Inspiration Saturday: Savannah has yarn stores, too

This past week was spouse’s and my 12th wedding anniversary. We decided to take a short vacation trip to celebrate. We hadn’t taken a vacation-type trip together in several years. In fact, the last time was Labor Day weekend 2009, and our impromptu jaunt to Carmel, so we were overdue.

So what did we do? We went to Savannah for four days! We stayed at a beautiful old hotel, ate some fabulous food, saw some gorgeous sights, and generally just enjoyed being together with no distractions like work, pets, or chores.

Monday, we took a trolley tour of the historic district.

This was a “hop-on, hop-off” tour, which meant we could get off at any of several designated spots if we wanted to take a closer look, and then get back on the next trolley that came around when we were ready to move on. The trolleys came through about every 20 minutes or so, making it really easy to spend just the right amount of time at any given historic spot and not have to wait too long to continue on the tour.

We hopped off a few times and took lots of pictures. These are just a few.

Mr. Grumpy

All that walking around Monday wore us out, so we slept in Tuesday morning, then hit the bricks again, this time completely on foot. I had found the address of a yarn store and I wanted to visit it, because I do my best to shop the LYS wherever I go and buy something local. Spouse grumbled but went along. We shot lots more photographs along the way, including one of him.

Bless his heart.

The yarn store I wanted was out of business (boo), but luckily the custom tailoring shop that shared their space knew of another LYS nearby and gave us directions. And in the basement of the same building as the defunct LYS was a bookstore! Had the LYS been open, this would have been the perfect shopping combo for me! Spouse started counting his lucky stars that this had not been the case.

The book store was wonderful, with books slotted and shelved in all sorts of nooks and crannies and hidey-holes. I found a hardcover edition of George R. R. Martin’s Armageddon Rag that I nearly bought. I talked myself out of buying it because we were headed to the yarn store next, and I didn’t know how much I would end up spending in there. I can get the book from the library; I can’t get yarn there.

I’m regretting that decision. But only a little. Because yarn!

The store is called The Frayed Knot. And it’s lovely. Just look! They have their yarn arranged by color!

What’s not to love about that, right? This made me very happy, and I told them so. They carry some lovely stuff: Madeline Tosh, Rowan, Blue Sky Alpaca, and a local yarn called Copper Corgi, which is what I bought.

460 yds of fingering weight 100% superwash merino, in colorway “Devil’s Kiss”. It’s simply gorgeous and needs to become a shawl, a fiery swirl of lace to wear in the dead of winter, perhaps with tiny beads to add sparkle. I will scour the Ravelry pattern database for something suitable. Or — and this thought just occurred to me — maybe even design my own? I’ve never designed a shawl. Just fingerless mitts (which reminds me, I really need to write that pattern up, have it tested, and publish it), and the occasional improvised baby blanket. Hmm. It’s a thought. Dare I say…an inspiration?

So this is Inspiration Saturday, after all. Who knew?