If you aren’t familiar with shop hops, here’s how they work. You receive a passport at the first shop and each store owner or helper stamps it, and when you have visited all the shops, you turn it in for a grand prize drawing. There are eight yarn shops that participate in the Yarn Shop Hop. This year was the first year that I had a chance to go, and I really needed to stay at home and work, but if Rosina drove, I could crochet on one of my projects (this was after I found out that I couldn’t take my car because it was not road worthy). I asked Rosina if she could please talk me out of going. Being the good friend that she is, she said “No. Can I go, too? What time do you want to leave?”
I immediately mapquested the trip to see if it would be possible to do it in one day if we visited the two yarn shops in Wichita on Friday evening. By my calculations, we could leave at 7:00 am and return at around 6:00 pm, but we had to stay on track and not veer off of our plans.
Friday evening, our first stop was Heritage Hut. We visited with Mary Konecny a short time and learned that she offers drop in classes for knit and crochet, plus she offers weaving classes by appointment. She also has a nice selection of DMC Cebilia mercerized cotton crochet thread and, of course, I found some colors that I couldn’t live without.
Next stop was Twist, where we met up with Shelly Stilger, the owner. Her store is always hopping with excitement. Since I have never crocheted with the beautiful wood hooks, I decided that I would allow myself an extra special something and picked out a size M hook. (There are some really nice wooden crochet hooks in the Crochet Soiree store, too.) I’m going to try this hook with the fabric that I’m trying to crochet with.
On Saturday, we headed out before dawn. Our first stop was in Minneapolis, Kansas, at the Yarn Peddler. Jerri Drummond is a rep for Universal Yarns, and I told her that I had the pleasure of meeting the President of Universal Yarns in Houston at the Quilt market. Of course, I picked up a few more balls of yarn that I needed to add to my stash.
Next stop was Abilene, Kansas, the home of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Shivering Sheep. Here’s the owner Jeannie Price and me. Jeannie has a full time job, too, plus she has the shop open on the weekends. I found some more yarns that I couldn’t live without.
Then we were off to Salina, Kansas, and I had to settle for two separate pictures with Jane Alsop and Carla Welsh the owners of Yarns Sold and Told. It was very busy in their beautiful bright shop. I got to visit with Carla for a few minutes, and she told me that they don’t have many crocheters come into their shop, but she’s working on that.
Next stop, Lindsborg, Kansas, better known as “Little Sweden” and home to Lara May’s Cottage and Linda Lungstrom the owner. Her shop is in a little house. It reminded me of a child's play house with a little taller ceilings. By this time, Rosina and I were getting very hungry, so we asked Linda what restaurants were open. Of course, we chose a Mexican restaurant called “Jalisco”. We both had the special, and man it was good.
Then, we were off and driving to Hutchinson, Kansas, and Debbie Fast’s shop called Yarn. This store is full of fun people and a coffee bar.
She also had Deb Waggoner, a yarn dyer, displaying her works of art.
I also met Mildred in the bathroom. I had to take her picture after she scared the you-know-what out of me.
Our last stop was in Newton, Kansas, and Julie Miller at the Newton Beadery. We arrived just in time, and I found some hand dyed yarn that I had to add to my stash, and we got our last stamp and turned our passports in for the drawing.
Then, we headed back home, and Rosina dropped me off about 6:30 pm, so we weren’t too far off of our schedule. Next trip out, we want to go to just one shop at a time and visit longer and shop around at some of the neat looking antique stores in each town. What a wonderful day we had! Rosina and I decided that we did deserve a little time away from taking care of everyone else, and we got to take care of ourselves for once. All the yarn shop owners were so nice and are very accepting of crocheters. Thank you to all the owners for allowing us to take pictures with you and all the warm welcomes we received.
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