Mankato Knitting Group

There is a group called Mankato Yarn Together, which is one of the groups on Ravelry designed to let people in a specific area discuss knitting and get together for some knitting time. They meet the last Sunday of the month.

Yesterday I joined our local knitting group at Dunn Brother's Coffee for a couple hours of knitting and sharing of yarns (pun intended.) I guess anywhere from three or four to more than a dozen knitters show up each month for the monthly get-together. It was fun to meet everyone - it surprised me that I didn't know any of these knitters, since I'm always in local yarn stores and have taken several classes. Always great to see what others are working on, and there were some cool projects.

I'm still plugging away at a pair of socks I've had on my needles for a couple of months. I was three quarters of the way completed with the second sock and decided to add some length to the first one, so now I still have two unfinished socks. Knitting on planes has always been productive for me, so maybe I'll complete these when I fly to Boston later this week.

Textile Center Garage Sale

The Textile Center Garage Sale in was held this past weekend in Minneapolis. I haven't really been very involved in anything at the Textile Center, since I'm 2 hours away, but this year I decided to become a member. My first event was the Garage Sale.

I volunteered to help with the Garage Sale Silent Auction items on Friday afternoon before the Friday "pre-sale" party and the Saturday sale. It went smoothly and was fun to see some of the different pieces that came through. One of the "perks" of volunteering is that you are allowed to purchase items at the end of your shift.

There were oodles of yarn and of course I picked up a bunch. Probably the most unusual yarn I got was 12 skeins of a Furlana yarn made with 80% merino and 20% possum fur. It's a yarn from New Zealand and looks interesting...... Also got some Euroflax linen, some aqua blue yarn perfect for a felted purse, and some odds and ends. All at great "garage sale" prices!


They also had knitting machines, looms, and sewing machines. I didn't see any spinning wheels, but I really don't need to start another hobby right now anyway. TONS of fabric, which I barely glanced at. Even though I'm a quilter, the rows and rows of tables were just so overwhelming that I concentrated just on yarn and didn't shop for fabric. I'll definitely be back next year!

Bismarck, ND Yarn Shops

Spending a little time in Bismarck, ND recently, I decided to check out the local yarn shops one afternoon. I googled yarn shops in Bismarck and was surprised to find several listed.

The first store I visited was Impact Gallery & Gifts on Broadway, right downtown. It was a fun store with lots of local artist wares. The sales clerk was really nice and explained about the local artist offerings and also explained that the store was phasing out of yarn, but had a few skeins left in a basket in the corner. I dug through the half dozen skeins and found a couple of skeins of yarn that would work well for a market bag. They were marked half price ($5 each!) and then when I brought my purchases to the cashier, they subtracted an additional 20% from a current sale. Great price - wish they had more yarn.

Next I walked a block up Broadway and found cedesigns Yarn Shoppe. Now here was some serious yarn!
Lots of great yarn, but I was also impressed with some of the knitted display items that the owner (a very nice woman) had made. Obvious talent here! I commented on this cute wrap (pictured below) and asked if she sold the pattern. She said she hadn't written it up yet, but wanted to get more of her patterns written down so she could put them on her website. Knitting without a pattern and creating something this cool? I'm impressed. I'll be watching her website for some of her original patterns.
Another yarn shop in the area was Sage Junction Yarns, listed with a Mandan address. All I can say is, good thing I had my gps! I drove for twenty some miles in the middle of a very snowy countryside. Mona (my gps voice) finally stated "Arriving at destination on right."
I saw a brown rambler style home and pulled in the driveway. There was a small sign on the mailbox saying Sage Junction Yarns. I guess I was in the right place - there was a tiny little sign on the front door saying yarn sold. I could see in the front window and saw someone's living room, but no yarn. I felt a little funny just knocking on someone's front door, but it didn't matter, as no one was home.