Sunday Crawl

Stephanie, Meri and Brenda, Redondo Beach

While many Los Angeles residents were RIDING their bicycles in L.A.'s CycLAvia this Sunday, I was CRAWLING with my Sisters in Yarniness for the last day of the 2012 L.A. County Yarn Crawl.

Stephanie, Brenda, Meri and I started out at 10-ish and drove down to Redondo Beach to L'Atelier Yarns. This shop is in a sweet little oceanside neighborhood, filled with cafes, boutiques and beach people. We were a bit early, so we ducked into the most adorable garden and curio shop next door to L'Atelier.

Garden Shop, Redondo Beach

Once the yarn shop opened, we zoomed inside. This is a rather large shop with tons of varieties of yarn, jewelry and notions inside. We had a nice visit and picked up a few goodies, including two skeins of Teva Durham's Loop-D-Loop in a beautiful pinky-watermelon color..
Next stop, north on PCH - Sepulveda to Manhattan Beach and Twist, Yarns of Intrigue. This was my first visit to Cathy's new location. This shop is a stand-out! Now that there's more space, the shop has been organized beautifully. There's a sit 'n knit area in front with couches, a table and refreshments, yarns in the middle, yarn-winding and another table in back for teaching. The place was jammed! I always like checking out Cathy's hand-dyed yarn. I purchased a huge skein of Cathy's kettle-dyed merino and cashmere in various shades of black and gray. I also managed to get some Malabrigo sock yarn and a skein of this interesting "Twist Tuff" nylon accompanied by a free pattern for a knitted market bag.

After all that yarn, we needed some sustenance. We stopped at El Tarasco in MB for a delicious lunch.

Brenda and Ellen @El Tarasco, Manhattan Beach

Our next and last stop was Needlepoints West in Westchester. This shop is hidden in a small 50's-style shopping village just off Sepulveda and La Tijera.


I hadn't been inside this shop for probably 15 or more years! In the old days, it was primarily a needlepoint store, filled with beautiful canvases and needlepoint wool. WELL, they've added all kinds of interesting yarns to keep up with the knit and crochet craze. I was surprised to see such an abundant display of different types of yarn that I'd never experienced before.


I picked up some Tapestry Print acrylic in olives and golds, an interesting sock-weight yarn called Yummy and some super-pointy ChiaoGoo stainless steel knitting needles. As a special gift for Yarn Crawl participants, we were invited to choose any of the loose knitting patterns in the Shop's notebook for FREE. I chose the Mermaid Tee by Hélène Rush. I LOVE this shop! It's a great location, easy to park and close to many other restaurants and stores and right on my regular route. I'll definitely be returning to Needlepoints West!

Thanks for a lovely, day Ladies! More Yarn Crawl photos here.