My friend Connie and I share the same birthday.  So last year we decided to take the day off and go on a whirlwind tour of the Pittsburgh area yarn shops.  We called it Yarnapolooza.  I did a search of the area for yarn shops and came up with seven shops in and around the city to visit.  So we took the day off of work and went on our yarn shop tour.  This was the first time we visited most of these shops, so it was an exploration mission as well as a shopping extravaganza.

FYI.  I would love to own a yarn shop.  It’s like my dream job or at least a happy little fantasy in my head.  So I love to visit yarn shops.

To start off this post is not a review of all these shops because they were all great in their own way.  My dream shop would have a combination of all of them mashed together into one.

We started off at Kid Ewe Knot in Bridgeville, PA.  It’s a cute shop with a really nice shop owner.  We actually spent a good deal of time there and the selection of yarn was amazing.  I ended up getting about five skeins of yarn there, including these, that I’ve used all up.

Our next stop was Tonidale Yarn in Oakdale, PA.  This shop had tons of yarn.  And when you thought you saw it all there’s another room in the back with more yarn!  I ended up with this beautiful skein of of silk yarn.  Still haven’t used it but I love it.

We also made a stop at Hobby Lobby because it was nearby.  Connie had never been there before.  Seriously?  And I really like their yarn, so we had to stop and look.

Next up was a trip to Sewickley, PA to stop at Sewickley Yarns.  I bought one of my favorite yarns here.  I still haven’t used it, but it is beautiful!  I hope to one day make a sweater from it.  Hopefully.  This Yarn.

Then we headed to the North Hills and Dyed in the Wool.  This place was nice and cozy.  And they had nice yarn.  I ended up getting some roving there and this beautiful yarn.

We went all the way out to Yarns by Design in Oakmont, PA.  This place was really nice and open.  I liked the openness of the store.  And the town is cute too.  I loved this orangey yarn.

Finally we ended up at Knit, One in Squirrel Hill.  We had been here before, but we needed to round out our trip.  We have also been debating taking knitting lessons here, but almost a year later and we still haven’t signed up.  Oh well.

We were also going to check out Knitsburgh in Aspinwall, PA.  But we weren’t able to get there in time, so we missed out on that one.  The back of my car at the end of the day was heaven.  Yarn, glorious yarn!  And here are some pics of the day’s splurge.  Just so you know, I still have almost all of that yarn in my stash.  I’ve been saving most of it for special projects I haven’t gotten to yet.