Julie and I go to the same Bible Study, and we consider it our moral obligation to check out the new yarn stores around the Portland area so that we can maintain our status as yarn pushers enablers and report back to the rest of the girls. I had read about Yarnia on Monica’s blog, and was so intrigued that on Monday I told Julie I wanted us to go there as scouts.

So we drove makai [toward the ocean] from Gresham, and soon arrived at the shop. Oh my goodness! It was just a bit overwhelming at first because we’d never seen anything like it before. There were cones of yarn everywhere, all arranged by fiber content. These are the wools.

And the cottons:

The idea is to grab some singles that you like, and combine them to make one yarn to knit with.

These are some finished yarns so that we could see all the possiblities of combining yarns.

And this is the machine that does it all.

These are the bouclé’s:

Fabulous cones of yarn were everywhere in the small shop. I was having a hard time choosing.

Really hard.

Did I say I was getting dizzy from looking and trying to decide?

I decided to get cognitive. I checked out the chart on the wall for estimating cost, weight, and yardage.

And looked at the cozy corner where you could knit or check out knitting magazines.

Then I decided to help Julie find some neat yarns to combine. She found a fabulous pre-made cone as well as a gold-green one. Then we found a fantastic gold one she could combine it with. So Lindsey, the owner of the shop, put a new blank cone on the machine and threaded Julie’s yarns through the da kines (da kine really is a great word!).

And away it went! See that da kine ontop of Julie’s yarn cone? It shuttles back and forth as the two combined yarns are combined onto the new cone.

Try look Julie’s cool yarn!

See the two singles coming up from the floor to the machine?

And here is the finished cone. The photo really doesn’t do it justice.

Finally I pick six different yarns (the maximum number), with some help from Lindsey, trying to duplicate a pre-mixed cone that was short on yardage. There are two of them down on the floor. The shiny one is extremely fine, but adds a lot of sparkle.

The yarns near the floor are the rest of my yarns that will be combined onto one cone:

Making yarn! This is absolutely fascinating to me!

The finished product. See those two ones behind it? I’m gonna combine them next!

I had so much fun with the first one, that I decided to combine another bouclé with another shiny yarn.

Photos still don’t do it justice:

Okay, so this is what I learned. It’s better not to be Type A about this. Have fun! Let your creative kid out to play. Put yarns together that you didn’t think would work. Play! Grab a cone here, a cone there without trying to be too logical about it. Give yourself permission to put colors together and see what happens. Just have fun! Sure, if you want something for a specific project and must have certain colors, then grab those colors. But part of the wonder of Yarnia is the unexpected result.

Julie and I celebrated our moral obligation by having lunch at Koji Osikawa’s next to Fubonn. It was a great ending to a wonderful journey.

Broke da mout’ dis stuff!! Good friends, good yarn, good grindz. Doesn’t get any betta den dat!