had just purchased the pattern for Noni’s Medallion Travel Bag (It’s under Fall 2007 - I would link to the pattern itself, but their stupid site is all javascript), wouldn’t it be great to make said bag from a skein of yarn purchased at each shop I visited? I even made myself a Google map of all the shops close to our destinations.
Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.
The first shop we visited was Knitorious in Southern St. Louis, MO, picked because it was very close to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard (on historic Route 66) and a Lion’s Choice (home of the most wonderful roast beef sandwiches ever). The women I met in this shop were so nice (fellow Ravelers) and even encouraged Marcus to go hang out on the couch in the back while I browsed around. Since I was fairly low on funds and the govt. rebate check had yet to be direct deposited to the old bank account, I decided to go with Cascade 220 for the bag. I wish I had had it in my budget to buy some local yarn — there was a particularly pretty green sock yarn from the St. Louis area I wanted &mash; but it was not meant to be this time around. I figured the Cascade was a safe choice because just about everyone carries it, right? I decided that I was going to go with a yellow/black color scheme for the bag and found the most beautiful shade of yellow (7828). I even decided that it was OK if I couldn’t find all the same color lot, it would add character.
The second place we hit was called Knitty Couture. The owner was really nice, but I really wasn’t impressed with the store. I’m starting to learn that if stores tout themselves as “Premier”, “Modern” or “Hip”, then they’re going to be too foofy and have too narrow a selection for my tastes. It’s just not a climate I feel comfortable in. That being said, she did have some Cascade 220, but of course not the yellow I wanted. This should’ve been the first sign that things were not going to go as planned. I broke down against my better judgment and bought a skein of black. The owner made some comment about buying a yarn I could’ve bought at home. Once again, not the point of the bag. Hmph.
Even though there were a couple of other places I wanted to hit in the St. Louis area, time just wouldn’t allow it on this trip. Believe me, I was really bummed. I didn’t even make it to The Loopy Ewe or Myers House, two places I really wanted to go.
We took off for Indianapolis and made it to see the Yarn Harlot about five minutes late (why can’t every state have a 75mph speed limit?). There was a store North of there I wanted to go to, but didn’t have time. After breakfast and on our way to Louisville, KY, I stopped in at a place close to the Indianapolis Apple Store we visited called Knit Stop. It was a nice looking store, but no Cascade. Also, since not a single employee said boo to me, I left empty-handed (it’s a personal policy of mine - if you can’t at least say hello, I guess you don’t want my money). The next stop was Mass Ave Knit Shop. They had Cascade (not the yellow, but a hank of black). I was even contemplating a skein of alpaca I was fancying. Once again, though, two times around the store and not one person in there uttered a peep to me. It really is a pet peeve of mine and may sound lame, I admit, but I was really put off and once again left empty handed.
The final shop of the day was Grinny Possum in Jeffersonville, IN (right across the state line from Louisville). The woman that owned the shop was most friendly and I really did want to purchase something there, but alas, no Cascade 220 in any color and nothing else that I just had to have. Then we ended up lost in icky downtown Louisville during rush hour on Derby weekend because I wrote down the wrong address for the Apple Store in Louisville that morning in the hotel. I’ll be honest, this day of our vacation put a really bad gloom on me. I was at at the point where I wished I didn’t have to go to Tennessee and could just go home. I knew the next two days would offer absolutely no chance of getting anything for my bag. Clarksville doesn’t have a proper yarn store and we wouldn’t have time to get down to Nashville. The quilt store they have had a small selection of yarn (some Cascade but neither of the colors I chose) and I broke down in a moment of weakness and spent $8 on a skein of 100% acrylic that I probably could’ve paid $2 for anywhere else. Don’t know what I’m going to do with that.
I’ll be honest, by the time we got to Kansas City Friday to spend our last night on the road, I was literally in tears. Leaving late from his mom’s coupled with the bad weather meant a no go on the yarn shop I wanted to hit in Charleston, Mo. I think I need 12 skeins for this stupid bag and so far I’d found 2. Yeah, great. Going back to work and all the stupid drama going on there looming in my near future only made me feel worse. I hadn’t had a vacation in 4 years and this one, with the exception of Tuesday (St. Louis, Ted Drews, seeing the Yarn Harlot), was pretty much sucking some major butt.
Thankfully, Saturday kind of saved the week from being a total loss. Since it was already apparent that we weren’t going to make it back to Denver in time for me to go to Movie Night with some women from my SnB, I told Marcus we could go ahead and find the Apple Store in Kansas City, Mo. First we had a really yummy breakfast at a Bob Evans Restaurant (they have some really good food) and the area where the Apple store was was really cool. While there, I went ahead and looked up the addresses of a couple of knit shops in the immediate area on a Mac and programmed the Garmin. One store, The Studio, was quite close. I met a lovely fellow Raveler that worked there who, in addition to knowing yarn, could speak to Marcus about computers. Anybody that notices the character on his hat is Tux the Linux mascot and not just a cute little penguin is okay in Marcus’ book. I got a skein of black Cascade and some really neat green yarn that is to be my first pair of socks soon.
Finally, I hit Misknits on our way our of town. *sigh* No Cascade and the women there were really nice. Again, wanted to buy something but couldn’t find something I had to have. I was also not feeling very well and just wanted to hit the road. I don’t think the morning coffee I had liked me very well. I had to laugh, though, because the women in the shop were obviously (to me) having a SnB and talking about Ravelry and such. When we got to the car, Marcus says, “Is Ravelry all you knitting types can talk about?”
Anyway, we drove through Kansas and by the time we were anywhere close to where other knit shops were on my list, it was after 5pm and no chance any of them would be open by the time we found them. I was really bummed about the whole bag project being a total fiasco.
Well, I’ve decided it will still be a bag from many stores. I’ll keep my eye out for those two colors as I hit different shops, both in metro Denver and elsewhere. Eventually I’ll acquire enough to make my bag, it just won’t be a memento from this particular trip as I had planned.
I’ve also become rather addicted to making other felted things. I found a pattern on Ravelry for a Noni Green Earth Grocery Bag that I just have to make. I picked up the pattern during a stop today in 
