Friday Inspiration - New Yarn

I love starting off the new year with new yarn!  All those new imagined projects are so inspiring ... and my resolution this year is to actually get those projects made.  Over the Christmas break, I spent a fun morning browsing through several of Portland's yarn shops.  And there doesn't seem to be any way I can browse without buying ...


Hmmm .... Yarnia!  This is one of the most unique stores I know of.  You walk into a smallish storefront at 42nd and Division and there are hundreds of cones of different yarns, all in thin strands.  The magic of Yarnia is that you combine any number of these strands that you want to create unique yarns.  It's then wound onto cones, giving you a very unique look for your crocheting, knitting, or weaving project.  This visit I put together an autumn colors cotton yarn for a yet to be determined cardigan and bought a pre-made cone of rainbow cotton to make a crocheted scarf.

Yarnia's website has a video showing how putting the yarn together works.


The Knitting Bee in the Bethany-Beaverton area was fun to browse through.  I splurged on a hand dyed skein of lace weight yarn spun from Tencel.  I once had a shirt made from Tencel that I wore until it was pretty much threads!  Tencel's made from wood cellulose and has a look and feel similar to rayon.  This yarn is destined to become a shawl crocheted from this pattern.  I've made this shawl once before and it's a nice lacy design with an easy repetitive pattern that's good for crocheting while doing something else - visiting, watching football playoffs, ...

My new find of the trip was The Yarn Garden on Hawthorne.  They describe themselves as "The Mothership of Yarn Stores" - yeah!!!  There are four or five (I lost count) rooms of luscious yarns!  I had to buy this so soft Angora yarn in one of my favorite colors.  I have no clue yet what I'll do with it, but it was half price.

And they have a huge selection of my favorite yarn to use for afghans, Encore.  It's soft and machine washable/dryable.  I've had this idea for an afghan using the colors of some cliffs we saw on a trip to NE Arizona's Painted Desert.  I'll be using Lucy's Summer Garden Granny Square from the Attic 24 website. 

My favorite new yarn, though, was a gift from my wonderful husband!  We were shopping at the Pueblo Grande Indian Market in Phoenix before Christmas and he pretty much had to tear me away from a booth selling yarn hand spun from Navajo churro sheep fleece.  Some was dyed with traditional plant dyes and some was the original color of the fleece.  When we split up to do some separate shopping, he went back and bought me three of the natural color skeins!  My favorite guy!!  I'll be doing some weaving in the fibers class I'm taking this semester, so I think this yarn will find its way into one of those.  It's gorgeous!

I'm off now to get busy playing with my inspiring yarn!


Happy Creating!  Deborah