LYS Trip: Yarn Soup

So in all the Ravellenic madness, I forgot to share one of the coolest parts of my trip...  a visit to Yarn Soup, the LYS in Dubuque, Iowa!

I wasn't able to get any photos of the inside, but there are a couple of good ones on the website that give one a sense of the coziness of the place -- there's some serious cozy going on there, even with the high ceilings and open floor plan.  The shop itself just opened within the last year (I think), but the decor inside and out fits in so well with the space and the rest of Main Street, it feels as though it's been there forever, in the best possible way.

Ahem.  Cascade Heritage Silk Paints in colorways 9958 (Vino) and 9942 (Misty Blue).  I know what I like and it was a dollar cheaper than my nearest shop at home.  So yeah, I got some yarn...

and Sara the Awesome Shop Owner (I believe that's her official title, but it may have Honcho in there also) dangled info for the Eastern Iowa Yarn Hop [Rav link] in front of me.  I was thisclose to driving to Manchester right away, but I had my mom and daughter with me, so I had to be on good behavior.

AND THEN!  My mama was all, oh look over there, a bookstore, I'm going to kidnap my granddaughter! so there was nothing to be done except settle into the über comfy seating area and work on Trip Project #3 and listen to some quiet aria and talk about those ruffle scarves that everybody wants.

Such a lovely place; if I lived closer, I would be there constantly.

In related news, I cast on a shawl pretty much the second I got home:

...so you'll be seeing progress for that coming up.  Another beaded shawl!  Apparently the only thing keeping me from beading everything in sight is the scarcity of beads within arm's reach.