Avast! The first two conquests!

This knitting pirate spent the past several days just 10 minutes' drive from downtown Burlington, VT, and, of course, discovered several yarn shops in that area! What's a piratey vacation without yarn shops to plunder?

The first target was Kaleidoscope Yarns in Essex Junction.



Quite a good shop awaited me! It immediately proved itself worthy of piratey attention by having a sale bin, Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn...



and Koigu...



all not far from the entrance!

There were a ton of rooms to explore, each stuffed full of yarn of all compositions, from plain old wool to 100% silk. Scattered around were completed projects, tagged with the pattern number, yarn type, and number of skeins it took to make. It was extremely hard to decide which loot to zero in on, especially since there was yet more sock yarn...



Cascade 220, Lamb's Pride Worsted...



and a whole room full of soft, colorful yarns and adorable projects in which to clothe knitting pirates-in-training!



At last, this knitting pirate showed great self control and purchased only this:



Because, as we all know, sock yarn doesn't count when it comes to stash size. And besides, it reminds me of spring which, what with it being August already, this pirate won't be seeing again in a hurry.

However, a pattern caught my mother's eye. Normally, it's difficult to knit things for her, as she's allergic to wool (GASP!), but this particular pattern happened to be knit with a yarn that's 100% cotton, and the shop had the required amount in stock! And so I walked out with 15 skeins of extra loot and a pattern:



which is nothing to sneeze at!

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Conquest #2 was Knitter's Laine in Shelburne, VT.

Inside was the dream of a pirate on a budget: massive sales! All around the shop were yarns arranged by color and brand...







as well as some neat, sparkly specialty yarns.



The thing that caught my eye was this rack of yarn, on which was hanging some 100% cashmere.



That was one heck of an experience for this knitting pirate, let me tell you, mateys! It was the first time I've ever felt anything, yarn or otherwise, that was 100% cashmere. Unfortunately, by that time, the camera was suffering from a severe case of me having been walking around the Shelburne museum for four and a half hours.

This shop was not technically conquered, as my limited pirate budget prevented me from buying any of the very awesome luxury yarns that I was swooning over. But someday! Someday! Arrrrr.