West Coast Journey- Portland and Olympia
The journey continues . . .
Portland: such a crime- we only had an afternoon in this incredibly perfect city, but we’ve already decided to move there. After having lunch in the Alphabet District (even the names are cute!) we went on the hunt for a fabric store for me to check out and ended up finding Bolt, in Alberta.
Bolt is kind of my fantasy of a fabric store- tiny as a closet, but piled to the ceiling with scrumptious fabrics and adorable trims. And it was PACKED. The middle of the day on a Wednesday, and it was totally crammed with shoppers- it was like a crafty utopia. Not only do they have the most incredible selection of adorable fabrics, but they also offer classes. I couldn’t help but ask where could they possibly find the room to hold classes? Surely they must have some larger location for classes. Nope. It’s called ingenuity. They put all their shelves on rollers and just move them to a corner when they need floor space! The shop ladies were totally lovely and I wish I could take a class with them! p.s. all of my house-hunting searches in Portland have involved testing the house’s distance to Bolt.
OH, but photos! You want photos I know.
Did I mention that it’s next door to a huge knitting shop? I forget the name, but if anyone knows, please email or leave a comment to jog my memory!
Olympia- Where the forest and the water become one (thank you, Bright Eyes for that line)
One of my favorite places ever. Eric went to Evergreen and I also lived there for a little while. My favorite thing about Olympia is that it’s this wonderful combination of progressive-artsy culture, small town living, and incredible forest and vistas.
Even though downtown Olympia is small enough to throw a stone across, it’s packed with boutiques and spas and hip little restaurants; in an 8 block radius I managed to find four crafty shops, four book stores, three spas, and I couldn’t even count the boutiques full of gorgeous, albeit not really utilitarian stuff. Oh, and I think they’ve got like three theaters there. And those numbers are just from memory, there might be like ten more of everything. Anyway, Olympia rocks. Here’s an example of why it rocks.
Free well water for whoever wants it. Anyway, we stayed at this very cool B&B, one of only two in Oly. It’s run by these really great people, who serve a miraculously delicious breakfast. Thank you Swantown Inn for being so awesome! Did I mention they’re walking distance from downtown? We had a view of the capital dome and slept in the most comfortable bed EVER.
I think I’m rambling. The purpose of this post was craftiness, Polly. Okay, I think I’m back on track. While in Olympia we stopped at Canvas Works, a HUGE shop dedicated to knitting and sewing. Not only do they have a fantastic assortment of fabrics and gorgeous artisan yarns, yes, including a hefty variety of canvas, but they also have a sewing loft and offer classes.
At this point in the trip I had kind of run out of money for fabrics. BUT no need to spend a fortune if you’re going to Value Village in Lacey. I scored on a hefty bag of vintage buttons, still on the original packaging, plus a bag of vintage bindings, trims, and bias tapes. I also got some size 2 knitting needles, which came in handy on the car ride home when I decided to take apart the cashmere scarf I’d made on the car ride up (the size 2s work way better than what I was using before). So here is my Northwest goodies bundle.
The fabrics are mostly from Bolt, buttons from Value Village. The baby blue Naugahyde, and the blue ticking, however, are from Fabrix on 2nd and Clement in San Francisco.
He’s drunk on shopping goodies. The awesome Par Avion stationary is from the Kinokuniya stationary shop in the Japantown mall in San Francisco.
Okay, I guess it’s time to start another day of moving stuff. Soon I’ll have the bedroom done and then I can move on to setting up my dream studio! Rest assured, there will be plenty of photos.
p.s. The April PD newsletter is mailing out in the next day or so, so if you haven’t signed up to be on the mailing list, now is the perfect time to do that!
ack! Jojo I love you!!
This was a great post for me to read, because we’ll be heading up to Portland in May. Stephen booked two tiny northwestern tours this summer. I love love love Portland and want to move there as well. Maybe we can live across the street from each other again! And I’m very very excited to visit Olympia for the first time.
That knitting shop would be Close Knit Yarn. Thanks Google!