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Monday, October 10, 2011

LYS: The Yarn Company

About a week ago, my friend Michael and I took a visit to The Yarn Company, a local yarn store located on Broadway near 82nd street in NYC.  The store is located on the second floor of a building and, honestly, I don't think I would know it is there, unless I was looking for it.  After climbing up a SERIOUSLY steep set of stairs, you walk into the actual shop.  They have one main room of yarns and a back room where some FOs seemed to be, although I did not venture back there.

While the staff asked if I needed assistance just about as soon as I walked in, they were not all that helpful.  IMHO they seemed to just "sell yarn" and not love yarn or know much about it.  The Yarn Company did have lots of pretty yarn all over the store, but they didn't carry a lot of brands.  They had a whole bunch of madelinetosh yarns, which made me happy.  They also carry a lot of different Filatura Di Crosa yarns, some of which I have never seen (and I do love Italian yarns ::swoons::).

The purpose of this visit was two-fold.  First, we just wanted to check out the store.  Second, I wanted to get a few Koigu mini skeins either for a scarf that uses them or the beekeeper's quilt (from Tiny Owl Knits) and some tweed yarn for a Christmas gift.  The mini skeins were a success, but I only got 4 of them because they were REALLY expensive for such small amount of yarn ($2.50 for 11 yds...) and I'm sorry, but I have a grad student's budget and I just CANNOT spend so much.  Anywho, I was hoping to find some Rowan tweed something or some Cascade, but the store didn't carry either brand!  In fact, the woman helping me really had no idea what tweed was.  I was honestly disappointed.

AND, they had NO sale yarn at all.  NONE!  In fact, when I asked about sale yarn, the lady quickly hushed me with a "no, no, we have no sale yarn."

So, I left the store with 4 mini skeins and 2 balls of Filatura Di Crosa Nirvana (this yarn is a lace weight superwash merino and is OMG soooooo soft! I fell in love the moment I touched it).  Will I go back to The Yarn Company again? Maybe if I need some nice Filatura Di Crosa yarn or something higher end that I cannot find anywhere else.  Otherwise, I'll probably just head to Knitty City, a lovely, wonderful, and friendly LYS that is just about around the block (on 79th between Broadway and Amsterdam).

Drum roll please....here are the new additions to my stash :).




Thursday, October 6, 2011

Significant Stitchers

Today was the first meeting of the knitting/crochet group that my friend Michael and I started at work. It was amazing to see so many colleagues interested in the crafts I love so dearly. Everyone was helping each other learn skills. It definitely was the perfect lunch. I think everyone is looking forward to our next meeting in 2 weeks!