First things first, I had a FABULOUS time over my fiber weekend. It is a rare and wonderful thing to find a friend easy enough to travel with and Jillian is such a friend. She was so easy to travel with, I didn't even experience my usual "can't sleep in a hotel" problem. I slept like a stone for 2 nights in a row!

We hit 7 shops in 2 days and bought something at each shop (that was our only rule). Some shops are better than others, but they all had something to recommend them. Here's the synopsis for Friday:

Stitch in Time in Howell, was our first stop. This place is stuffed with wonderful yarn. I was overwhelmed and we'd barely started. I bought 2 skeins of Mountain Colors for my last 2 pairs of fellow socks. The ladies there were extremely nice and chatted with us for a long time.

Next stop was the Spinning Loft. Betty is living my idea of the perfect fiber life. She has about 35 shetland sheep on her farm and a huge room full of fiber and wheels. I walked in and fell in love with a Scottish Castle wheel. It's made by Kenneth Lennox and I had dreams of it all weekend. One more addition to the "I want" list. I signed up for the Navajo weaving workshop she's sponsoring next month. Three days with a Navajo woman - and the loom is included in the price of the workshop!

Woven Art in East Lansing is in a really cool space. It's up above the street and deals only with handpainted yarn. We both wanted to just sit and knit in the sun on their fluffy chairs. We oohed and aahed over the great colors and Jillian bought a pillbox hat (sorry, it's actually a cake of yarn, but looked more like a hat to me). Mara pointed us to Crunchy's burgers and even though it gave me indigestion all afternoon - that was the best burger I've ever eaten!! I'm trying to figure out how to get back there just for the burger.

The biggest surprise of the whole trip was The Little Red Schoolhouse Yarn Shop. We pulled up and the signs all said "antiques." We looked at each other and took a deep breath. It's one of those places where you can rent a booth and sell your crafty stuff. Jillian asked right away if there was a booth that sold yarn. Right up the center aisle was an oasis. This little booth has Jamieson's, Peace Fleece, Mountain Colors, and tons more yarn. We were thrilled and very impressed at the selection to be had in such a small space.

We backtracked a little and ended up at Yarn for Ewe in Okemos. Tiny little shop, but they had Hanne Falkenberg kits, Rowan, and a whole wall of Philosopher's Wool yarn. You could come in and put your own kit together (it was a little picked over, but I understand that when you're hooked on Philosopher's you come in when the new shipment comes in and buy it all). I felt very welcomed in this shop and think I could sit and knit quite contentedly here. The woman behind the counter knew everyone's name as they came in the store. We also got really good directions from a customer in the shop to get back to the highway - nice people!

We stopped at a little coffee place and we were on our way to Grand Rapids.

I took a lot of pictures, but can't download them until I get over to our other office. I promise I'll have them up before the end of the week. Tomorrow: Saturday's adventures!