We decided to get away this last weekend. Well, my knitting guru Joanne and I decided that we wanted to hit several Southern California knitting establishments. The husbands were there to drive, find parking spots, and provide cash. Lots of cash.

Our first stop was in Thousand Oaks. Eva's Needleworks didn't open until 11:00 a.m., so we kept driving to find a pit stop. Drove right past what we thought was another yarn store, Knit Port. Joanne and I both yelled it out at the same time, "YARN STORE!" After our pit stop we checked out Knit Port. The lady was really nice. Miko? She introduced herself but I can't be for sure that was her name. Neat and clean little store. Small-ish selection of yarn and many knitted things to purchase. Yummy, fuzzy Aiko cashmere! Didn't buy anything.
Drove down the street to Eva's. Nice selection of yarn and patterns. Ended up buying Rebecca #28 in English. Joanne ended up helping a lady bind off her first scarf. The lady was crying when she left the store. Guess she had come to the store to get help. She wanted to show her mother that she had made her first scarf. Well, the lady behind the counter made her feel like she was an idiot and kind of brushed her aside. So Joanne stepped in to help her. The store was busy, and there was only one person working, so I can't totally bad-mouth the store. We were glad that we happened to be there at the right time to help this new knitter!

Our next stop was HERE. VERY BUSY STORE! And with the massive amounts of yarn, everywhere, there is not a lot of maneuvering room. But the owner, was very helpful. Even to help Joanne find another skein of Kureyon in the color she wanted. Did I tell you she was busy? Bonus points for this store! I ended up buying 8 skeins of Kureyon in discontinued colors. For Booga Bags, of course.

Santa Monica was the next stop. This store was my favorite. We couldn't stay long and I definitely want to go back. I loved the funkiness of it! And really helpful people. They were super busy too. I didn't buy anything. I was looking at a pair of fingerless...half-fingered...(what are they if they have a portion of the fingers?) gloves. They were made with orange cashmere and were similar to these, except with "finger-ettes"(??). Joanne was about to go into a diabetic shock, due to lack of food, so we had to go.

We checked into our hotel and took it easy the rest of the evening. **

The next day we were up early for pancakes here. During the summer, they have the best peach or strawberry pancakes, EVER! DO ask for extra whipping cream when ordering!
I had the blueberry pancakes since the others are out of season.

Onward! To the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company! We had been here once before, but we came back since it was such a nice store. Busy too! My husband bought my Christmas presents here. (OK, I bought them for him to give to me.) There was a special on some discontinued Classic Elite Dali Cashmere. Normally, $64, now, $44, and a free lace scarf pattern with purchase. Also, a huge hank of Lorna's Laces, Helen's Lace, with free shawl pattern on label. Oh, Color #76, Aslan. Can you say, PRETTY COLORS? (Forgot, the cashmere Dali yarn was in Chocolate.)

I was actually getting tired of yarn shopping after this. Of course I could go again tomorrow, if asked!

It was nice to get away, even for such a short trip. Our husband's are so patient to put up with this obsession.

**this was the nicest Doubletree. Instead of the hideous bedspreads, that they don't clean every time, and may have all kinds of other people's bodily fluids embedded into them, there was a down comforter in what I first thought was a duvet. Turns out, it was two huge super soft king sized sheets, enveloping the comforter. Everything was white and clean, about 6 fluffy pillows and a smaller pillow embroidered with "sweet dreams." It was lovely! The best hotel bed ever!