I just finished up a cross-country roadtrip (from California to New Jersey) with my boyfriend, and I’ll be staying in New Jersey for a few weeks. On our second day here, I decided to go check out Do Ewe Knit?, which is about 25 minutes away from where I’m staying.

This is definitely my kind of yarn store: lots of hand-dyed, brightly colored, fingering weight yarn. They had so much Hedgehog Fibres! I will probably go back before I head to the West Coast to get some single skeins of yarn for socks.

For this yarn shopping excursion, I had a shopping goal of buying some yarn to get started on a baby shower present for some friends of mine. The shower is in two weeks (yes, I know, cutting it close). I had been planning on knitting a baby blanket, but Do Ewe Knit? doesn’t carry much yarn that’s heavier than fingering weight, and I’m not really down to knit a fingering weight baby blanket in 2 weeks. They did, however, have tons of mini-skeins of Hedgehog Fibres sock yarn. I had lots of fun making a Solar System Mobile for a different friend’s baby a year or so ago, and I loved the finished project. I decided to get a bunch of really brightly colored mini-skeins and crochet a solar system garland.

I’m so excited to get started on the project! I use this free pattern for making the spheres for the solar system.

I’m hoping to get up to New York City to visit my favorite yarn stores there (Purl Soho, Knitty City, etc.), and I’m also planning to visit Washington D.C. and potentially Boston while I’m on the East Coast. Any suggestions for other good yarn adventures in the area?