Saturday had a VERY early start. My BFF, Melissa and her husband live in Round Rock and Mel works at as a vet in Georgetown. We wanted to meet her for breakfast before she went to work. She had to be at work at 8, so we met her at 7am... we left my parent's house at 5 am to drive up there. It was REALLY early!
After a great breakfast with Melissa and Sean, we started our crawl through the Austin stores. We were stalking the first store, Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe in Cedar Park, starting at 9. The store wasn't supposed to open until 10, but the shop owner got there early and opened at 9:30 for us! It was great! She had 60% off her sale yarns and Mom and I stocked up on eyelash and fur yarns. I saved over $70 off of the regular price! Next, we ran over to Gauge in Austin, where I picked up some Berroco yarn for my SILs hat (she's not in to scarves) and some wool for spinning. The wool is a very fun light turquoise/pink/purple color. The next stop was a surprise stop for Mom. I'd told her we didn't have time to stop by a needlepoint shop that she'd wanted to check out in Austin, but since I was navigating, I was able to con her into going. Pretty much we got to the parking lot and she was totally surprised. :)
After the needlepoint shop, we went over to Hill Country Weavers, where we got a free skein of yarn and 7 different patterns! Yay! They had a wonderful/overwhelming selection of yarns and many knitted/crocheted/ etc. projects throughout the store. I picked up some Rowan yarn for my SFIL's scarf and some super fun Jitterbug sock yarn for me. Next, Mom and I found an Arby's for lunch, and to the right is the picture that I took of my bag FULL of yarn that was behind my seat in the car. I sent it via text to my brother (who also has an iPhone) to show my husband whom he was golfing with at the time.
Our last stop in Austin was at The Knitting Nest. It was pretty cool. There wasn't a lot of selection, but they did have some guys in there who have made a business of recycling yarn. They hit up the Austin vintage stores and buy old sweaters which they unravel, re-skein and sell. They had some really great stuff. Our last stop of the day was Old Oaks Ranch in Wimberley. They are an active alpaca farm and I picked up the MOST WONDERFUL 100% alpaca yarn for my FIL's scarf. Luckily, there's 600 yards of it, so I'm hopefully to make a little something for myself out of it. Mom even bought some, b/c it was so wonderful and soft! After Old Oaks, we headed home. It had been a really, really long day.
On Sunday, Mom and I drove up to Stonehill Spinning in Fredricksburg. Since they didn't open until 10, we stopped by a little coffee shop in downtown Fredricksburg for a great breakfast. We didn't pick up anything (except our free gift) at Stonehill, but Mom was able to get some information on rug hooking classes that they offer. Our next stop was our yarn store in Comfort, The Tinsmith's Wife. This is one of my FAVORITE yarn stores in the area. They have a huge selection (and kitties roaming the store), and everyone there knows my mom. I was able to get some sock yarn for me, a cashmere scarf kit for Jon, and a gift for Mom. Of course, I had to banish her to another part of the store until my purchases were made. :)
Our last 2 stops were in Boerne. We went to Rosewood Yarns first. They have a pretty good selection of yarns, but they're really big on spinning and have a great selection of wool and other spinning supplies. Our last stop was at Ewe and Eye. They have an ok selection of yarn, but they are also a needlepoint shop and a high-end toy store. They seemed very disorganized and never gave us a gift. Sadly, this didn't surprise us, since its a store we have been to on a number of occasions.
Mom and I had a blast, but I'm still not caught up on my sleep! Many more projects to come from all my new yarns! :)
