A Lot of Reading, a Trip to Alaska, and Some Yarn

It's been awhile since I last posted.  Not much knitting going on.  My vest is still on the needles waiting for me to do something.  My knitting mojo just up and left me.  Okay, so a gadget has something to do with that.  Over the summer I bought an Amazon Kindle eReader w/3G & wifi.  I've downloaded a lot of free Christian contemporary fiction and have been on a reading-spree.  I never thought I would get hooked reading on a thin device.  I have.  I also purchased one or two knitting reference books to use when my knitting mojo comes back.  I have bought and downloaded a 500+ page photography reference book from my DSLR.  This thin eReader device has come in handy.  It fits nicely in my purse and I take it with me wherever I go.  Including my recent trip to Alaska.

I found two yarn shops in Anchorage:  Far North Yarn and The Yarn Branch.  FNY had the best selection of yarn I've seen so far.  They had plenty of aran and chunky versions as well as high end yarns.  The only low end yarn they carried was Plymouth.  They were well stocked with a variety of colors and had enough on hand to make up to two sweaters.  Speaking of sweaters, they had a lot hand knitted garments on display.  I was impressed with their store...especially for a place as far away as Anchorage.  TYB shared a store front with a quilting fabric store.  Their selection and variety was small.  No comparison to FNY.

I was happy to see that knitting was very popular in this beautiful city.

I managed to purchase a few skeins and balls of yarn.  They did pack nicely in my luggage.

Louisa Harding-Grace Hand Dyed (hanks of blue/gray, purple/mauve, & pink/raspberry)/Noro-Maiko (black tweed hanks)/Rowan-Amy Butler Belle Organic DK (Raspberry balls)

While I was in Anchorage, I went a local Michael's store and scored a fantastic find:

The bags are called the Yarn Traveler.  They were regularly $11.29 and I found them in the clearance section for $3.49 each.  Once other nice thing about Anchorage...no sales tax.  I stuffed each one with my new yarn I purchased and in the suitcase they went.

Oh knitting mojo...please come back soon!