Well, this is a beautiful neighborhood!!!!
I visited two of the loveliest shops today! I drove up to Fort Collins and went to My Sister Knits. The shop is located in the carriage house of a lovely home on Mountain Avenue, which is a grand street with a tree lined median running through the middle.
I didn’t realize it was in the neighborhood at first and, as I drove up, I was thinking I was in the wrong place until I saw a tree trunk wrapped in yarn. 
That brought a big smile and I was like, “yep, this is it”! I followed two other ladies up the the drive and noticed there was a small sign on the front yard that told visitors that the shop was in the carriage house.
If I ever own another house, I probably want this backyard!!!!
I walked down the driveway, through a lovely, white picket fence to the back yard. It was filled with flowers and a sidewalk leading to the carriage house. On the right was a chicken coop! That brought another little chuckle from me – the hubs wanted chickens for years but our neighborhood covenant wouldn’t allow farm animals. There were four or five chickens rooting around the grass and climbing into their little house. So cute! (ED. NOTE – The trailer is too small for a chicken coop!!!) 
Wow, just wow!!!!
I expected the shop to be fairly small but it was a two story carriage house with yarn on both floors. Both floors had a nice, big, wooden table with chairs for sitting and knitting and classes. The first floor was full of DK, worsted and bulky weight yarns and a lot of fun notions, small wooden tags that could be stitched onto sweaters, chicken stitch markers (had to have a couple of those) (ED. NOTE – Of course you did!!!!), needles, enamel pins, all kinds of fun stuff.
The second floor held the fingering and sport weight yarns. I liked the set up – usually the first thing I see are the fingering weight yarns. These are usually sock yarns, of course, you can use them to knit anything. There is a lot of variegated, colorful mixtures that I gravitate toward and have a tendency to overlook the larger weighted yarns unless I’m looking for something specific. I actually spent more time downstairs than up!
I saw yarns that I haven’t seen before, one of which was Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, a 100% American wool grown in Wyoming. I bought two skeins in the color, Bale, a hay-colored yarn for a pair of mittens that have been in my Ravelry queue for a while. They wound the yarn for me so I’m ready to start on them! (ED. NOTE – OMG, we now have more yarn than actual clothes and there are probably like 47 “to-be-started” projects lining the space under the table – please help!!!!!)
Well, I guess that answers that question!!!!
While there, I wondered how much business they could do with the location. Even though it was beautiful, it was out of the way in a neighborhood. However, the shop was visited by 4 other women in the 30-45 minutes I was there and the phone rang off the hook! My Sister Knits recently celebrated their 15 year anniversary and have obviously become a well known local yarn shop.
A story of knitting and reading and buying and knitting and buying some more!!!!!
My next stop was Lambspun of Colorado. This was a shop I knew I had to visit because over the last 14 years of my knitting life, I have been reading the Kelly Flynn knitting mysteries by Maggie Sefton that are set in Fort Connor (name change) and based around THIS knitting shop!(ED. NOTE – By name change she means the books are set in this particular shop in Fort Collins but, due to legal concerns, the author has changed the name of the town to Fort Connor)
I was following GPS to get there and was having some difficulty find the shop. I turned into where I thought it should be but only saw a restaurant, The Backporch Cafe. I pulled back out of the parking lot and turned around to follow the directions better. At that point, I saw the sign for Lambspun and realized that, in the novels, the knitting shop was attached to a restaurant and the light-bulb went off! (ED. NOTE – Obviously, she wasn’t just making that part up!!!)
Now this must be what heaven feels like!!!!!
I pulled back into the driveway and headed in. Again, this shop had a lovely entrance into a stucco style house (which used to be a farmhouse – read the interesting history here). Just like the novels described, the shop has yarn piled in baskets and color is spilling over everywhere. The rooms have a rambling feel (like a maze) and you just wander from room to room to see what else is around the corner! I loved that they have their own yarn that is spun and dyed in house and quite affordable. There was weaving looms and spinning wheels to go along with all the yarn and roving. There were several people knitting and getting help around the large table in one of the rooms.
I, obviously, noticed the Maggie Sefton books over on a shelf and saw a sign that said, “Signed Copies”. So, even though I usually read everything on my tablet (to keep the weight down in the rig, per the hubs) I decided to purchase the next book in the series AND it’s autographed :). (ED. NOTE – Ok, that is pretty cool and now you just have to decide what to get rid of – 1 thing in, 1 thing out!!!!)
After looking through the menu of the Cafe, the hubs and I may have to head back up for lunch! My plan was to come in quietly and slip my yarn into one of my knitting bags and not mention that I had purchased anything but just couldn’t stand it and showed the hubs my purchases. I’m sure you’ll be hearing about that! (it was worth it!) (ED. NOTE – Of course, of course!! At this point I don’t think it will ever end!!!!)