Tag Archive | LYS

Last Yarn of 2014

We spent yesterday out in Lawrence, Kansas, braving the wind to wander around Massachusetts Street. Of course we visited the Dusty Bookshelf and Brits (where the kids drooled over all the Doctor Who stuff for ages) but for me the highlight was the Yarn Barn. I found a few skeins to help me end the year on a high note.

I found a big selection of Malabrigo Worsted and fell in love. The colors are gorgeous, rich and deep, and they make such fabulous combinations. I restrained myself to just two skeins, Intenso and Wales Road. Aren’t they stunning? I also found the Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande. Now, I can get this yarn at my LYS, but I’ve never seen this lovely pink before. And I like it.In the sale section, I found some Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, which is one of my favorite yarns, and there were two shades of green. Alpaca on sale? Who can resist? When I got home, I put them together with these two skeins of purple and my oh my, I think this is beautiful. I have no idea what to make with them, though I’d like it to be something for me. Maybe a shawl? A loose, lacy scarf? Not sure yet, so they’re going on the shelf while I ponder.Tonight I will be knitting up some boot cuffs while I ring in the new year at home with my family. I’m looking ahead to 2015 with great optimism, and I wish you all the same. Happy New Year!

Manic Monday: Finished Objects and More Yarn

Nov3

I feel as though I have been remiss, not blogging as regularly as I would like. I’d like to say I’ll get on the ball and start blogging at least twice a week, but…well, the holidays are coming so I make no promises. At least my schedule will soon ease up in a couple of ways: the teenager is done with marching band now, and will be done with the school musical after this week. Much less driving for me!

The two projects that filled most of last week can’t be written about as of yet, but I have other yarny adventures to share. My LYS recently moved from the little downtown area to a nearby warehouse space, sharing 5000+ square feet with another yarn store to become the Yarn Mercantile. They’re two separate entities under one roof, divided by a blue tape “Mason Dixon Line”, and I thoroughly explored both.

Angelika’s Yarn Store is new to this area, having moved here recently from Portland. She has aisles of yarn from lace weight to bulky, with easy-to-read signs hanging above. There’s lots of yarn I hadn’t seen before (mostly the Lorna’s Laces, which was fabulous but a higher price than I can usually afford) and lots of yarn I have (lots of Cascade, in all weights and colors. The huge wall with all the colors of 220 was impressive.). They have a wide range of needles and notions too, but I was there for yarn. I managed to restrain myself to just two skeins of Cascade Yarns Pacific Chunky. It’s a bulky yarn of 60% acrylic and 40% merino, so it’s warm and soft, and works up quickly. The two colors that ended up in my arms were a vivid turquoise and a soft gray. Of course I had to check out my old LYS, Knitcraft, while I was there. They were still in the moving process, so not everything was set up and full yet. I didn’t see anything new, but they’ve always had a great selection of yarns in all weights and price ranges, so I never walk out empty-handed. This time was no different. Despite trying to be thrifty, I still came home with a skein of Manos del Uruguay Maxima. I love their yarns; the colors are just gorgeous.When I got home, I discovered I already have a skein of this. Same colorway and everything. Oops! Well, that means I can make something even cooler. My goal is two make a couple of hats from the Cascade for my next craft fair and pay for them and the Manos. Good plan, eh?

Saturday was the husband’s birthday and we spent the afternoon exploring downtown Leavenworth. They have a three-floor antique mall that we love, as well as several other smaller antique stores. I found the coolest project bag at the antique mall, with tons of little pockets and pouches and elastic straps and zippered compartments. I think it’s going to be the best travel project bag ever. I kind of want to get duplicate notions just so I can keep it stocked at all times!

We didn’t have time for all the stores, but we hit our favorites. We love The Pot Rack with all the cool kitchen gadgets and the Queen’s Pantry with the British grocery and full range of teas and accessories. They have a yarn store now, too: Momo’s Knitting Nook. It’s a cute store with a lot of things I’d love in my own store someday! Right inside the store, facing the big front windows, are two small armchairs. That’s where my son decided to hang out, but I could definitely see myself spending some time there too.

The yarn is shelved in oversized wooden cabinetry with lovely detailing. I’m not sure how to describe it, except that they’re actual furniture pieces and not your basic, plain yarn-store shelves. There’s dark wood everywhere, including a massive rectangular table in the middle of the room that I’m sure is great for classes and groups. There are two more armchairs at the other end of the room as well as a nook with a long couch flanked by two more armchairs. Lots of seating, in other words! It was really inviting; you can tell they want you to feel comfortable hanging out and crafting with them.

Now, the yarn: lots of neat stuff, but somehow I wasn’t tempted by too much. There were brands I hadn’t seen before, as well as new yarns from familiar (to me) brands. The stuff I coveted was too expensive and the stuff in my price range didn’t call my name. It was strange. Don’t worry, I persevered and found two skeins I “needed”. One was a Cascade Yarns Magnum Paints in purples. I’ve seen, and worked with, the Magnum and love it, but I’d never seen the purple Paints before, and the price seemed comparable. The second was a Crystal Palace Yarns Gold Rush, a really lovely bulky rainbow yarn with a gold halo. If only I knew what to make with either of these!! What would be the perfect projects?

Finally, the added bonus our adventure was the knitting time during the hour-long drive to and from. I managed to get the turquoise Cascade mostly done. I used the Starving Artist pattern and am quite tickled by the twisted rib that gives it such a neat texture. That’s it for the last week! Well, except for the two secret projects. Today is a busy day but I’ve got the gray hat halfway done, so fingers crossed I can show it off tomorrow. Maybe then I’ll start on the Magnum. What projects do you love for that one skein of super bulky yarn?

What do you want in a Local Yarn Store?

Aug21

We did a little yard work on Monday, and today I woke up with two little spots of poison ivy on my arm. Of course. It never fails. Whenever I do yard work, I get poison ivy. Doesn’t matter what precautions I take or whether we can see any where I’m working. It just happens. Fingers crossed that it’s just the one spot and the calamine continues to do its job. Then I had a blog post half-written this morning before I realized I’d already posted about that topic (the purple crochet fedoras). Shoot. That was my big plan for the morning. Instead I’ll go down and cast on for the Honey Cowl again with my Madelinetosh.

My brain is a little preoccupied, I guess. I found out the other day that one of my favorite LYSs is moving. It will still be in the metro area, but it’s farther away. It leaves the area on this side of the state line with just one LYS, and not a great one. There are some positives, the best one being that it’s a 3-minute drive for me. It’s a big store and they have good prices. They’ve been there for years and years and it seems like the customer base is much older. The ladies who work there don’t always take kindly to younger crafters like myself invading their space. It is not a welcoming store. It’s not really a friendly store. I like to look at the yarn but I’d never want to just sit down and hang out there. And that’s what I want in my LYS.

So this news started a little voice in the back of my head talking, poking me about opening my own LYS. I’ve thought about it, dreamed about it. I have a vision in my head of what it might look like. It’s fuzzy and shifts, but it’s there. Certain aspects stay the same. I have ideas of promotions I would do, groups I could host, how I’d arrange the comfy chairs for crafters. I’ve already thought about what types and brands of yarn I’d want to carry to distinguish myself from the other LYS, but I think the atmosphere would be the biggest variant. Knitters and crocheters are such a friendly, community-oriented bunch that I think we flock to places that encourage it. I *want* to encourage it. I want to foster it and be part of it.

My husband and I have talked about creating a shop together, one that would allow us both to showcase our creations and help others create. He dreams of building custom furniture, and a yarn store could easily also be a showroom for his sample pieces. We have a name picked out, we’ve looked at available buildings…every For Sale or For Rent sign in our little downtown area catches our eyes.

Right now I’m dreaming. I’m even yearning a bit. But it’s not time yet. My kids are busy, and aren’t old enough to drive themselves to their various activities. I still want to be there for them, help them be active in band and theater and music and whatever else they dream of. I have some other family stuff going on, too, stuff that wouldn’t allow me to easily take on something as huge as my own store. I have a puppy who would eat the house if left alone all day, every day. We haven’t begun to write a business plan yet, something that definitely needs to happen. We need to do some research, start compiling numbers and working out the details. But I think this could happen. I think this could be our future.

It makes me wonder, and I want your feedback: What do you look for in a LYS? What compels you to go there again and again? What do you like and not like? What do you wish your LYS had or did? If you could have a dream LYS, what would it look like?

Yarn for the Nerd in all of us

Aug3

Have you heard of Make magazine? Or maybe the Maker Faire? They’re parts of a larger Maker movement that encourages people to…well, to make stuff. They want people to interact with their environment, to open their minds enough to think about how to do something differently, or to create something fun and interesting and helpful. The magazine has all kinds of project ideas, and my husband has been reading it for ages. He loves to find fun things to do with the kids. I’m awfully glad he does too, because it led to a new yarn source for me.

So, the Maker Faire. It’s “the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.” Sounds cool, doesn’t it? Kansas City hosted a Maker Faire last month, but unfortunately it fell on a weekend when we simply did not have time to go. But shortly after, the Make blog featured one of the KC vendors, Nerd Girl Yarns, and since Alex reads the blog, is a nerd, and has a wife who loves yarn, he watched the interview. (Watch her interviews here) And then he shared it with me, and I got all excited because guess what? NGY is in Odessa, Missouri which is only about 30 minutes from me!

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of them before, but as I poked through the website I realized that it was because she focuses on the dyeing, and selling custom orders. She does have a small retail space, but it seems to be more of a sideline. And I’m okay with that, because the yarns she creates are awesome. Yesterday I got out to the studio for the first time to see some of the yarn in person. The retail section is small, with just one little bit of wall devoted to yarn. The other side has the hand-dyed clothing, and there were a couple of chairs for those inclined to stay and be crafty. I wasn’t there for that. I was there for the yarn.

A lot of the colors are inspired by Doctor Who, like a blue and brown named Tenth Doctor. There was a red named I Am the Cyber King, and a Gallifrey with oranges and reds. There was a TARDIS blue, of course, and a yellow/orange with a touch of blue Sunflower. I was really hoping for the Blue Box Exploding, which is mostly blue with some yellow/orange too. She has Don’t Blink, Doctor Donna, Fantastic, Raggedy Man, Regenerate, and Time Machine. Both my kids (and the husband) are Whovians so I’d love to get some of each to make them lots of Whovian presents. I can’t do it all at once, though. I know. Patience, grasshopper.

They’re not all Doctor Who, of course. There’s Windu, Nevermore, Resurrection Stone, Serenity Firefly Class, Forbidden Forest, Walking Dead, Girl on Fire and so much more. So many references that I don’t even get! I can’t list them all, so you really should check out her stuff yourself. Go to her website here.

The really cool thing is that you can order the colorway on any base you like. So if you adore fingering weight, you can get that. If you love bulky yarn, like me, you can get that. You can get exactly the yarn you want!

“What did you get??” I can hear you asking. My eye went first to a gorgeous purple sparkly yarn named Secretly Spiders. The site says it’s inspired by Night Vale, and sadly I have no idea what that means. All I know is that I love it. It’s on Smashing, which is a DK of 70% merino and 20% silk with 5% silver-toned stellina to make it shine.I kept picking skeins up and putting them back. I really needed to restrain myself to 2 or 3 skeins, but it was hard. I struggled with choosing based on the Whovian names or the colors. I ended up going for the colors this time. So my second skein was a beautiful blue-green blend named #nofilter. The colors were more vivid on the fingering weights, but I knew I’d enjoy a heaver weight more, so I went with Foxy. Foxy is a DK weight too, but it’s 85% Polwarth Wool and 15% silk.Once I got through the initial getting-to-know-you phase, I was able to look beyond the wall o’ yarn, and that’s when I saw the sale section. It wasn’t big, and there were only two bowls of yarn, but any sale yarn is good yarn in my book. My third selection came from that.This is called Shtako. No idea what that means. Feel free to enlighten me. But the purple caught my eye, and as soon as I touched it, it was mine. It’s on the Luscious yarn, and it really is luscious. It’s Heavy Worsted, 60% superfine merino and 40% silk. It’s heavenly. It’s only 100 yards so it will have to be a small project; I’m thinking some fingerless gloves.

I also got a medium project bag with the logo, like you see in that first picture. You can never have enough project bags, and at $12 it was the perfect price. She didn’t have any Blue Box Exploding, so I’ll probably be ordering some in the near future. And we got to talk to Christa, the owner, for a little while, and she mentioned the possibility of doing quarterly events where they dye larger quantities of some of the popular colorways. I’m really hoping that happens, because I’d be there in a heartbeat! If you’d like to find out when that happens, follow her blog here. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Souvenir Yarn

Jun23

Before we left for our vacation to Washington D.C., I made sure to research the local yarn stores. There were several in the metro area, and two actually in DC. I wasn’t sure I’d have a lot of time for yarn shopping, but I hoped. Thankfully, our hotel was only a 15-minute walk from Looped Yarn Works. I can’t remember if it was in Georgetown or Dupont Circle, but I do remember it was full of great old homes and unusual shops. Our second evening there, we had a free evening and I decided to get my yarn fix while I could. We left the hotel at 6:15 and the shop closed at 7, so I knew it would have to be a mad dash.

Thanks to my phone and the Fresh Stitches blog on DC yarn stores, I found the shop easily. We ran up the stairs and turned the handle…the door was locked. It was only 6:45 so I knew we weren’t late, and thankfully someone saw us and welcomed us in with a big smile. We were the only customers in the store, and there was a friendly, chatty guy working that night who showed us around and answered questions. My son liked him because he shared his Swedish Fish. There was one room with the bulkier yarns (worsted to super bulky) and there were brands I could find at home, some I’d heard of but never seen, and some I’d never heard of but coveted desperately. There was a small cozy couch and a couple of chairs in there, and samples everywhere. One of the samples was the Purl Ridge scarf I’d started on the train!

I touched a lot of skeins, but the first one to call my name was this vibrant green wool from Stonehedge Fiber Mill. I just love this bright grassy green, and I like that I can use this for felting if I want.

I saw some Manos del Uruguay Maxima, which I can get at home, but this was a gorgeous color.

Then I saw this nifty icy gray yarn, and for some reason, it said I needed two to take home. It makes me think of winter and snowflakes. It’s called Finch, by Quince & Co., and the color name is Iceland. I’d never heard of this brand before but I like it!

I was running out of time so I popped into the other room for a quick peek. It had all the thinner yarns, from sock to DK, plus a big table that I’d love to sit and knit at. I’m not a big sock knitter so this room didn’t tempt me much…until I found the madelinetosh yarn. I’ve read about it, seen pictures, but this was my first personal experience. The colors were vivid and gorgeous, and it felt delightful, but I could resist…until I saw this Iris colorway.

That was all I could do in 15 minutes, though I did find a neat little digital row counter by the register. I figured I was done with DC yarn. But late in the trip, we’d had a long day and I wanted some yarn retail therapy. Because I married the best guy in the world, we went back to the yarn store. They were open until 9, so we had plenty of time. There was a knitting group in the bulky room, and my daughter and I marveled at the women knitting without even looking at their needles. There was a beginner’s class in the other room, and I smiled at the women struggling with casting on, remembering when that was me.

I chose some Cascade 128 Superwash in a great pink called Cerise. I can find this yarn at home but I really enjoy knitting with it, and this was a color I hadn’t seen before. I picked out two skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Cotton because it’s one of my favorite yarns, and I’m collecting different colors to make a fabulous blanket someday.

I explored the sock yarn room a little more this trip, and found two little prizes in a corner. The first was two skeins of Cascade Ultra Pima Fine cotton, and the main reason I snatched them up is because they were only $4 per skein! Plus the cranberry color was pretty.

But my favorite finds that day were these two little skeins of bright blue Urban Silk yarn by Skacel. They’re 80% silk, 20% cotton and feel like a soft, puffy cloud. They were the last two skeins of that yarn, which has been discontinued, and at $8.50 they seemed like a good deal. They should make a lovely little cowl or scarf, maybe a shawlette if I can find the right pattern.

Thank goodness my addiction is yarn, because otherwise my suitcase would have been overweight coming home. I had yarn stuffed in every nook and cranny of my suitcase. But what a treat to come home and get to take it out and play with it again! I really enjoyed exploring that store; I wish I’d had time to visit others but can’t imagine any other store being better!

Alpaca, merino and silk, oh my!

Mar22

Today was a craftful day. My husband has been working a lot lately, so he arranged to take the day off, and we used the time to drive up to Weston, MO. Sadly, one of my LYSs is closing soon, so of course I had to take advantage of the sale. And it was a great excuse to visit Weston. It’s a cute little town with about three blocks of unusual, unique, and locally owned shops. There are several quaint gift shops, but also antique shops, a hardware store, an Irish-themed store, an architectural salvage barn, a liquor market, and a jewelry store with a lovely resident dog. Plus it has the Weston Cafe, which we love. It’s not fancy: the chairs are lightweight black metal with the barest padding, the tables aren’t exactly level and covered with plain oilcloth. But the food is good and the service is better. We’ve gone with the kids to Weston maybe once every three months or so. But today our favorite waitress greeted us by asking where the kids were, and she even remembered my regular order. It was a refreshing change from the sterile anonymity of a bigger city.

But anyway, that wasn’t my main goal. My main goal was the yarn. Actually, my main goal was to pick up a mannequin head the owner was holding for me. I’m newer to the knitting business and I’ve found that things photograph and sell better if they’re displayed well. So now I’m the proud owner of a head.

I love that her neck is long and she’s got a hint of shoulder–I’ll be able to display cowls and scarves on her too!

I really wasn’t going to buy much yarn. (I’ll pause here for fellow yarn enthusiasts to stop laughing.) Seriously, I’d already ordered some from her website, and of course I didn’t *need* more yarn. But she had alpaca for 40% off! Gorgeous baby alpaca. No, I don’t know what it’s going to be. But it’s alpaca. It doesn’t matter.

Then I touched some Cascade superwash by accident, and was surprised by how soft it was. There were some great colors too. I grabbed three colors, trying to decide between them, and realized how well they went together. I picked a gray for a neutral and I think they’ll become a nifty striped bag.

I found some splurges too. This sweet green is a mix of mohair, wool and silk so it has a fuzzy halo and a soft touch.

The colors of this yarn caught me. I loved the deep tones, and when I touched it and felt the silk/merino blend, I was a goner. They’re actually a bit darker than they look in the pictures; they’re Magenta and Teal.

This last one might be my favorite. It was a lucky find, the last skein in the store, and it happened to be in the 60% off basket. It’s a cashmere/silk blend and it feels as luxurious as you’re imagining. I had no silk before today, and certainly no cashmere, so this skein thrilled me.

My arms were full, and by then I was waiting by the counter, trying to get out of there before finding more. It didn’t work. Right next to me were two skeins of Cascade Magnum, a fabulous super bulky yarn. One was red and one was this dark, vivid blue, almost a purple blue. Maybe indigo? Not sure. In any case, at 40% off it was coming home with me too.

You’d think that was enough, but I managed to throw in a pattern book, a couple of bamboo crochet hooks and a packet of cute green buttons before all was said and done. Thank goodness my husband is a crafter too (he plays with wood and tools and makes beautiful furniture, check out his blog here) so he understood the importance of getting high-quality supplies at more-than-reasonable prices. In fact, I would have bought much less if he hadn’t encouraged me to stock up. But I’m tickled with the additions to my stash, and now I’m off to knit!