Nordic Needle Trip

At our October Meeting we were informed that Nordic Needle would be closing the end of November after 42 years in business, we decided if we were going to visit this shop, this month would be our last chance to do that. Originally it was a field trip planned for April 2018. Since our members are spread around, we decided to meet in St Cloud then car pool to Fargo. Since it was almost lunch time when we arrived in St Cloud, we decided to have a quick bite. There was a Maid-Rites near our meeting spot so we decided to give it a tr, then we were off to our destination.

After arriving in Fargo and checking into our hotel, we headed straight to Nordic Needle which was open until 9 pm that evening. We spent almost three hours of shopping; finding books, patterns and kits for needle work we love and a few for crafts we want to learn. One pattern was a mystery to all the employees there, although the one they thought would know about it would be coming in the next morning. Since we were staying over they would call and tell us if she knew more about it. We left a substantial amount of $$$ there.

We were advised by an employee to try Kroll's Diner, a 50's restaurant that serves German and American foods. A couple of us tried their soup. See the photo and decide if it is: a). Chicken Noodle, b). Lumpy Yellow or c). Button Soup. You'll have to come to the next Ladyslipper meeting to find out or wait for the January issue of the newsletter!  

Back at our hotel we compared purchases and decided we needed to go back the next morning before leaving town to squirrel away a few more goodies, whether or not they found the pattern! Besides checking out Nordic Needle and all the wonderful items they carry, we also decided to check out a few other shops in the area. On Friday, we ventured into more dangerous territory. We entered into Carol Widman’s Candy Co., a candy shop that’s been around since 1895. We indulged our chocolate cravings with a sample of truffles and each bought a few tasty treats to take home. While there, the call came from Nordic Needle.  They had found the pattern we had searched for, so we headed back to get the pattern along with several other items that we missed the day before.

On our way home we dared to explore one more shop, Crafts Direct in St Cloud. We set a time limit of one hour. Not a lot of time in this large store, but we wanted to get home at a decent hour. We all found a few more goodies that we just couldn't leave behind only to step outside to a very white wintry scene. The roads were completely covered which made our traveling home long and nerve wracking!

Despite the snow, a great time was had by all that went and we are thinking we should start planning another field trip.

We all purchased at least one new type of needle craft project that we hope to learn. Possibly at our annual retreat in March?

I plan to use some of the things I purchased as Christmas gifts. Time to get busy stitching...