The Lake Effect Yarn Crawl...Part 2

I just couldn't post all the pictures and keep going and going on about all the shops that I managed to see while on vacation. So here is part 2 of where I went. I had such a great time and saw loads of wonderful things as well as wonderful people!

After we (I) left Loop we headed for Hartford, WI and the Main St. Yarn Shop. I got to meet the shop owner herself and she was just delightful. We corresponded several times about the shop and how to get there. Once I got there we had a conversation about lots of different things. The shop is located on a street in Hartford that has lots of little shops on both sides of the street. It looked like a great place to live as well.

As soon as you walk into the shop there is a nice little seating area that I suspect is for the waiting husbands. Another special thing that is directly to your right hanging on the wall is this. I have known people who were working on this but have never seen the whole thing put together. It was certainly impressive and absolutely picture worthy.

I just loved this afghan. So much work went into this. I guess it's like eating an elephant-one square at a time. If you have never seen one finished-it's a sight to see.

What I especially loved was all the felted purses that the shop has. I was focused on them because I have often thought of making one and then making socks instead.
I really was drawn to this purse because it reminded me of those polymer clay squares that people make into jewelry. Each one of those swirl is a separate square. I have no idea how this was made but it was impressive. The black purse behind that one has little fuzzy caterpillar thing sticking out all around the top of the purse. There were other purses and I regret not taking more pictures of them because they were just so unique.

The shop was well organized and I found some yarn that I had only found in Alaska. So I was a happy knitting camper when I left. I am going to make a hat from this to wear to Rhinebeck next year! I made my son a hat with this yarn last year at Christmas and once it was done I was so pleased with it. I wasn't able to find that yarn here so consider this to be a big coup. So a hat will be made!

As we traveled on the next shop was a dual find.

See double yummy! I mainly went here because it was in the town of West Bend, WI which is where we were staying. I really didn't look at too much of the yarn. I was mostly interested in the beading part of the shop. I want to knit a beaded amulet bag and wanted to see if they had some 0000 dpns. Sure enough they did. So I bought five and then the search was one for decorative beads for the ends of the needles. I found a ton of beautiful beads. It was an awesome source for beads, classes and supplies. I sure wish they were closer to where I live. I might consider doing more projects with beads.
Here is just a fraction of the beads that were hanging up in the shop.

Here is another shot of the beads at the shop. Of course there was the yarn half of the shop...
Lovely yarn as sell as beading supplies. Wonder how many knitters walk in here and then get addicted to knitting with beads? Not hard I imagine.
These are my 0000 dpns with the beads I found. I will glue them on the ends of the needles and see what happens. I just love them!

So that's my yarn crawl in and around Milwaukee and three other cities. I really did enjoy the day and thank all the wonderful people on Ravelry The Lake Effect who gave me their recommendations. Y'all did a great job.