Yesterday, my friend Veronica and I went to Isle Knits. It’s in the Century Tower building in downtown Honolulu, which is an office building, and it’s all the way up on the 14th floor. So it’s a little hard to find for the novice, luckily I had been there before so navigation was a breeze.
It’s a small space, but it’s chock full of good stuff. Once you walk in the yarn fumes hit you like a physical presence. I get a little delirious with just the memory. It’s easy to go overboard with impulsive buys in the store, which is why I went in with a Plan.
I had two specific projects I wanted to buy yarn for. The first was for Mr. Hedgehog and the second, was for the Rock Lobster Lock Bag*. From the top, going clockwise, we have Ella Rae Classic in Color No. 28 (Dark Purple) and Plymouth Boku in Color No. 1 for the Rock Lobster Bag.
Continuing on, we have more Ella Rae Classic in Color No. 104 and I’ll combine that with some eyelash yarn for Mr. Hedgehog.
What about those other two yarns? What about The Plan?
Well, while I was asking how the Ella Rae and the Plymouth Boku would felt together, Sue proceeded to show me a basket she had done in both those yarns. That basket just happened to be crammed with sock yarn.
I couldn’t just ignore the yarn. I’m not that strong.
So a couple of skeins of Artyarns Ultramerino4 in Color No. 108 came home with me too.
And that skinny skein? The wild one on the very bottom of the picture? Well that caught my eye just when I thought I was home free. You know, when you’re at the register and everything thing is getting tallied. You’ve gotten through the hard part of selecting what to buy and once you pay, all you have to do is waltz out the door.
But I think this is the moment when I’m most vulnerable because of those very reasons. There’s a basket full of sock yarn nearby that I can be strong-willed about, but on the opposite wall of the register there’s a delicious array of yarns to feast your eyes on as your waiting for Sue to write up your bill.
So there was this funky cord that didn’t look like yarn. So I investigated.
I was doing this for educational purposes. Really, this didn’t look like yarn, so it was okay to touch. Just a quick fondle and I was going to be done with it.
Work with me here.
It turns out that this is another fabulous Noro yarn called Daria. It’s 55% Cotton and 45% Rayon. It’s so tightly twisted it’s like cording.
See how shiny? And Sue showed me a gorgeous sample of a piece she was crocheting. How could I resist?
I’m going to crochet cellphone cozies for my mother and myself. That’s the revised Plan. Yeah. Revisions are a goodness and it’s good to be flexible in life.
When all was said and done, Veronica and I spent over an hour in the shop. We left floating high on yarn fumes and money well spent. I got a few more odds and ends that I’ll share in the coming days, but nothing as stupendous as the yarn itself.
Here’s Veronica clasping her booty in front of one of the walls of yarn at the store. Doesn’t she look blissed out on the yarn?
After we left the shop, we headed to Kahala Mall to meet some Aloha Knitters. The Mall was an absolute madhouse and we were only able to find Jen. I’m afraid we might have missed some people because it was so crowded.
There were no tables to be found in the central area of the food court, but we were able to snag a mini-table at the Starbucks. After awhile though, the noise and the crowd in there started to get on our collective nerves.
Amazingly enough though, Jen managed to hunt down a bigger table in the lovely open space of the mall. I truly admire her table-hunting skills. I have no idea how she spotted it in the mad rush that was the crowd, but I will be forever impressed by that one feat.
It was a terrific day and I hope we can do it again, minus the Mall Mob.
Before I go, I wanted to thank everyone for the support and sympathy over the nightstand nightmare. All is well now and I’m no long angsting over it. My hands recovered nicely within a couple of days thanks to the wonder drug known as Celebrex.
I also finished Clue 3 of the Mystery Stole 3 on Friday. I can’t believe how quickly each clue knits up. More on that later. :-)
*Page 49 in her Pattern Catalog
