I attended a conference at Asilomar this past week (no, it wasn’t Amy Herzog’s knitting retreat, which is held there every spring, but I wish it was!). Of course, I took the opportunity to do a little yarn shopping. The conference was only three days, and the schedule was pretty packed, so I didn’t have a lot of time to check out all the yarn that the Monterey area has to offer. I did skip one afternoon session to go for a very pleasant run along the coast and into town to check out Monarch Knitting. It’s located in Pacific Grove, CA, and it has an adorable storefront and an open, welcoming interior.

The yarn was organized by weight – starting at lace weight to the right of the door and increasing to bulky on the far left. I thought this was a much more convenient way for a yarn store to be organized than, for example, by brand. There were also tons of cute little nooks for knitting/crocheting all around the store and some people hanging out doing cross stitch.

I ended up getting some Madelinetosh Twist Light for a sweater that I’m planning to make as a gift for a friend (any lacy sweater pattern suggestions for fingering weight yarn, send them my way!). I’m planning to get some dark grey to go with it.

I also got some super cute stitch markers because they were made of teeny-tiny shells, and I was on the coast, so I couldn’t resist. Cabin Fiber Co. makes a lot of nature inspired stitch markers. They also have an Etsy store!

But seriously, looking for lacy sweater patterns for this yarn!