Google

Tour de Yarn

Today my friend, Toni, and I (with the ever-present mini-me) set forth on a Tour de Yarn de Richmond.

We loaded up the van at 11 am and set forth for fiber-ous pastures.

First stop, Hardees. Did you know they don't serve biscuits after 11? Us either. OK, straight to the yarn!

Got Yarn? This was a really neat yarn shop on Midlothian Turnpike, with a lot of funky, unique yarns. There were neat shawls, and a great class/work area in the back room. They apparently do a lot of mail order; they had three big boxes ready to go out in the post and have a really informative webpage. Crocheter-friendly alert! Not only were the yarns yummy and the staff friendly, they had crochet pattern books and an actual selection of crochet hooks... including some gorgeous Brittany hooks! Toni got one; I'm jealous. :-)

Next up: a slight detour for bathroom, lunch (PF Chang's, yum!), and Three Dog Bakery. We have determination, but also other shopping needs. :-)

Lettuce Knit. This shop seems geared towards garment knitters, but they did have a very cute "Cat in the Hat" style felted stocking cap purse, with black eyelash fur trim. Toni fell in love with some gorgeous hand-dyes, but we had more shops to go, she had no project in mind, and the price was a bit steep for an impulse buy (not high for the quality, just high for no purpose purchase).

Unraveled. This might have been my favorite shop of the day! Just inside the door are a circle of comfy armchairs, adorned with throws, pillows and shawls that really inspire you to pick up the needles, knitter or not. The shop owner (I presume she was the owner) was very friendly and both helpful and non-intrusive all at the same time. There was a great selection of yarns, plus some pencil roving. Toni lost the battle of will with a big ball of a brown tonal boucle with a hint of mohair, and we picked up tips about knitting with wire and beads (and picked up a schedule for classes!). They also have a growing weaving class/materials stock, and the music was a CD by Ann's husband (crafty family, that one). I can definitely see myself going back there again!

Ben Franklin. What? That's not a local yarn store (LYS)? OK, no, it's not. But it was on our way, and we don't have any in our area of the state! Good timing; they were having a 25% off customer appreciation weekend. We were still inspired by the last shop and Toni picked up some wire and beads at a great price. I snagged a free tear sheet for a cute bag, won the battle of will with some sock yarn (too many WIPs already!), and noted for future reference that they had small bags of wool roving in multi-colors for just $6! Holly Spring Homespun has better roving, but this is good to know for future reference.

The Yarn Lounge. Tied for first place with Unraveled, but a totally different feel. The Yarn Lounge has worktables in the front, and a bit of a coffee-shop-esq seating area for knitting and chatting. The feel was contemporary, with hip styles, friendly staff, and a super-friendly and well-behaved dog that entranced my daughter. Sit and knit last Tuesday's of the month - can't wait to go back!

Due to time restraints, we had to cut a few local places out of our loop. We didn't make it out to Holly Spring Homespun (but can you tell that I loved the last trip I made out there?), or to The Knitting Basket. We just hit the "unknowns".

posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 03, 2006 @ 10:23 PM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home