She Knits By The Seashore: The Great Rhody Yarn and Bike Crawl

I had such a fun time!

At first, I couldn't decide whether or not to go. It's not like I need any yarn or patterns. But what I wanted was energy and inspiration and the camaraderie of other knitters, and there was more of that than I could have hoped for. Chris and I were in the mood for a road trip, despite the gloomy New England weather we've been having, and so we started off to Westerly on Saturday morning for our first stops on the yarn and bike crawl.

Knitwits is a small shop packed with amazing choices, and there were so many knitters exploring the yarn when I arrived that I could hardly move! Hannah's Farm brought two alpacas that were so adorable; I heard one person say that they had four inches of wool to be shorn for new yarn soon. The staff here were so kind, and excited to see the response for the event. They gave out Knitwit totebags and raffle tickets for either sample sweaters or book sets. Although I really wanted the La Boheme yarn in this gorgeous maroon and pink color, Plum Pudding, I remembered I had a similar color combo for the Louisa Harding yarn in my stash, and settled for the new summer issue of Knitscene.

For the cycling minded, Westerly has Brumble Bikes. They are not usually open on the weekend, so if you are planning a visit, you might want to call ahead. They happened to be open when Chris stopped by. They seem to have a strong bike team, which we saw on Sunday at the Ninigret Races in Charlestown.

On the way to our next knitting shop, we stopped at the East Providence bike shop, where Chris found a black base layer top, and I stood envying the ad for the women-only group rides. I somehow miscalculated here and missed Fresh Purls entirely, which I've never visited, but I hope to get there sometime this summer.

Stop #2 was in Warren, for Bella Yarns.

I had taken along the Summer Flies shawl pattern, which I'd discovered at another yarn shop last month. Since then, I'd been debating what color to use; as much as I love pink and ocean blue, I have so many accessories knitted in those colors. Do you usually knit in the same colors? The night before the crawl, I had an inspiration: lime neon spring green. So different and summery. I could pair it with navy blue, which is dear to my preppy, new wave heart. After entering a raffle for a gorgeous sweater kit, I was off to find green yarn.

Enter Naomi, the shop's co-owner. She is absolutely amazing. Not only did she help me find the shawl yarn (see photo below!), but on a whim, I asked if she had a moment to explain that PRB stitch I asked about in my previous post. It turns out that she has been swatching for the same project! She sat down with me on their cozy sofa, looked at the pattern instructions, picked up some scrap yarn, and showed me what to do. Now I can work on Paloma again. She and the staff are SO friendly and excited about knitting, that I want to go back again and again. There will be shorter time between my visits there for sure.

After Bella Yarns, we stopped by one of our favorite little restaurants, Leo's Ristorante, for lunch. We had to eat inside, but soon it will be time to sit at the sidewalk tables and admire the gardens during lunch.

Chris navigated time and distance for our trip; after lunch, we went to Tiverton, to Sakonnet Purls.

They had the prettiest flower pots.

Here is the store cat, Lucy. I was so excited to finally meet her!

Though tempted by a sale on Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, to eventually make the Beltane Tee, I settled on a pattern, All Ruffled Up, by Champagne Maker. It's a small cape that I thought might be a great summer cover-up for bare arms in overly air-conditioned buildings. Oddly enough, the cape in the project photo shows the same lime green yarn I bought for the shawl. I don't have any particular color in mind for this cape, and since I'm not likely to start it this summer, I have time to figure that out.

After leaving Tiverton, one of my favorite places in the entire world, we stopped at Caster's, a very awesome bike shop in Warwick. Then, I was desperate for tea, and since we were sort of in the neighborhood, we went back to Main Street Coffee in East Greenwich. We'd been there for my birthday about a month and a half ago, and I was heartened to see that the tables and chairs are outside now, if not the flowers. Progress! I love their almond tarts.

By now, it was after 5pm, and though I could have visited The Mermaid's Purl as planned, I was on yarn overload. Since we were going back to RI the next day for Chris' bike race at Ninigret, it seemed best to go home and rest up and enjoy my new purchases. Here they are:

I can't wait to start the shawl. After a sunny day yesterday (Sunday), we're back to gloom, but knitting this color has got to bring summer here faster. :)

A big thank you to those who organized this amazing event. I am already looking forward to next year. If you missed the RI crawl, there is an I-91 Shop Hop planned for June 24-26, with stops from Vermont to the CT Shoreline.

I hope you are enjoying sun, leaves, flowers, and great spring bike rides!

8 Comments

I love the lime green color! I've been thinking about doing a tie front top in that shade. Glad you had a wonderful day out!

Posted by: Sarah | April 18, 2011 at 09:09 PM

I can't believe how much activity you crammed into one day! I have heard such good reports about the Yarn Crawl and see you found some fun items. Definitely next year...
The spring green is so cheery!

Oh, and Naomi came to our guild meeting last week. She talked about the program the shop sponsors for knitting baby items for military moms. It's great that she helped solve your PRB problem.

Posted by: Kristen | April 19, 2011 at 07:36 AM