Baker's Field

I headed up to Bakersfield this weekend and visited with some family. This included Charlotte, my wayward sister that has recently discovered that I'm a little nuts-o when it comes to yarn. We grabbed our googled list of LYS, hopped in the car, plugged in the GPS and had so much fun.

I forgot to take a picture at the first yarn shop we hit up, Bead and Yarn Studio. I was impressed that Bakersfield would have such nice yarn shops. I mean, it is Bakersfield. Not only did this shop have every type of Cascade yarn. They also had ALL of the shades of 220. I really wished I had any idea of a sweater that I could buy yarn for. Especially since they were only $6.75 a ball at the regular price. Apparently, it also goes on sale from that price.

The next shop we visited was Classy. No, really! Classy Knits & Yarns. They boast a lot of different yarns on their website, but I really only remember seeing half of them, maybe just because it is crowded. They did have the only selection of Rowan and Louisa Harding in town. The kicker was, as soon as we walked in, a freind of Charlotte's was working there. Talk about a dream job. Charlotte and Jeanette. Look at the two of them. Such posers. I think they look more like sisters than Char and I do. At least now she can't complain about not having someone local to help her out.

Finally, I had to make my way into a very shady looking alley. In downtown, non the less. I angled the camera enough to not show the looky-lou work crew eating their lunch. We had to call the shop to try to figure out where they were.The entrance is under the fire escape on the left.It did have a good pay-off. They shop owner discribed her shop as having the higher end yarns and that is why she is more expensive. But once you get a taste for her yarns, you won't want to go back. haha. She did have some of the nicer brands. It makes up for the dumb name, ABC's of Creative Pursuits.
I was really impressed. I had such low hopes for Bakersfield and they really surprised me. Plus, I think I did a good job passing my "drug" onto my sister. The fun part was teaching her to knit. She crochets and was more comfortable with the yarn in her left hand. So, I got to teach her Continental and teach myself how to purl Continental, a skill I had yet to master. I think that we are going to see great things from her, if I can figure out how to get her onto Ravelry.

I didn't make any new purchases while visiting her, but I had picked up something before leaving. These are 9" circular size 1 needles. You have to be comfortable working on your finger tips to use these, but they seemed to be right up my alley. It was just in time, too. I've been working on Firestarters(Ravelry Link) and the stitches are not evenly spaced on the double points, so the needles were getting in the way. Then add cabling to that. Some days I wonder just how crazy I am. Other days, I wish they would make really small circular needles for making socks.