Back to Utah

At the end of April, work took me to Utah for a week. I didn't get to blog about the trip, but aside from being a little lonely, it was not such a bad trip. I love it when travel lets you get a car. I don't have my own car, so it's fun when I get to tool around and someone else picks up the tab.



My job on these trips is to visit academics at their office, and talk with them about their teaching and the books they use in their courses. I was fortunate this time to also visit three very awesome knitting stores, and I didn't want it to get so long that I couldn't remember which was which.



1. In Logan, Utah, I spent a long time driving around looking for Rumplestiltskin, as well as looking at the mountains, trying to find the parking lots on campus, places to eat, and anything to do... Anyway, the last day I was there, I thought I'd just walk around and see if I could find the store. I'd kept driving up and down Main street looking for the sign, but with no luck. However, my hotel was also on Main, so I figured it couldn't be much of a walk, and it wasn't! It turned out the reason I couldn't find it was that it was inside a larger building that housed a bunch of businesses. When I went, they were having a knitting class in the space next door. I didn't buy any yarn, but I did find the very first issue of Knitscene magazine, which I'd agonized over buying when it first came out (when I was much newer to knitting and didn't realize the pull of knitting mags). I hadn't bought it and always regretted it. And imagine my surprise when I found it languishing in the magazine basket at this little shop in Logan, UT of all places! YAY. I felt like you do when you find a cashmere sweater at a thrift store for $2. Like I knew the value of something someone else was throwing away. Indeed, the owner said she was really cutting down on the mags because people there didn't want them. Shocking, actually. I also snagged an IK from 2003, I think. I've put it away for later now, but it was the one with the pink ballet sweater on the front. I also bought a circular needle too. They had their own line of yarn, but my suitcase was bursting, so I refrained.



2. In Ogden, Utah, my next stop, I was out to dinner my first day there, by myself, when I saw a needlepoint store, and thought, oh, I wonder if they sell yarn too. HA. I shouldn't have worried. The Needlepoint Joint not only carried yarn, it was overrun with yarn. I have never seen a yarn store this big before. It was amazing. If I lived in Ogden, I'd be in there ALL. THE. TIME. She had yarn, tons of books where you could browse for them, lots of needles, buttons, bags, and so many other things I could have been in there for hours. Sigh. I wish, wish, wish that there was a place like that where I could shop all the time. Again, I refrained from buying any yarn (I have to learn to pack lighter!!!), but I did pick up Nora Gaughan's Volume 1 and Volume 2 pattern booklets. I'd wanted both, but had again, put off buying them. Having seen many finished things on Ravelry now though, I think I'm going to make a lot, especially from Volume 1.



3. In fact, after I finished in Logan and Ogden, I had some time to kill in Salt Lake City before my flight, so I stopped by Black Sheep Wool Company, a charming little store in downtown Salt Lake. I went in on a Sunday, so I wasn't sure they'd be open, but yes! Apparently not everything closes in SLC on Sundays. I even drove by the Gay and Lesbian resource center, which was really thrilling for me. Anyway, back to the yarn store. At that point in my trip, I was very close to finishing my second rainy day sock, and I knew I would go nuts on the plane without another project, so I went in looking for the yarn to make the Jyri scarf from Nora Gaughan vol. 1. They didn't have the Pure Merino that it called for, but I ended up getting five balls of Mission Falls 1824 wool, which OMG is so soft. I'll talk more about it when I finish up the scarf (I keep messing it up because it's knit sideways, and i start zoning out and messing up the lace pattern about half way through. It's sad when you're looking forward to the purl rows as a break from the pattern!). Anyway, the shop was a midsize one, with lots of different types of yarn. I also found the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino that I'd been looking for at my LYS and which they sadly don't carry anymore. This shop would also make a pretty decent LYS. Not as far reaching as the Needlepoint Joint, but respectable selection and super-helpful owners/workers. They went out of their way to help me figure out a substitution for the Pure Merino, and that I got enough of the wool to finish the project, asked me about myself, told me a little bit about the neighborhood, and were generally really nice! I like Salt Lake City, and I'm glad I have to go back there in the fall. Next time, I'm going to take the tour of the Temple grounds and spend more time driving around in that neighborhood by the yarn shop. There are tons of beautiful Victorian homes there and other buildings, and the whole place just makes me think of settling the West in a way that I've not experienced in other areas (such as Denver-ech.).




Also, interesting facts I learned about Mormons:
*Many of the college students have a couple of children before they graduate, which means that they have absolutely no money to spare, and graduate with lots of debt (which I'm assuming most college students do these days, but if you're supporting a family on top of that, think of how much harder that must be...)

*The streets are all labeled by how many blocks N, S, E, or W they are from the Temple, which is supposed to be in the middle of the town. That was completely freakish when I got there, and was trying to find the campus at Utah State, and the address was like E 400 N, N 600 E. Crazy.

*There is a genealogy center at the Temple in SLC that anyone can use, and they'll help you track down your ancestors.

*Non-Mormons can't go into the Temple at all, but you can take the tour of the grounds (Temple Square, I guess), which like I said, I'm planning to do next time.

*There are not Temples in every town in America, but there are some sort of meeting houses where people go to church (I think. This part was hard to figure out...).

It's all pretty fascinating. I also take it that the regular Mormons were pretty irritated by what is going on in Texas right now. Completely separate apparently, yet I'm sure non-Mormons ask regular Mormons about it all the time, kind of like how when people hear I'm from NYC, they want to know about 9/11.

**Just a note, the pics are a mix of Logan and Ogden. I didn't really put them in any order, but that place is absolutely sick with beautiful scenery. If you like them, you should click through to make them bigger--they're much better that way.