Nightmare on Knit Street

If there was any doubt about my sanity during the daylight hours on August 1, the ensuing dark night of the soul confirmed that I could be one wrap short of a full skein. Couldn’t sleep, or so I thought, anticipating a long drive the next morning to the opening day of the big summer sale at Filati, a fabulous yarn shop in Rocklin, California, about 100 miles northeast of me. The mere fact that I’d seriously entertain the idea of driving one hundred miles each way to a yarn shop sale is evidence of my break with reality right there.

I found myself in the yarn shop right at opening, but – what’s this? Not a single shopping basket remained in the rack. A glance around the shop itself revealed… empty shelves! Nothing but file cabinets and boxes. No yarn. Not a single skein. I found the owner and, sweating with fear, asked what had happened to all that sale yarn? Had I driven all that way only to be too late to score? No, she said kindly. Pointing out the door, she informed me that the sale was at their OTHER shop across the street.

Dodging traffic, I scampered across the road to find dozens of women, all carrying shopping baskets that bulged with their sale purchases. Buzzing with conversation: “Did you see all the Noro over there?” and “Ohmigod, I just doubled my stash of Rowan!” My heart lifted as I hastened into the shop. But again, no more available shopping baskets! No yarn for me!

And that’s when I awoke. What a nightmare.

In reality, the drive up and back went smoothly to the accompaniment of NPR’s coverage of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis among other topics. I did arrive fifteen minutes before the shop opened (You try gauging a 100-mile drive more accurately than that!), but I was by no means the first eagle-eyed knitter in the parking lot. No, I was the third to pull into a space in front of the shop, and several others were right behind me.

Once the owners unlocked the doors, I quickly filled my basket with stash-worthy additions such as these:

Mountain Colors Mountain Goat in Thunderhead;

Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Olive;

Noro Silk Garden (evidently a discontinued colorway. I bought enough for a sweater);