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