Inspiration Saturday: Celebrating in spirit

Yarnorama is one of my favorite local yarn stores, despite being just on the other side of 'local' for me, since it's closer to Bastrop then Austin, and just over an hour's drive from home.  It's worth the pilgrimage as often as we can make it, because owner Susan Fricks has so many pretty things.  Plus, with events like the annual holiday party, it's also a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to make the trip today to help Susan celebrate five years of her playground for the fiber obsessed.  But as I nosh on spaghetti squash, I'm wondering what people brought to the potluck this time and who is winning prizes.  So I'm going to share a few of the things I love about the store, as I wish it a happy birthday!

Along with stocking a wide variety of commercial yarns, Susan dyes not only her own yarn, but fiber as well, called FiberObsessions.  I have several skeins of Simply Sock in my stash, like this one:

Photo credit: FiberObsessions

The colorway is 'All Shaped Up', and I love the way the pink and the gray interplay to create some mauve and dusty rose.

Here's another yarn base, Enliven, that comes in 50 gram skeins.  I don't have this colorway, Live Wire, but it looks like something I really should:

Photo credit: FiberObsessions

Okay, to the fiber!  Remember my first ever completed, self-spun yarn?

That started it's life as Blue-Faced Leicester in a colorway called Seeing Pluto:

And the spindle pictured here comes from Jeri Brock, whose gorgeous pieces are sold in the store.  Jeri and Susan have also teamed up for a Spindle and Fiber Club which has me constantly drooling.

While I have yet to plunk down the money for membership to the club, I do occasionally break down and buy a braid.  Especially at the start of a new month, because Susan dyes a special colorway for each month.  Here's March, Random Happiness:

Photo credit: FiberObsessions

Um, yum!  It's an 80/20 Merino/Tussah silk.  This is exactly why my spinning stash is growing, slowly but surely, to match my knitting stash.

I have a feeling I've crossed the line from inspiring to taunting, but for those of you who are also wishing you were in tiny little Paige, Texas right now, you can order a lot of Susan's stuff online, or feel free to call them to find out more at (512) 253-0100.

For more inspiration, check out Alicia's post at Woolen Diversions.  This week she's spotlighting some Malabrigo Madness projects, so it's a tribute to soft and fluffy fiber all around!