Rose City Yarn Crawl 2017
Sometimes strange and beautiful things can exist right beside you without you ever noticing. They live and play just as you do, while you are none-the-wiser to their existence. Then one wondrous day they are made known to you, by either a more observant friend, a social media page, or just by pure chance.
That being said, how did I not know about the Rose City Yarn Crawl till just now?
In case you're not from the region, the Rose City Yarn Crawl is a collection of shops that participate in something that is like a bar crawl, but instead of getting boozy, you get cozy.
In addition to getting the yarn equivalent of tipsy, you also collect stamps at each participating shop on your "passport" in hopes of winning one of the many prizes.
This year 13 shops around the Greater Portland area were participating in this magical event, and a good friend of mine suggested that we tackle it together.
Our first night we took on three shops in as many hours, and I was extremely well-behaved in that I only bought one thing -- this beautiful skein from Black Sheep.
The second day we had a far busier schedule. My dear companion skillfully crafted a map for our adventure, and this day required us to visit 7 shops spread out through Greater Portland.
Cloaked in my angora cowl and hand-knitted socks, we ventured out.
Caught up in all of the wonder and fun, I was a little less well-behaved and it all started with this ragamuffin of a skein that LITERALLY had my name on it (and it was alpaca).
If that's not a sign, I don't know what is.
As you can see, the first skein created a pattern for the rest of the day's colour palette. I also had to get a bag from Starlight Knitting Society, because with a name like that I can't help but be madly in love with whatever they do.
Believe it or not, we got through all seven shops with time to spare, and ended up having a nice little lunch so we could relish the day's delights and strategize for the next day and its three remaining shops.
One of the best parts was that all day the angora cowl attracted eyes everywhere we went. I happily let people pet the cuddly wonder.
Sunday came, the last three shops went quicker than we would have thought, and before we knew it we were handing in the completed passports.
Neither my dear friend nor I won any of the prizes, even though there were over 80 and we totally deserved them ;)
The picture below is all I got at the crawl, and I'm excited to show you what it becomes as soon as I figure it out myself.
Ultimately we got the best thing out of the crawl -- A fun weekend with kindred spirits and new treasures, with memories that are worth cherishing for the rest of our lives. I met people I may have not normally met, was reminded that young crafters do have a welcome place in the crafting community (as well as so many other people of all ages, genders, walks of life, and interests). I was able to chat with fun and innovative people that will inspire me to create more in the months to come, and at the end of the day I can't wait for next year.
Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.