After a night with my sister, I’m in the wilds of southern Minnesota. Susan wined and dined us and was a great hostess, but she and I didn’t get a chance to do much knitting. Le sigh.
Now I am visiting my mother-in-law in St. Peter, Minnesota. There is a relatively new yarn shop in town, The Tangled Skein, and I was able to sneak away today for an hour or so and visit. It’s really a lovely shop: warm, inviting, and full of great fibers. Annette Engeldinger, one of the co-owners, was in the store today and she was extremely helpful (not that it takes much help to get me to buy yarn). One of the lines they carry is Blue Sky Alpaca, a company local to Minnesota. I’ve always loved Blue Sky’s Alpaca & Silk, but I hadn’t yet seen their limited edition Royal Alpaca. It’s gorgeous. It feels as soft as cashmere and it comes in eight luscious but muted colours. I couldn’t resist buying enough of “Cameo,” a dusty pink, to make a little cardigan. (Yes, I have a thing about dusty pink yarns. I can’t help myself.)
I also bought some Rowan Tapestry for a hat and some gorgeous copper Alpaca & Silk for a pair of gloves or glovelets. Annette rolled up a skein of the Royal Alpaca for me to play with and shipped the rest (at no charge!) so it will be waiting for me when I get home. I threw in a couple skeins of the copper Alpaca & Silk for Susan to thank her for being such a great hostess — which Annette also rolled and shipped.
It’s a great store and there’s an intriguing looking coffee shop across the street. If I lived closer, I’d be spending a lot of time there. As it is, I’ll make sure to stop by whenever I’m in town.
Ooooh! Lovely colors – so wearable and pretty too. I’ve recently discovered Alpaca & Silk and I’ve been on a small binge — but all projects for others. Maybe I’ll be next. Not only is the yarn nice, the colors are “right”.
Comment by Pam — January 6, 2007 @ 2:13 am
:: big sigh :: More yarn that I’m better off not knowing about 😉
Comment by Marina — January 6, 2007 @ 8:15 am
From Susan — I was going to call you this morning and request that you blog about The Tangled Skein — but you already had! We really do think alike. It’s a bit frightening really.
Comment by lv2knit — January 6, 2007 @ 2:08 pm
Nothing like a yarn shop and a cafe on the same block!
Comment by Carol — January 6, 2007 @ 9:31 pm
Thanks for the nice words about our shop! Next time you’ll have to have to join us at the table for a bit of knitting. By the way, I was humbled by your awesome Koigu cardigan today…lovely.
Comment by Annette — January 7, 2007 @ 12:07 am
Thank you for the link. Ever so helpful.
Comment by Gale — January 10, 2007 @ 5:16 pm
I just went to The Tangeled Skein on Friday – it is such a cute shop! I work about 5 miles – so I will have to try that cafe for lunch and then head over for some “fiber desert”!
Comment by Jody — February 13, 2007 @ 2:56 pm