Nashville, Tennessee - Day 2

Today was 'me' day. I didn't get up until 8:30, which is 9:30 EST. I had two goals - eat good food and go to yarn stores.

If I had not emphasize enough that Ravelry is awesome, here is where I show you its awesome-ness in two ways:

1. I went to the Nashville Knitters group to find out where the LYSs are and there was a whole thread about it. There are 6 locally, but only 2 of them are within reasonable distance to where I'm staying - Angel Hair Yarn and Haus of Yarn.

2. And by continue reading its forum, I came upon thread made by a knitter, Kasiaiscarly, who resides in Virginia and is coming to the conference in Nashville!!! Small world, huh? So I think we will meet up at some point during the conference to knit.

I did my research and put in the addresses in my trusty GPS for the yarn stores, but first thing first - a girl is gotta eat some good breakfast before all the yarn fumes! So I went on Foodnetwork and searched $40 A Day for Nashville, TN - there it is! Bongo Java was Rachel Ray's favorite pick for breakfast. So I put the address in and off I went. I got there in about 15 mins and it was raining. The parking situation is pretty bad since it's all street parking and this coffee shop is right across the street from Belmont College! Lucky for me, I found one and walked half of the block in the rain to get there.

The place is pretty big but it was PACKED! I ordered Willy Tilly (Vanilla Latte with caramel) to drink and Juanita Burrita for breakfast and because it was so packed, I shared a table with a lady who has her daugher with her. She was very friendly and started chatting with me - I guess it is like this in the southern states everywehre. Then my food came and I couldn't believe how big it was and was wondering how I was gonan eat it!!!

There was so much food I couldn't finish it all! So I took the coffee togo and off I went to Angle Hair first. It is double store wide and it has quite a selection on yarn - almost full line of Rowan, Twisted Sister, Habu, Plymouth, Malabrigo, Manos del Uraguay, Artyarn, Koigu, Colinette, just to name a few.

right side of the store


Left side of the store

One of the knitted item I found in the store caught my attention. I couldn't leave it! I ended up asking permission to photograph it:

A beautiful necklace

Isn't it gorgeous? It is from a Colinette pattern book and I ALMOST bought it, but with the price and me only liking that one pattern, I couldn't justify the cost. However, I did came back with these:

Noni Majolica Bag pattern, Summer Cable Cowl by K1C2 pattern and Holiday Cheers by Diakeito pattern, and a skein of Shokay Yak
Not Pictureed: 2 soak trial packs - aquae and scent for celebration

I have never felt the yak yarn before and it is super soft. I decided that it was gonna be Pidge knock off and now all I need is buttons. Also the Noni pattern was full price, but the others were only 50 cents each! What a deal!

The staff at Angel Hair are super friendly and a lot of fun. When I went, there were people sitting around. Also, it turns out the staffs were on Ravelry as well!!!

R to L: Pam the co-owner, me, Ellen, and Charisse

I had so much fun with them I think I was there for 3 hours! Although I think i can easily achieve that in any yarn stores.

After Angel Hair Yarn, I set out to find Haus of Yarn. The location is kind of weird and on the side of a big complex, which is hard to find if you didn't pay attention. It is a lot smaller feel compare to Angel Hair, but it carries a full line of Noro. Some other lines it carries are Malabrigo, Koigu, Cascade, Colinette, Lorna's Lace, Anny Blatt. (This is not the full list)

The staffs were really nice in this store as well. I had a lot of fun just petting Noro. I also found this line Shibui Knits, which I've never heard of before. One of the things I should also mention is that couple of the staffs had contribute to the book One-Skein Wonders and 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. I wish I brought my copy with me so i can get it autographed! And from this store, I came out with these:

2 skeins of Koigu KPPPM, 3 skeins of Shibui Sock, 2 Pattern books in half off, 2 ceramic buttons for my Pidge Knock off to be Not Pictured: 3 nail files with Yarn images on them.

I was very proud of myself because I had set a budget for today's adventure and I met it. Now, I will not be buying anymore yarn unless I have some FOs!!! (This is where David would say - You don't need anymore yarn anyways! We have NO ROOM!!! He isn't here to say it, but I know he's thinking about it at home.)

By the time I left Haus of Yarn, it was almost 5pm. I met up with some of my friends that came today and we went out to dinner at Jacks - it is a really inexpensive place, you paid for what you want first and you grab a seat where you like. The food was great - I ordered a pull pork sandwich with roasted apples. I don't think I spent more than 7 dollars!

From L around the table: Jen, Ashley, Liz, Michelle, Kristine, Andrea and Jonna with Zack.

Although we are all from CT, we never get to really see each other until the conference! We had a good time and chatted away for quite a bit.

The conference officially starts tomorrow. I have a Jack Daniel Tour all day. I am very excited about it. I think I will bring HRB with me for the trip since it is about an hour away from downtown. I can't wait!