Knitting In Mind

CANADA! (Happy 150th Birthday British Columbia!)

August 7, 2008 at 6:52 pm 2 comments

THE GOOD NEWS:

I finally made it to the legendary Button Button.

I kept seeing handknit sweaters and admiring the great, perfect buttons and I kept hearing “I got them in Vancouver (hmmph)
Seattle’s not a button town”.

What does that mean???

I wondered what a ‘button town’ was.

Is it filthy with button shops like Starbucks in Seattle

Do they sell buttons *in* their Starbucks???

How many button shops can a city support?

I began asking more specifically and learned that everyone was talking about ONE particular button shop in Vancouver: Button Button.

Wow. I took pictures, but they can’t do it justice.

An incredible variety of buttons and so many of them.

Shelves, trays, DRAWERS full of buttons.

that drawer thing is full of vintage buttons
and it isn’t the drawer thingy

So many buttons, so little time.

It was our ‘family’ vacation; spending two hours in a button shop and missing the 12:55 ferry to Nanaimo was not to be suffered.

I will have to go back with an open mind and plenty of time. I want to look at ALL the buttons.

Two hours probably won’t be enough

THE BAD NEWS:

Button Button is “leaving at the end of August”.

WHAT!?!

New Location: “don’t know, but somewhere”.

I know! it’s August NOW!

She is taking email addresses to let us know where she ends up.

The family did suffer a bit of yarn shopping later in Victoria, though. I waited as long as I could and then casually said “uhhhhh, I’m going to swing by the yarn store…” and started walking toward Beehive Wool Shop. I have been enjoying the Butterfly Super 10 cotton I bought last time so much, I decided I ought to get more.

Butterfly Super 10 cotton color 3829
(I know it looks like the same as 3834, but it’s not!)

DD requested a scarf with a texture pattern. A Soft Scarf. I’m a sucker for a request from my yarn-suffering family.

Misti Alpaca Worsted (in 100g hanks!) color SFN 10

Beehive Wool Shop in Victoria: a great yarn shop, with tons of
bee-uuu-tee-ful yarns. It’s an eyeful just walking in the door. They have things I never see in Seattle, like the Butterfly Super 10 and Misti Alpaca Worsted in 100g hanks.

On top of it all, they are super nice and helpful. When I said DD wanted “something cream colored and soft”, yarn suddenly began appearing in her hands for a squeeze; I think they pulled a ball or hank of every single cream colored yarn in the store and were ready to start making phone calls!
DD went all puppy-faced when she touched the Misti and that was that.

Things I love about vacation:
my family
Canada
reading
the beach
new places
views
playing poker
no computer (surprise!)

Vancouver: The Sylvia, Banana Leaf Malaysian restaurant on Denman, French Connection (WHAT? they were having a “sale” and I have teenagers…), Button Button, BC Ferries

Tofino: Ocean, beach, crab dinner, Ocean Village Beach Resort, The Schooner Restaurant, NW Coast Indian Art, no tv, no telephone, no computer, no radio = reading, knitting, poker, beach-time, family-time.

MacKenzie Beach

time well spent 🙂

crab dinner at the cabin

Ocean Village Beach Resort cabins

Victoria: 150th BC birthday party in full swing!, High Tea, shopping, Beehive Wool Shop, Butchart Gardens, gelato,The Provincial Museum,The Black Ball

Victoria, B.C. Inner Harbor

Butchart Gardens

Butchart Gardens

Butchart Gardens

The Black Ball Ferry (MV Coho)

I’m ready to go back!

Entry filed under: Cool Things, Yarn. Tags: alpaca yarn, Butterfly Super 10, Canada, cotton yarn, Misti Alpaca, Tofino, Vancouver, Victoria.