Darn. Knit. (Anyway)

I ended up staying 2 extra nights in Minnesota. We dinked around and enjoyed Duluth and got back to North St. Paul in the afternoon and I spent the night and went to school with Dave on Monday morning. I knitted and played on my netbook with the college's wireless internet. I had asked Dave if we could do some antiquing and he suggested we go to Stillwater, MN for that. While he was in class, I did a search and wouldn't you know it, there is a yarn AND fabric shop in Stillwater!?! And not just ANY fabric, but AMY BUTLER! Did I mention that Dave is a good sport?

We drove over there and very easily found the Darn. Knit. (Anyway) shop located on 423 South Main Street. It is a very easy to find shop in a lovely historic brick building.
This shop caters to both knitters and spinners as well as stitchers! They had an awesome selection of Amy Butler fabrics and patterns. This picture shows what appears to be large balls of yarn which are in fact rolled up balls of merino top slivers for spinning!
They stocked all kinds of Malabrigo yarn in worsted singles, worsted plied and bulky. I didn't think their selection of books was the greatest but that is ok. Very good selection of needles and tools. They also offered classes in sewing and knitting and spinning.

Plenty of Cascade and Brown Sheep in worsted and bulky. Lovely atmosphere!
We walked around the main street of the town and saw the bridge. The bridge had very recently been re-opened due to flooding concerns. This bridge is similar to the bridge in Duluth as the entire thing raises up to accommodate boats.
Here is the water level next to the bridge. We went into several antique malls and stores on the main street. As lovely as this town is, it is geared towards tourists and the prices of things reflected that. The restaurants and ice cream shops seemed very reasonable so an overnight stay in a B & B or pension would be a lovely weekend activity. We DID make a stop at the Olde Thyme Candies shop on main and I came away with 4 peanut butter fudge balls, as well as a pound of their pecan turtles and a sack of assorted salt water taffy. Num num! The taffy they sell is made in Salt Lake City but the nut brittles, fudge, and truffles are all made there on site. They also had a huge selection of candies in barrels in the shop. It reminded me of Willy Wonka's! Dave got a bag of his beloved Swedish Fish! I will be bringing home some awesome treats next weekend for our family Easter get-together!
After our afternoon together in Stillwater, I was still dragging my feet to go home and ended up staying Monday night too. Dave drove me around the Twin Cities and I got a glimpse of the famous Mickey's Diner mentioned often on A Prairie Home Companion! He treated me to a lovely yet sinful supper of a Juicy Lucy at The 5-8 Club in Maplewood!

This morning Dave woke me up when he got up for class and I got ready and hit the road by 1015 and none too soon! The snow and rain started flying just as I got outside The Cities and maybe 30 minutes after I arrived in Mason City, they closed Interstate 35! I will take a short nap to recover from white-knuckling the wheel and then I have to get up and bake Easter frosted sugar cookies. I will whine the entire time but I will also take great comfort knowing that this is the last time I will bake them before October! When I said good-bye to Dave's father Don, the weather forecast was then predicting that most of the snow would end up in Iowa and I told him I'd do my best to take it with me. I'm now EATING my words and told Dave to tell Don that he could thank me later! ;)