Who you callin' a young'n? Me? Oh. That's right.

Houston = driving. Whatever you want, Houston has it - if you're willing to drive 25... or 50... or 75 miles. (And believe you me, some of the best spots in the area are that far from home here on the south side of a southern suburb.)

Yesterday Mom & I visited the three (yes, that's "three", with a "th" and a "ree".) yarn shops in Spring. Hey, how'd a city of 35,000 snag that many yarn shops? Well... two are needlepoint and quilting stores with a bit of yarn... and the one devoted yarn shop is near the tourist trap known as Old Town Spring. Old Town Spring is not particularly historic; it just had the overzealous capitalists and lack of morals needed to grow into a tourist trap. When I type up my full rant about San Antonio, don't doubt Old Town Spring will work its way in!

First visit of the day: The Hen House. Mainly a quilting store with various booths from local crafters, their yarn selection is almost entirely novelty. I didn't buy anything but it was a pleasure to browse.

Second stop: Twisted Yarns. Gorgeous place with an excellent selection; yarns were decently ordered and all had their own little nooks. A section for wool, a section for baby yarns, a section for luxury yarns, a section for novelty yarns... mmm, logic. I wouldn't mind sitting there one day and just gazing with admiration at the simplicity and beauty of their arrangement. *sighs happily* Still was a good rodent there; in spite of how much yarn begged and pleaded to come home with me, I escaped the siren calls of all but a ball of NatureSpun and a hank of Cascade 220. I spent half the evening sniffing and petting and fondling the 220.

Last store: The Needle Nest - north side of Spring and almost 65 miles from home. For my approach toward yarn hoarding, this is the best place of the three visited today. Again mostly a quilting and needlepoint shop, but their yarn room had actually been around for quite a while. A few newer novelty yarns sat on a table in the center of the room while the cubbyholes in the walls overflowed with older yarns of unknown origin. Many looked like they'd been priced 10 or 15 years ago. (Nope, not arguing with that.) One wall had a rack of leaflets and a thingie-go-round of various needles; I didn't have time to peruse either. Other than the gobs of yarn Mom & I bought (see, it's good to teach others to knit!) , my favourite thing about the store is that the owner called me "young'n".

Here's part of the haul from that shop:


Despite my best attempts to take decent pictures of yarns seperately, all the pics came out blurry or wonky... and since this is how the yarn will live here, might as well not advertise it differently.

Notice the large number of penguins. I like penguins. Penguins are good. The greenish blob right at the bottom is wool/mohair. The two balls of a blue&white blur in the top right corner which would look like egg drop soup if they were yellow are a cotton/acrylic blend. Lurking behind and to the left of that is a lone ball of a similar linen blend. I don't have nearly enough of anything to do anything, but I love the yarns. (Good rodent at the first two yarn shops. Made up for it at the Needle Nest. Yay!) Right in the center is a dark blue cotton, and to the right of that are three balls of a chunky wool. Littered all about are balls of cotton/elastic... anyone smell socks coming?

Survived this far into the post? I finished PixieTwo last night! Digging the styrofoam head out of the pile yarn she'd been living in wasn't easy, but she's a slightly better behaved model than I am.




Mmm, fur. Think I'll go frog something and start something new. What I'll frog and what I'll start is anyone's guess.