Sunday, March 6th was my birthday. The day before, Saturday, turned out warm and sunny. We spent the whole day in Berkeley. Joel and I love the ocean and we love to eat at Emeryville's Market place. It's like a food square from all nations. Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Jamaican and American Cuisine. Ahh, I can stay there the whole day.

I planned it all, so we can get a chance to visit some yarn stores while we're there. Kill 2 birds.... you know the saying.

Well, this is going to turn out like a yarn store review but just my own opinion based on my likes and dislikes.

The first one we visited was SKEIN LANE in El Cerrito. Smallish store, rustic looking on the outside, hard to find parking, lots of yarn, with NO PRICE TAGS. This makes a whole lot of difference to me. I don't have time to ask for prices. Apparently, they have lists posted on each shelf but you have to hunt down the name and find the price. Also a little bit disorganized, yarns spilling from shelves and baskets. Patterns were in binders (that's good) but if you see one you like, need to ask for help finding it.

But, to be surrounded by yarn... heavenly. Came out empty handed. Surprising indeed!

Second store, DEEP COLORS, in Kensington. Not really a yarn store even though they had some yarns, but geared towards spinners and felters and fiber lovers, like me.

Small store, easy to miss, but my hubby saw the sign immediately. Rustic looking as well, located in a semi-residential area, very shady, lots of trees. Parking might be hard but we found one immediately.

They had 2 sessions going on, a spindling class and a wet felting class. I felt very welcome. The owners and helpers were very friendly and I ended up with some merino/silk roving in 2 colors and a handpainted cotton roving. I loved this store!

The last one was LACIS. Second time I've been there and bought some tatting needles and a book. Lacis is lacis- museum quality display and a ton of books on every craft and hobby invented by man. The ladies were wonderful and helpful. Parking was hard to come by but my husband was resourceful.

A wonderful birthday it was. I got presents that I really wanted.