I'm on vacation all this week and boy am I enjoying every single minute. Between the sun, the bike riding to the pool, and just the plain feel of being on vacation is absolute joy.

Of course, before traveling, I looked up local yarn stores around our destination. I found two stores within two miles of each other really close to where we were staying. Yay!

So today I got around to visiting both of those stores.

I walked into the first one and the first thing I saw was embroidery thread. Huh? Well I guess "needlepoint" in the shop title should have clued me in. But as I got farther into the very tiny store, yarn was everywhere. Mostly Novelty, which I'm not entirely in to, but the colors! Oh the colors were totally gorgeous! They also had some other solid worsteds that interested me, but I had no idea what to make with them. And at a whopping $12 per 122 yards, they didn't quite have me sold.

Another thing that astounded me were the fibers and how incrediblely soft they were! As a girl that's used to AcMoore and Michaels yarns, a.k.a. Acrylic, I was shocked at how lovely the depth of color was. There is something to say about real fibers. Infact, the only negative about visiting these stores is that I don't think I can use Red Heart ever again! Bye-bye cheap-o yarn.... you were appreciated. Emphasis on "were".

So I walked out of that store empty handed. And walking out of a yarn store empty handed isn't the best feeling in the world I can tell you.

So, after visiting some other cute-sy boutique ($500 for a blouse?! What?!) shops, I was off to the next store. Hoping, of course, there would be pretty yarns at pretty good prices.

1.3 miles later, I'm walking into the next shop. The very first thing that catches my eye is a beautiful stack of bright varigated yarn with wonderful texture and a slight sheen. Vibrant colors with a hint of subtle-ty as to not overwhelm you. Could it be? Was I really looking at? Noro? Sure enough, I picked up a skein, turned it over and in gold letters my suspitions were confirmed. This was the incredibly famous Noro. The Noro I had wanted to try for ages was now in my hands. Only one thing was left between me and this gorgeous dream. The price. And that price was rather high for someone that's used to finding $2.77 on the label. This yarn was about 7 times as much. Oh dear.

But I just had to have it. And had it I did. This is vacation after all. Why not?

But then I was informed that if I bought $25 worth of yarn or patterns, I'd get 15% off! And well, $18.25 just simply wasn't enough to get that wonderful discount. So there was only one solution. I just had to get more yarn.

So I looked around and found a wonderful, squishy wool in the prettiest colors. A varigated pink,, orange and purple. My kind of colors. But they weren't 'too much' if you know what I mean. Bright and sort of 'out there' but not in your face and annoyingly 'neon'. I'm starting to see the light. And the advantages of real fibers must be mentioned again. It just does something to the vibrancy yet subtle-ness of the tones.

So now I think it's time for pictures. Enough of my rambling! Here's some eye candy for ya: I must mention that the above photo may just be the best pic I've taken in my life. This blogging thing has definitely improved my photography skills! But buying yarn is the easy part! Deciding what to make is much, much, MUCH, harder. I think I may try the Queen Anne's Lace scarf in the Noro. And as for the pretty wool? No thoughts.
Any suggestions you guys? I'm open to anything that takes 244 yards of worsted weight yarn. Something simple, yet breathtaking. Something I can accesorize with, but not make too much of a statement. Something really.... cool.
Ya know?

Thanks for reading my crazy rambly post! And if you did only scan the pics, I hope you enjoyed them!

You guys are the best!
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