Love for the LYS

The Local Yarn Shop, that is. This Saturday, the Bolter and I were living dangerously: not only did we try out a new grocery store, we also visited -- and purchased from! -- a real live brick and mortar yarn shop. The Knit Kit (so brick and mortar an establishment that they DON'T EVEN HAVE A WEBSITE) is conveniently located just a couple of miles up Rt 27 (Just look for the pink-framed door in the row of ambiguously zoned roadside...spaces...). The Kit is charmingly disorganized,very well-stocked with lots of exotic and colorful yarn, and comes complete with its own community of knitters. While we browsed, we overheard one woman giving another her first lesson in purling, and to our amazement, this woman got the hang of it on the first try. There must be some kind of magic in the air at the Knit Kit.

Committed online shopper though I am, this visit made me think that there is something to be said after all for touching fibers and comparing colors in person before buying yarn. I know it was the brightness (Orchid Thistle!) and texture ("slightly unspun"!) of the Lamb's Pride worsted weight that made me choose it for my shrug project, though I'm not sure it would have struck me as anything special in a photo. The Bolter made some exciting purchases as well, but I'll let her tell you about them.

And since I produced so few finished goods this past weekend, I'll leave you with this photo of the beef and broccoli fried rice I made for dinner Saturday night. I used some of the (embarrassing amount of) produce I bought at the Pathmark grocery store with this simple fried rice recipe, and came away quite satisfied (with myself). I think it might turn out that some of my favorite crafts are foods.