Rowan: Maisie got out of school on Friday, and we officially embarked on our Yarn Crawl on Saturday morning. First stop was the Fiber Loft in Harvard, MA, where we waited with other eager shoppers for the store to open at 10:00. You can see what a friendly bunch they were. We traded stories about the Knitting Olympics and showed each other our projects. Lucky for us, the Fiber Loft was having a SALE SALE SALE, and we both found some beautiful yarn.
Maisie also acquired a drop spindle and some wool fleece to experiments with.

Our second stop that day was Kaleidescope Yarns up in Burlington, Vermont. We had heard about a gorgeous "wall of Koigu" that we were dying to see. The shop was gorgeous, but the Great Wall of Koigu had been sadly depleted only the week before when the owners had a sale to make room for new Koigu colors coming in. We got to see the blank sapce in between.
Actually, it wasn't that bad. There were still some Koigu yarns left, and even a few discount skeins that they dye with the leftovers colors at the end of a run.

We stayed overnight in Burlington at The Inn at Essex and kept to our room, knitting and watching TV. For dinner we ordered the most scrumptious roast chicken in the world from room service and devoured it. Then we turned off the TV, knit some more, and as the evening got late, we started making up custom Mad Libs for each other and had a hilarious time reading them back. My favorite was one Maisie wrote for me involving a ride in a cream puff with Napolean Dynamite and squeaky cheese.

The next day we stopped in Woodstock, Vermont at the Whippletree shop, and then wandered into a wonderful thrift store where Maisie found a WWI green wool U.S. Marine topcoat. A little big, but very cool.

By then, we realized we were running too late to get to Lenox, MA by 4 p.m., when Colorful Stitches closed (Sunday hours), so we poked around in a jewelry store and a flannel shirt store and then stopped by the Mobil station for some high-quality road-trip snacks.

We stayed in Lenox in a beautiful Victorian house with 22 guest rooms. We were the only guests that night and we were sure that a murder-mystery was taking place around us. (Windy night, empty house, two quiet knitters all alone. . .)

The next day we were rewarded for our patience when Beautiful Stitches opened at 11 and we explored their fabulous selection.

We made it to Webs in Northampton that afternoon, and wandered dazed through their huge store. Maisie asked someone to demonstrate the use of the drop spindle, and then got to try her hand at a spinning wheel. We left with lots of yarn, and fortunately, a yarn-baller and a swift, so Maisie will no longer be obliged to conscript her father into service before begining a new project.

We had a few more places on our list, but at that point we stopped and declared victory. We celebrated with Herrel's ice cream and a long drive home listening to "The Sea of Trolls" by Nancy Farmer.

It was a great trip. Immensely satisfying despite the fog and rain (good weather for knitters!) Our thirst for exotic yarn stores was slaked, and our mother-daughter bond strengthened through common interest, humor and adventure.