Shop Hop Santa Barbara

I went to Santa Barbara for three days last week to do some recon for a knitting retreat in October. We found 3 jewel-box knitting shops, plus great food.

1. Cardigans Knit Shop - 3030 State Street - has plenty of charm plus Rowan and Noro yarns. Lots of inspiration in the form of books, patterns and samples. There is also a pleasant garden out back. This shop is located in the San Roque neighborhood, and is conveniently near a great French bakery, Renauld's, and wonderful bookstore, Chaucer's.
2. Loop and Leaf - 536 Brinkerhoff Avenue - two blocks off lower State Street, this shop has a fabulous selection of hand-dyed, hand-painted, and otherwise hand crafted yarns plus teas. Enjoy your time knitting in the front yard under the shady trees.
3. Knit & Pearl Boutique - 5 E Figueroa Street - just off State Street right downtown near the courthouse, this shop has a lovely selection of yarns including Spud & Chloe, Manos, Classic Elite, and more. They also stock a bunch nice knitting bags by Namaste.

If we'd only had more time...

Lots of projects, some progress

There's been a lot of activity on the knitting front, and lots of work to do for the Shop Hop. But that's coming up at the end of the week. Whew!

Dog Days of Summer

I think I bought too much advertising on Ravelry today. Is that possible? The Forums ads and Notebook ads didn't release until this afternoon, and I was so eager I just grabbed the usual forgetting that registration for the Couture and Color Retreat has closed. *sigh* I changed it to regular shop advertising.

And I was fighting with my first short row heel while waiting for the advertising to open. It seems like when the first Wednesday is the first week of the month, advertising opens a bit late, while when the first Wed is the second week ads sell out before 9am PDT.

Gripe, grump, crab!