Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Hangin' with Ms. Yarnpants

A few weeks ago my fellow craftanista, Stitchy McYarnpants, let me know that she'd be in LaLaLand soon and wondered if I'd be available to meet her. My response went something like this, "Hell yeah!" So, I filled out my Cube Farm Furlough Request Form and prepared myself for a day of shopping, eating and general camaraderie with Mistress McYarnpants. How cool is that?

Fast forward to Monday, which shall henceforth be known as McYarnpants Day. Yay!

Stitchy was staying in THE VALLEY, but nonetheless insisted upon braving the mass of traffic over the Sepulveda pass to mi casa. The poor thing. I warned her though. Driving 10 miles in this town can take 10 minutes or 2 hours and 10 minutes depending upon the time of day. It's nuts really AND getting worse year by year. We definitely need mass transit, but that's another post entirely.

Upon her appearance, the hubs made sure she was fed and caffeinated before exiting our domicile to my vehicle for a trip Downtown. What's so important Downtown you inquire? One of my favorite places on the entire planet she responds. Michael Levine's! Now, if you've never been to Mr. Levine's, which consists of three separate stores filled to their rooftops with fabric, notions and yarn, you're life is lacking completion. Seriously. Store number one houses the garment fabrics and collateral materials, including yarn. Store number two encases all of the interior fabrics and brick-a-brack. Store number three, called The Loft, sells fabric by the pound, $2 per pound normally, but the management has been known to reduce the per pound price to as low as 50 cents. Really, each store is a joy in an of itself. All three combined? Nothing short of PARADISE. Paradise that empties the wallet in a matter of hours that is. Really, I cannot leave those venues empty handed.

Okay, yes, we all know by now that I have a serious issue when it comes to shopping for crafty supplies. Do we need to revisit The Tulle Incident? I think not.

Moving right along.

Mostly, Stitchy and I stuck to the garment fabric portion of the program. Literally, we spent most of our visit in store number one. Although this venue is literally busting at the seams with uber-cool fabrics, my heart lies in the printed cottons section of the building. I mean the variety and selection is nothing short of amazing. Needless to say I toddled over to the cutting table with bolts of pirates...



Sugar skulls...



And milk carton labels...



Finished my pile off with this super cool plastic coated orange satin quilted stuff...



Printed elastic...



And a couple of these panels from the sale bin...





Unfortunately, I blitzed on stopping by the pattern department before leaving Levine's. However, yesterday my friend, co-cube farmer and seamstress extraordinaire pointed me in the direction of online pattern acquisition. How did I not know this? Whatever. I'm in the know now.

Anyhow, Stitchy and I rounded out our fabric fest with a bit of food at Phillipe's. I've expressed my adoration for this LA landmark before. It's simply scrumptious! Upon our return to ChezLinoleum, we launched into a several hours long dialogue regarding all things crafty and life-y. Very enlightening and definitely a good time. Hopefully I will be able to hit your turf next time D!

I love the Blogosphere. Truly. Had I not begun my little online experiment, Stitchy and well, all of you would be unknown to me. I lead a much richer existence having met you all. That's fer sure.

Oh, Susan and Mimi? We will definitely get together when I'm in your neck of the woods. I'll email you individually. Blogging rocks!

19 comments:

sgeddes said...

Wow - sound slike a great day! Perfect escape from the cube farm.

I love the sugar skull fabric. I wish I could snatch it off the screen!

dizzy von damn! said...

no pictures of you and ms.yarnpants?

ALSO

apparently the way to get in to your busy schedule is to be from out of town.. thus...

i'm from boston remember???

Bunny said...

Love your fabric choices. The store sounds fabulous!

Micky said...

Yea this whole blogging thing has it's advantages. Although everyone I have corresponded with still don't think I REALLY exist.
Some day I would like to be more than a figment of someone's imagination!
:)

Marnie said...

Well, Debbie is one of my favorite people and Michael Levine is an amazing store. Sounds like as I can imagine. The fabrics are fantastic!

shula said...

The sugar skulls almost gave me a seizure.

Sus said...

Glad you had such a good time! I'm with Shula, the sugar skulls are the serious bomb. Jealous!! :)

Daisy said...

Isn't meeting other bloggers awesome?

I *love* the milk label fabric.

And--whoa. City that size and no mass transit? I thought it was bad that Columbus doesn't have any (just inconvenient bus routes). Proposals keep getting shot down as too costly, too difficult and so on. Yeah, and it's gonna be easier in ten years if the city keeps sprawling and increasing in population at this rate? I don't think so...

Ellen Bloom said...

Sounds like a GREAT day. Phillippe's is positively the BEST place for lunch!!!
You were so lucky to actually MEET Stitchy!
I, too have been making blog friends in the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, UK, not to mention Houston, St. Paul and Omaha! LOVE the internets.

Melissa Perreault said...

ooooh, I think I just wet myself thinking of allll that fabric love!! That sounds just too fun/dangerous for mere mortals!!!

I'm totally jealous!!

Anonymous said...

That is some totally groovy fabric you purchased! I love the cape fabric too. We should do a mass field trip to LA so we can all meet the fabuLous Lady L and perhaps the the Little L Lena. Maybe on my way to our annual oregon trip I'll arrange to connect thru LA for a few hours or a day and check out the store.
Very cool

Susan Schwake said...

heh! mimi too! this is all too too. sorry if i was over enthusiastic last friday.. had a little too much wine at my opening and read that you were actually coming to nh. i couldn't belive it! wheee blogging does rock!!!!
p.s. that orange fabric is amazing!

Marietta said...

"over 60000 square feet of fabric" is what the micahel levine webpage says - oh it sounds like heaven!!! I wonder if my theatre would pay for a shopping trip to LA...hmmmmm

knittergirl said...

I have that same porblem with Micheal Leviens.

Shell said...

OMG!! I live vicariously through you!
So very jealous!!! Help I'm can't stop using exclamation marks!!!

Anonymous said...

also, re. 'online pattern acquisition': if you haven't, pay a visit to
http://www.patternreview.com it's what it claims to be, and a lot more. a great resource. i've been a paying member for several years, but there's a fair amount of information accessible there for free.

Contemporary Southwestern Artist said...

Seriously! Where did you find the Pirates fabric? I have to have some!!!

Contemporary Southwestern Artist said...

duh! Ignore my last post. I forgot how to click on liknes but it came back to me.

Jen said...

When I was in preschool, my gandma made me a bat costume almost exactly like that little devil costume :-)