Yarn Crawl

Remember how I mentioned once (or maybe I didn't, so I'm mentioning it now) that the closest yarn shop was 100 miles away? I recently discovered that a new one has opened, which is located in Hernando, MS, and it is only 80 miles away!!! Only a true knitter could get that excited about that...

I only found out about That Yarn Shop a few days ago (thanks Brenda). Since I have a free day coming to me for finishing my June KAL within a KAL, I decided we would go check it out.

I found it fairly easily, except that Hernando doesn't have regular street signs. All they have is little hand-painted cement posts on each corner, which are really hard to read. But we did eventually find the place. As we pulled into the parking lot, Cody said, "Now I have to put on my 'I'm bored and don't want to be here' face."

Once we got there, we found a really nice little yarn shop. She is just getting started, and doesn't have much inventory yet. Still, there were some very nice yarns there. She has a small selection of needles, as well. She had Addis, which I personally don't like enough to justify paying all that money for them--though she had them cheaper than I've seen them anywhere else, and some bamboo DPNs. She also had longer straight needles, but I didn't pay all that much attention to them. They also have spinning supplies, but as a wheel is currently way out of my budget, I didn't look to hard at them.

I arrived just as the Saturday morning sock class was going on. Note the people in the far right of the above picture. There was one teacher, the shop owner, and two students. I don't know who the teacher was, but she was an avid sock knitter. She did Sock Madness this year, and made it to the Elite Eight before being beaten out by the one who eventually won the whole thing. They were all (except the teacher) duly impressed by my 7 1/2" black ("BLACK!?!?!", they said. "It's BLACKKKK!!!") soldier sock leg. One of the ladies commented that she didn't know how I could even see it to knit it. "I can't," I replied. "I mostly knit it by feel."

"I'm just a beginner, I can't do that," she protested. That's ok, you will. We were all beginners at one time.

They had big, comfortable looking places to sit and knit, and the shop had a real homey, inviting feel to it. I wish I could have stayed longer.

Notice the blue and brown painted walls. The owner of the shop had some sock yarn that was dyed to match her walls! No, she didn't have any available for sale, but boy if she had, I'd have gotten it! It was gorgeous. I did pick up some very nice sock yarn. I got some panda cotton, and some Steinbach Wolle Aktiv Effekt. I'd never heard of that yarn, but it is very soft.

This is a place I will definitely visit again.

Once we left there, we went on into Southaven, and stopped at several stores there. Cody finally was able to complete his A Series Of Unfortunate Events in hardback collection, and I got another Yarn Harlot book. And I got myself a summer sausage made from Buffalo meat. If you've never tried buffalo, I recommend it. It is delicious.

We left there and went on to the Yarn Studio, and finally Yarns To Go--both in Memphis. Both were nice shops, and both had people sitting around knitting. I lamented to the lady in Yarns to Go that I wished we had a yarn shop where I live. She very kindly informed me that I could buy yarns online and I said, "Yeah, but you can't hang around with other knitters online." Nor can you feel the yarns, or sniff them, or truly see the colors online.


My final haul for the day: Top left--Steinbach Wolle Aktiv Effekt color 05, Sockotta color 363, Tofutsies color # 733, The Secret Life of a Knitter by The Yarn Harlot; Middle row--JaWoll Jacquard color # 0151, JaWoll Jacquard color#0154; Bottom row: Panda cotton, color # 0436 chocolate almonds, Panda cotton color # 2035 Faded Jeans. Some of these socks will probably go to soldiers. That's kind of why I picked guy colors. Except the pink. That's mine.

Todays Pic: Decorated overpass in Memphis, TN. June 2007

And I mustn't forget:

Slightly overcast all day. Just enough to make the pictures turn out dull.
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