Crafting Chronicles: 16 Yarn Shops, 1 snowy April day and a full charge of the battery

For the last six years, local yarn shops in the Twin Cities have done a shop hop in the spring. This year was my first time attempting it and the 7th, and largest, shop hop. Sixteen of the 30+ yarn shops in the Twin Cities participated. Each shop had a pattern and specially dyed yarn for the event. If you brought a donation for a food shelf, you could also pick up a charm that went with the theme of the shop. The overall theme of the event was called "i Yarn @" which I didn't understand until I started going to the shops. Each shop had a location that they "yarn" (knit/crochet) at and had the dyed yarn tie into that theme. Sometimes the pattern did as well.

I first heard about the Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop on Ravelry. Then, I looked at my work calendar. The event takes place over 4 days because it's not entirely realistic to get to all of the stores in one day. Of course, my work schedule laughed at this and had one open day for me. One day to get to 16 shops. I talked with my husband, telling him that I was going to take my day off and do this. He asked if he could come along for a larger purpose; to take our Tesla Model S out and see how many shops we could get on one charge.

The original route


Revised map. Google Maps "helped" by removing part of the route.

Yes, we own an electric car. A sexy one at that. It's the mid-range and my husband figured out a map to take us to all the shops. Except he forgot 2 of the shops, which I didn't notice until the week of the hop. The original map was going to take us to the far end of the Tesla's range.

With the additional 2 shops, it looked like we were going to really be pushing the range. We decided we would play it by ear, be mindful of the miles, take back roads and put the car into the extended range use. It also has an extended charge, which we did for the last half hour to hour before we left the house.

Of course, it can never be simple. The first day of the Shop Hop, it started to snow. A lot. A blizzard's worth of snow. I had debated going to a shop or two on Thursday before work so that there wouldn't be as many stops on Friday but the weather disagreed. I wasn't even sure my car was going to make it out of my neighborhood to get me to work that day.

Spring in Minnesota.

This was going to make things extra tricky with the Tesla because the cold diminishes the range of the battery. We were also going to have to be careful about how much heat we used because that also drains the battery. I offered my husband the chance to stay home as yarn really isn't his thing and it had turned cold and icky. I even offered to take my gas powered vehicle but he would hear none of it. He was going to come with me and work from his mobile, green office for the day.

On the Ravelry forum, there was a message that the stores were all going to open an hour early on Friday! This meant one more hour to fit shops in. If I had been truly clever, I would have taken more pictures of the shops but we were on a timeline. We only had 8 hours to get to 16 shops, which included about 5 hours of drive time without any traffic or snow. This wasn't a shopping trip, but a challenge to be fulfilled. Get to the shops, use the Tesla, collect all the stamps and do it in one day!

But first, fuel was needed. Not for the car but for us. We went to breakfast at an awesome French bakery called Chez Arnaud. Quiche Lorraine, pain au chocolat and hot chocolate are great ways to start off the morning. It was also conveniently on our way to the first stop on the list, Amazing Threads.

My husband, who tried to play navigator and work at the same time, trusted my phone to get us there but he felt it took us the wrong way. We got quite turned around and took back roads, killing a few extra miles. The location was also frustrating. It's in one of those giant complexes with buildings going off in every direction, with signs pointing to building numbers. There was definitely a bit of anxiety on my part trying to find the place without getting too turned around. I was also a bit worried that maybe I'd misread the forum and only a few places were going to be open at 9 and that we would have to sit outside waiting for the shop to open. But it was open! It was warm and cozy inside and I wish I'd had more time to walk around and enjoy the shop. That pesky timeline!

After there, it was a quick jaunt up to Anoka to visit The Shepherdess. I had made a point of not bringing my wallet into the shops as my husband was camping out in the car. However, I walked into this shop and fell in love with the yarn and the project. I dashed back out to the car and grabbed my wallet. They offered kits that included everything needed for the project and it will make an awesome birthday gift for my youngest bonus-daughter.

From there we went to All About Yarn. Just after 10 am on the second day and they were sold out of the specialty yarn! My phone was confused as to how to get me there, so once again we lost a little bit as I had to turn around.

After that we traveled south to A Sheepy Yarn Shoppe in White Bear Lake. On a side note, the city of White Bear Lake is cute in the tooth-rot sort of way. There were banners all around town with pictures of a White Bear (a polar bear perhaps?) which was just so...touristy. Having grown up in a tourist town, I do get a little twitchy visiting places like this. However, the yarn shop was awesome. I really liked the yarn, though not enough that I had to have it. I did end up chatting with one of the women for a few minutes. This was the first shop that I understood the theme! Theirs was yarning at the beach, including a beach cover. I was definitely starting to feel very pumped by the whole thing.

On our way to Lila and Claudine's in Mahtomedi (yeah, I have no idea how to say it either), Husband called a work buddy of his who lives in the area. We ended up stopping for lunch at a place called Four Seasons. It use to be called Three Seasons but they apparently felt that they needed to acknowledge all of the seasons. When we walked into the place, I was a bit nervous. This seemed on par with truck stops in the middle of nowhere that you have to build up a tolerance to their food. They offered something called broasted chicken. I refuse to look up what that means as I just don't want to know what they did to the chicken. I knew it was a bad place for lunch when Husband asked the waitress to bring some oil and vinegar with his salad. She just sort of stared at him and was confused. Luckily another waitress was able to help him out. After the unexpected hour there, we headed out to the next shop...which turned out to be across the street. I could have easily walked over there, checked out the shop and been back while Husband and Work Buddy were still eating. We would have saved a few miles at least. This was a very lovely shop. Walking into the shop, they had a sign that said "Yarn Helps", which is very true. Once again, I started chatting with someone who worked there, though I did eventually get downstairs and say their beautiful yarn. However, once again, I was on a mission and didn't want to be delayed by chatting too much. And I didn't want to get too sucked into the loveliness.

Onwards to Stillwater and Darn Knit Anyway. This shop was on my internal list and I was delighted to see it was on the hop. I had driven past it very late one night taking a friend over to the area. I tried to be quick as I knew that time was ticking and I knew the next leg was going to be a long one and we were going to start hitting traffic soon.

On the drive to Crafty Planet, we encountered a couple of moody and scary drivers, so I accelerated so I could get past them. There was a bit of scolding because those quick accelerations drain the battery. We were already playing a fun game with the defroster on the car. I'd blast it until I could see again and then turn it off. Add on top of this the fact that the "food" Husband ate was starting to catch up with him and that he hadn't taken his own advice to dress warmly, he was starting to feel unwell. But we arrived safely to Crafty Planet, which I'd been to a few times before. I absolutely love this shop. Earlier in the week I had needed stitch markers for a blanket I'm working on. I thought about going to the closets Micheal's but did a search for yarn instead and remembered that Crafty Planet is just as close. I'd much rather spend money on a local, small business than a large corporation. As I was filling out an entry for a door prize, I mentioned how the trip was being done in the Tesla and one of the employees told me that I needed to post about how it went. I promised to write a blog entry about it. It's a week late but it's finally being done! I also bought my other purchase of the day. My mom has had both of her knees replaced twice. It seems that even though she's been doing PT, she's still developing scar tissue so she has to have more surgery. She asked me to pick her up a skein of yarn to help her recover. Not that she needs more yarn but you know what, I also don't need more books, but that doesn't stop me from getting more.

At this point, the original plan had been to head east to the Saint Paul area but Husband looked at the map and said we should hit the shops in the Minneapolis/Uptown area first since we were already close. So we went to StevenBe. If you are use to calming yarn stores, this place isn't for you. It's...outrageous and I mean that in a good way. It's also extremely overwhelming. Husband came into this shop as he'd been there before to purchase Christmas presents for me. It was an experience and loud and not at all what I'm use to in a yarn shop but it was fun. Husband was a bit disappointed that I didn't bring my gift certificate from him and spend it there but honestly, if I have a $50 gift certificate anywhere, it's a rare day that I know exactly what I want. I've spent almost 2 hours in a bookstore once spending $25. There are so many choices and it was extremely crowded. I don't like being rushed in my yarn shopping. I like touching all of the yarn. And I don't want to just buy yarn for the sake of buying yarn. At least not anymore. I like having projects in mind, though I admit this doesn't always happen. Sometimes a yarn is perfect and just needs me to own it.

Next we headed west to Linden Yarn and Textiles. More accurately, we went to where they use to be located. The information the folks doing the yarn hop gave was correct, but the google map wasn't. I didn't bother to double check because everything had been accurate so far. I wasn't finding a place to park (the Tesla is bigger than my car and I'm intimidated about parallel parking it), so Husband went around the block as I discovered that the shop was no longer there. This meant we'd have to catch it later. Instead we went to Needlework Unlimited. Inside, at the main counter, a poor, older gentleman was getting his card stamped. He looked defeated and glanced over his shoulder at who I imagine was his wife as she shopped. At least I saved Husband from having to do that. The employee I talked with there was delightful and introduced me to a yarn they carry called 'Sota. I heard "Soda" and was a bit confused why someone would dye yarn to look like soda but to each their own. The colors of 'Sota are beautiful and I shall have to go back and get some once I have a project in mind. And get my stash down a bit.

Next we headed down south to the two stores that Husband had missed. I had been to Unwind Yarn Shop before and loved the calm of their shop. And I fell absolutely in love with their yarn. I didn't buy any which is a long story and I'm just going to leave it at that. At this point, we nearly went home. Husband wasn't feeling well and was starting to get bored. It's not fun having a bored anyone with you. He really wanted to go to the next shop, Yarn Garage, as it is also owned by Steven Be. We got there and as I chatted with the person working the hop area, he found yarn. Yes, he found yarn for a sweater that he wants me to make him. That he's designing. I've never made a sweater before let alone made one from a pattern that's never been tested. Once he found the yarn, he felt in a much better mood though and we (by which I mean he) wrote down the information so we could buy it when we have a design for the sweater.

From there is was back north but before we got back onto the highway, Husband asked that we stop at a gas station. Why did we need to stop at a gas station if we were driving an electric car? Because a friend of his owns the gas station. Of course his friend wasn't there but he got to leave a note and we got some snacks to recharge. Then onto 3 Kittens Needle Arts. I admit bias to liking this shop before I even went in for two reasons. One-they have "kitten" in the shop name and I'm a cat person. Two-the charm they were giving out was a teapot and I'm a huge tea drinker. I'm not going to admit how many teapots there are in my house. At least I use all of them. The yarns here were clever in their name and lovely and it was the first pattern that I knew I was going to make. I even had yarn already. One of the ladies I chatted with was even talking about getting an electric car herself when I mentioned taking the Tesla.

We were starting to wind down. It looked like this was going to be our last stop as we were losing charge faster with the cold weather and Husband wasn't feeling well. When I got out of the shop, he said we could make one more stop on our way home as we would be near it on our way. This would be the Yarnery which I've decided has the worst parking situation ever. I didn't want to pay for ramp parking for a quick in and out and Husband was feeling too poorly to take over driving. After circling the block and asking him to tell me to take him home, we headed home.

We made 12 out of the 16 yarn shops in one day, which was impressive. One friend said that he didn't love his wife enough to go with her to that many yarn shops. I feel very fortunate to have a husband who willingly came along. How did the car fare? Well that's the other reason we headed home instead of trying to hit any other shops along the way because Husband's anxiety was starting to pick up. This is what popped up on the display when we parked in the garage: