Hop Hop Hop Day One

I loved every minute of the Yarn Around the World...in 4 days shop hop. I brought my daughter Mairin with and she was a great help with navigation and spotting fun stuff in all of the stores.  It doesn't hurt that she loves to knit and crochet!

 We left Manitowoc at 6am Thursday the 12th and arrived in St. Paul around 11:30am.  Then we checked into our hotel in downtown St.Paul and figured out where we would spend our first day.  We decided to get four shops in that first day:  The Yarnery, Darn.Knit.Anyway, Lila & Claudine's, and A Sheepy Yarn Shoppe.

At The Yarnery we found a friendly staff, great selection of yarns and tools, a nice sized classroom, and a great selection of books and patterns.  They are located in an area with ample shopping and dining all in walking distance of each other.

Darn.Knit.Anyway was super friendly, their classroom was large, they had a lovely fabric selection and a cozy sit-n-knit section.  They had cute duct tape flower pins/hair clips and a stunning duct tape dress at the entrance.  We loved the layered displays of sewn and knit items and the exposed brick and loft atmosphere of the shop, with views of the river behind the shop.  The parking was ample and right off the street.

Lila & Claudine's was an explosion of color.  We really enjoyed their talent in display.  They are a gift shop also and everything comingled so beautifully.  Most of the gift shop items were on the first floor.  In the lower level they had a large classroom and colorful sitting area.  If you showed your Lila &Claudine's receipt at the next door coffee shop you could get 10% off  on your drink purchase.

Our last stop of the day was A Sheepy Yarn Shoppe.  I found out from the owner that she had purchased her store and moved into her present location across the street from the original store some years ago and that the previous owner had moved to Manitowoc, WI and opened a yarn shop there.  I was so amazed when she told me this because when I first moved to Manitowoc, I found The Sheepy Shoppe my first week in town.  She has since retired and closed her doors, but what a story!!  There were two classes in progress when Mairin and I stopped in.  The class in the front of the store was working on a specific project, though I don't remember what it was.  The class in the back of the store were working on a variety of projects like shrugs and felted clogs.  The store was bright, easy to shop and had a great selection of pattern books including Rowan and Anna.

That sums up day one. We loved all the special yarns and the great patterns and the charms.  I loved that they worked  the food drive  into the shop hop.  Every shop had a great flow system for checking shoppers in and stamping/punching their passports, making the donations and distributing charms, and handing out the patterns and limited edition yarns.  They all had wonderful finished samples worked up in their shop hop pattern and at least 3 of the shops had a crochet pattern available also.