Location: McKinleyville, California
Shop:       Knitter's Lane
Owner:    April
Website:  http://knitterslane.com/


Home to 15,000, McKinleyville is about 90 minutes south of our last stop, Crescent City. 90 minutes of Highway 101 which runs along the north coast of California. Very, very cool. I've spent most of my life in Seattle where we have the Puget Sound, not at all like the coast. The immense power in the waves and how they sculpt the beaches is amazing. We had the coast on our right and the giant redwoods on our left. I'm going to look forward to this drive next year.

Just off Highway 101, Knitter's Lane is in an old motel. The single story kind that surrounds the parking lot. Walk in and you can see their counter, knitting table, knitting couch, and accessories such as knitting needles and books are in what used to be the main room. There's two rooms off to the side that used to be the bedrooms. Now they hold lots of fiber.

Unlike a lot of the other stores I've been to, they had a nice supply of ribbon.

The store used to be a scrapbooking store, with stamps, papers and ribbons. The only thing that stayed when yarn came in was the ribbon.

April has owned the store for a year and a half. Prior to that, she was a stay at home mom who frequented the store. When her son and husband talked about adding a daughter to their family, she was okay with that as long as she had four legs. Now she's a proud dog owner with an extremely friendly dog who's too friendly to have in the store. Darn.

We have taken a few days off while visiting friends in Blue Lake, California. Blue Lake is located about 20 miles from the coast along the Mad River. They have an extremely loud air siren that goes off at 8am in the morning. Our friends neglected to tell us that and my husband assumed it was a Tsunami warning siren. He kinda figured out that since the town wasn't panicking, he should probably relax. In fact, our friends slept right through it.

Next stop: Eureka, California  -home of the Carson House

Location: Crescent City, California
Shop: A Perfect Yarn
Owners: Leapha & Karen

Our first stop in California, Crescent City, took us through some beautiful red wood forests. Nothing on Earth quite like these giant trees. Home to about 7500 people during with off-season. Some of those 7500 live in the filled to capacity Pelican Bay State Prison, but if it's here, I didn't see it.

This small city on the California coast, about 20 miles from the border of Oregon, is filled with hotels and waterfront RV parks. We stayed at one, and woke up to seals calling in the distance. A day at the beach is always memorable, if you don't live by one, even if the weather's crappy.

Leapha (Lee-fu) and Karen opened A Perfect Yarn 6 years ago. I met with Leapha, she works half the time, and Karen works half the time. They have a day or two mid-week that overlap. Although a small yarn shop, they have plenty of stuff to look at. Plus a small table in the middle of the store. While I was there, two locals were at these tables. One was a boy knitting a 'just-because' gift of a pair of socks for his mom. Nice kid. Lucky mom. Leapha was helping him keep his secret as well as helping him with the project.

I'm glad I'm visiting these places in the off-season. No issues getting into places that might fill. $28 to stay on the beach is pretty cool. The rates in the summer are on $32 (for the RV Park), but you have to plan months ahead. In the winter, the parks are less than a quarter full.

Next stop: McKinleyville, California

Location: Ashland, Oregon
Shop: The Websters
Owner: Linda
Website: http://yarnatwebsters.com/store/

In the "You-learn-something-new-every-day" category, I learned that webster is an old english term for a weaver. Merriam-Webster's dictionary says "Middle English, from Old English webbestre female weaver, from webbian to weave; akin to Old English wefan to weave".

The Websters is located next to beautiful Lithia Park. There's a nice meandering stream in the park for you to sit by and be crafty while you enjoy the day. Ashland is home to only 20,000, so there's plenty of room for you and your crafty gear at the park. There's also plenty of other shops around, all within walking distance of the park and The Websters.

This store is awesome. I was amazed at the store and it's selection. There's a huge rack of sweaters in the middle of the store.

Not one of them is for sale. They're all amazing samples of things you can make with the yarn that they carry. They also have a great selection of books and plenty of bins for you to rummage through.

Not to mention the walls, yes I said walls, of yarn.

The Websters is getting ready to celebrate their 30 year anniversary. Don't ask about an anniversary sale though, Dona's way too busy to even think about that. She's got a big store to run, plus a pretty extensive website.

Her shop's been in the same location the entire time, just not so big. They started as a small store which is now their back office. Now they have an upstairs, a back room, and an amazing giant store, with a roomy classroom.

Plus, the two gals at the front counter were all smiles and extremely helpful.

This was our last stop in Oregon, at least for the southern part of our journey. Next stop: Crescent City, California.

Location: Corvallis, Oregon
Shop: Fiber Nooks and Crannys
Owner: Michelle (and Mollie)
Website: www.fncyarn.com

Corvallis is about 80 miles south of Portland and 50 miles the Oregon coast. Home to 55,000 and Oregon State University.

I'm a dog lover, and this shop has a "shop dog". I already like it. Meet Mollie, a pit bull with beautiful ice blue eyes. She's about as docile as they come. She hung out with me & Michelle while she went through my buttons.

Unfortunately, Fiber Nooks & Cranny's is having to downsize there store. Slow business calls for a re-location, just 3 minutes south of the current one. The good news is that they're not closing, and their heating bill will be smaller. The shop opened 16 years ago in 1996. Michelle used to hang out there, then after a few years she started working there. Then in 2005 after raising her two daughters, she purchased the store from one of the original owners. Her husband is "the computer guy" and she's got a couple of other part-time employees, and Mollie, of course.

Next stop: Ashland, Oregon

Location: McMinnville, Oregon

Shop:       Boersma's....

Owner:    Michelle

McMinnville lies approx. 35 miles southeast of Portland, and just happens to be the home of the famous UFO photographs that appeared in the Oregonian and subsequently LIFE magazine in 1950. There are 27,000 people in McMinnville, and I'm sure every one of them know about Boersma's. They've been in business and in the same location since 1935. They also dominate two corners of downtown.

The knitting shop only opened 6 years ago. They had no plans of ever having a knitting shop, but they admitted they needed to when they got calls on a daily basis asking if they carried knitting supplies. So instead of making room in their quilting and fabric store, they opened up an entirely new shop, just for knitters, right across the street.

This store has a lot of room, and it's full of a lot of fun stuff. There's Michelle & Kathy sitting on the comfy couch (while they check out my buttons) in the side room, which even had more stuff.

Lots of yarns, lots of samples, and a few things you don't find in every knit shop

I followed Michelle and her manager Kathy over to the quilt shop and was amazed at the selection. This place was enourmous. And this is only one of the aisles.

I also found out that this building was built in the late 20's and had the first elevator in Oregon. It was originally built for Montgomery Wards, which didn't last very long. Boersma's kept the Montgomery Ward doors on the building, and they're still in use as the main entrance.

If you can't make it in, you can check out their website:

http://www.boersmas.com/

Location: Portland, Oregon
Shop:       Northwest Wools
Owner:    Linda

Located in the southeast Portland area in a district known as Multnomah Village is the oldest yarn shop in Portland at 23 years and counting (and in the same location the entire time). The shop's five employees have all been there at least 10 years each. That says a lot. Small and cozy with a generous amount of yarn and a ton of knowledge. The other 3 shops I mentioned in Portland all opened in the last six years, which goes for a lot of the shops I didn't mention. This shop is practically their mother's age (figuratively speaking, of course). In other words, these guys know a thing or two about yarn.

Although there's no parking lot for the shop itself, there's plenty of street parking.

This was the last Portland shop for this trip. next stop: Boesma's in McMinnville, Oregon. So much for a day off.

Location:  Portland, Oregon

Shop:        The Naked Sheep Knit Shop

Owner:      Sherry

If the car's there, then Sherry is, too.

A small shop full of fun stuff and bright colors. There's a classroom in the back, away from the store, not so far away that it feels like a back conference room, but far enough that if there's a class going on, they won't get in the way of your shopping.

Sherry opened the shop six years ago with her husband's help (he was the artist behind the shop's logo). When I asked Sherry if there's anything she would like me to say about the shop in my blog, two ladies that had been knitting in the front of the store yelled out "She's very nice!". So there you have it, spoken from two obviously loyal customers. I thought that it was a private lesson, but nope, they were just hanging out.

Another Portland shop without a parking lot, but there's plenty of street parking. I've had no problems finding parking within a block the two times I've been there.

They share a building with a dog groomer, and a pizza shop with free wifi. As I've mentioned in previously, my husband and I are in a truck with a slide in camper. While I conduct the meetings, he makes coffee in the camper and hangs out with our two dogs and waits. When we hopped out of the truck to let one of the dogs in to the back, she saw the dog groomers, which happened to have a stuffed dog in the window (wearing a cute knitted sweater). She ran towards it as if it were real, and just as she got to the glass, she realized there was something different about this dog. Poor Joan.