Yarn Harvest 2011

 I jumped on the ferry yesterday morning to attend Yarn Harvest 2011, a yarn crawl of the local yarn shops of the Lower Mainland. To give you an idea of the ground we covered, here is a map of the participating stores...

View Yarn Harvest 2011 in a larger map

My amazing friend Amy picked me up the ferry terminal and we headed straight to our first stop...

Three Bags Full

The reason I love this shop is it doesn't carry anything I don't like. Really! Everything in stock is in such good taste, you don't have to wade through a sea of yarns you would never knit with to get to the good stuff... it's all amazing! They have a whole wall devoted to Cascade 220, beautifully arranged for your inspiration. They also carry SweetGeorgia and Tanis Fiber Arts. They were also nice enough to give us replacement Yarn Harvest buttons as we had forgotten ours at home (Thank You!)

Birkeland Bros.

Sweet Georgia

The SweetGeorgia studio was buzzing and it was by far our longest stop. Felicia couldn't be there because she was in LA at Vogue Knitting Live!!! But her studio was left in very good hands, everyone was sooo nice, and I scored a new SweetGeorgia button to wear on my project bag!

Gina Brown's

I had never been to Gina Brown's before and it was one of my favorite stops. The ladies were super nice and personable which made for really great vibes in the shop. They also had the best deals in town, not only were they offering the standard Yarn Harvest discount but there were loads of yarns that were drastically reduced, gorgeous yarns like Mirasol were being sold for half price, it was incredible!

Urban Yarns

Urban Yarns was another amazing stop. They carried so many of my favorite yarns. I think this was Amy's favorite stop, she kept finding little corners of the store that were just packed with goodness. The staff were super helpful and friendly and they even had goodies laid out on a table for hungry yarn crawlers.

They also had samples of my designs Marian and Pasha! I also got to meet Kynna of Urban Yarns who incidentally met my Mum a few months back when she was in town. Kynna recognized the Pasha that my Mum was wearing and went on to show her store samples of my designs. I think that everyone got a good laugh when Kynna pulled out the store sample of Marian and my Mum went on to tell her that her name was... "Marian"!

Baad Anna's

Baad Anna's was a really neat shop. They had some really interesting indie fibres at the back of the shop including samples of yarn that you could take home and try out! They also had a yarn bomb outside...

Black Sheep Yarns

Black Sheep Yarns was a really lovely shop. They carried the largest selection of Madelinetosh I have every seen, it was pretty incredible! They were also hosting Quo Vadis, a local spinner + dyer of vegan friendly, organic, fair trade yarns.  

This guy was pretty cute, and was catching everyone's eye. Apparently they had sold out of Rebecca Danger's book early in the day!

The day ended at the ABC Restaurant in Coquitlam for the knitter's dinner, what a fantastic idea! It was an opportunity for all of us to be in one place at one time, to share our goodies, and even win prizes.

I met Chelsea (back right) earlier in the day at SweetGeorgia's. Her table had an amazing haul and they so graciously let me photograph some of it, that's right, there are still bags full on either side of the table! These ladies were lovely to meet (I'm sorry I didn't get everyone's name!).

Wanna know a secret? We stopped at six yarn stores and one amazing studio and I didn't buy one single thing! Truth is, I didn't need any yarn, I just wanted to be a part of it all, visit yarn stores I had never been to, and see first hand what Yarn Harvest is all about. It was an amazing day and I am so glad I could participate. 

My girlfriend Zoe made sure I didn't go home empty handed though, she sent me home with a bag full of her HANDSPUN yarn to play with! Yes, I am a very lucky girl!