Better Late Than Never...

A few weeks ago, Sherri and I took a field trip down to Sheep Street Fibers down in Morgantown...

I think this is one of my favorite yarn shops, full stop...They describe themselves as a 'sheep to shawl' operation, and they pretty much cover all the bases...Yarn, knitting and crochet, roving, spinning wheels, looms...Sheep Street's got what ya need, babe...*grin*

I don't even want to show all the stuff I bought that day, because I went a little crazy...After peeking at books for a few minutes, I started in on the pattern section, with a modicum of self-control...After that, things just got completely out of hand...


Bottom yarns: Le Fibre Nobile in a nice olive green...Noro Kureyon 148...

In the middle, a black laceweight with no label...

And the Fiber Trends felted clog pattern (that's what the Noro's for) and a Lily Chin Collection shawl pattern (no yarn yet)...

The black laceweight's for a simple tunic pattern I picked up at Knit Stop...Some of the best things about Sheep Street are how friendly and customer-oriented they are, and their location, on a fiber farm just outside of Morgantown...While we were doing this...













...the nice man inside was balling up all my laceweight, ringing up my stuff and packing it up nicely for me...

Hooray for Sheep Street!

Twenty Bucks

Unfortunately, the Golden Thimble in Broadripple is having a Going Out Of Business sale...The owner is retiring...But everything in the entire store is now 50% off!!!

Lookit my loot!


Apparently, my camera just does not like the color purple...But I assure you that it is a lovely, rich purple color...And apparently, it is also a Mystery Yarn...I looked it up in the Yarndex, and the name 'Topas' comes up, but it is patently not this yarn...

"Topas" by Gedifra is a thin, shiny yarn that consists of thin fibers wrapped tightly with a shiny thread. It can be used for sweaters, scarves, shawls, vests, and lightweight tops. Made of 45% cotton, 44% acrylic, and 11% nylon.

Nope...According to the label, this is from Muench Yarns in Mill Valley, CA, and is Superwash, 75% New Wool, 25% Nylon...Searched for Muench online as well, but from the business description it seems like it's an industrial textile mill in Novato, CA...

Oh well, I don't care...I'm going to have some purple socks out of it, wherever it's from...

I've never been a frequent visitor to the Golden Thimble, not even when I lived quite nearby...But I am always sad to see an LYS go...I had expected the store to be well picked-over, but was very surprised to find they still have a lot...a lot...of stock still available...I'm thinking of putting together an expedition next weekend (payday!) to go check out some more fiber...

Because I am Slightly Stubborn TM, and apparently was in the throes of a brief psychotic break, I decided to pop in to the Knit Stop on my way home...I can't learn!

They've just completed their expansion, and it has to be said that the store is a lot more easy to navigate with the extra space...There were several people in to help the owner restock and 'reorganize'...If it were any other LYS than the Knit Stop, I would cut them some slack due to the expansion, moving things around, etc. I asked for sock yarn again, and they did actually have a little bit more (pastel Lorna's Laces, and a few Art Yarns too)...Of course, it was in 4 different places...And the Tribble Dogs seem to be rather discombobulated by all the fuss, since they were barking frantically everytime the door opened...The one good thing I saw was a display piece, a felted bag, made by a new knitter...A simple black purse/bag, with large felted flowers and leaves around the top...There was no pattern available, but I will be making one very soon--it was too cute!

I won't discuss the brown baby bikini I was forced to admire immediately following my request for the bag pattern...

Now that I've seen for myself the new and improved Knit Stop, I hereby solemnly swear that I will never darken their door again...

I also succumbed to my book fetish, and picked up a copy a book I have been coveting for quite some time...I'll hold off on discussing that for now, since I think I'll save this title for my Very First Cyber Fiber Book Review...Woo hoo!

Disappointment

Not too long ago, with giant wads of money from my recent raise burning a hole in my pocket, and a lust for sock yarn coursing through my veins, I hit The Knit Stop in Castleton (Indiana) on my way home from work...I had been there a couple of times before, but not in a while, and after I got there, I remembered why I hadn't been there in a long time...

This particular LYS was the cause of a near-accident at one point...Miss Sherri and I were returning from a merry yarn shopping expedition up north, and noticed this new place, and did a quick U turn (screaming "Yarn Shop! Yarn Shop! New Yarn Shop!!") to check it out...Unfortunately it was closed...Should have been some sort of foreshadowing or dramatic irony or something...

The next time I went, 4 PM on a Saturday afternoon, it was also closed...

A few weeks later I was finally able to gain entrance to the Inner Sanctum, and got a chance to check it out...The first thing that struck me was that, at that time, all the yarns were organized by color, rather than material or brand...It was visually very pleasing, but a bit annoying to have to walk from one side of the shop to the other to look at the different colorways of the same yarn...

Since Sherri is Evil, and has gotten me hooked on the whole idea of making socks now, on this trip I figured I would get a bit of sock yarn as an incentive to complete my Sock Virgin socks...I could check out some of the sock yarn I'd seen online and get an idea of what it was like (being a touchy-feely kind of gal)...I noticed that they had moved a lot of the inventory around in the store, so some of it was still organized (and I use that term in the loosest possible sense) by color, but a good portion was by company, and, apparently, fuzziness or lack thereof...

The books were also in different places...The baby patterns books are now on a shelf by the baby yarn, though there were some shawl and sweater books in the stack also...The pattern binders live on a small TV stand in the very back of the store, by the bathroom...As for the rest of the books, the ones I could find were on a couple of different shelves on the side of the store--I couldn't really see any rhyme nor reason in their placement, but books are books, right?

Well, I looked and looked for the sock yarn...Then I looked some more...I finally found about 5 skeins of Lorna's Laces, 2 in the Camouflage colorway, and 3 in the Pioneer...When I asked the Nice Lady about sock yarn, she pointed out what I had already found jumbled in a standing rack by the sink area in the back of the store...Then we went on a fruitless search for more, Nice Lady stating that she knew she'd seen some around here somewhere...There was a big basket of black yarn that you could use for socks, if you wanted...It was here just the other day...Etc. etc. She tried to sell me on some South African merino (?) that she said I could use for socks, even if it was hand wash only, and $25 a ball...Riiiiight...

Since I'd spent some time looking through the pattern books, which were mostly in order by garment, I ended up walking out of The Knit Stop with a pattern for a boyfriend sweater, and a pattern for a lace weight tunic...But I really had to hunt for something I actually wanted to buy...In a yarn shop, I had to seriously search for something to purchase...

Long story short, Sherri and I are planning a coup, since this store has a really great location, and a good LYS within short driving distance would be The Best Thing Ever...If you like fuzzy, frou frou yarns, aren't into socks or a great selection of patterns, and don't mind the owner's rather cool demeanor, then I would definitely recommend a visit to The Knit Stop...And some Haldol...