Finding a perfect yarn shop is like finding a perfect lover. It's almost impossible, but even getting pretty close is damn exciting. In my neighborhood I am blessed with two yarn shops, but both of them are disappointing.One of them is a perfectly good yarn shop, but just not on the same wavelength as I am. We're mildly incompatible, but since she's the best I've got, I do buy things there. She's into bamboo needles, I like addi turbos. She's into certain colors, I'm into others. She's deeply into spinning and I really am not interested.
The other place is really not a very good yarn shop at all. They have some cheap yarn that is only fit for felting and they have very pricey Debbi Bliss yarn and nothing in between. They're an all-around crafts store and not just a local yarn shop and I have nothing but contempt for crafts like scrapbooking and rubber stamping. I sort of hate to even be in the same room with rubber stamping supplies.
All of this is actually good for me. I have enough yarn in my stash to keep me knitting for many, many months and as I'm planning a cross-Atlantic move this summer, I shouldn't be buying any yarn, period. So it's good having these two options, where most of the time I walk in, look around, and walk out frustrated.
The best yarn shop I have been to so far in my knitting career is Knit Knot in Portland, OR. They have a big shop and a very wide range of yarn and equipment. They have a little section of tiny skeins of crazy yarns made out of things like paper. Fortunately or unfortunately, they don't seem to have an online store.
I'm excited to discover what Berlin will have to offer. A lot of the yarn and knitting equipment I buy is made in Germany, so I'm hoping for some good shops.
"I sort of hate to even be in the same room with rubber stamping supplies."
ReplyDeleteDoes that make me a snob?
ReplyDeleteOne thing I really hate about the scrapbooking craze is that there are oodles of "paper" stores nowadays and you go in there and they haven't got any *stationary*! Jesus! They only have extremely expensive carton-stock for use in scrapbooking or making your own wedding invitations. You would think that they would at least have two or three token pads of stationary for the epistolary arts.
Recently in Portland I went into four paper stores in one afternoon and none of them had any stationary. When I got back to Boston I went and stocked up at Bob Slate (a real paper store!), fearing that it might soon become impossible to find letter-writing paper of any quality.
I think scrapbooks in general are great, but this weird thing people do now where they spend lots of money buying little pre-cut paper diaper shapes or ready-to-use "you're a graduate" photo corners is just weird. Can't you come up with your own, people?