Park Avenue Yarns

So recently, I headed down to League City, Texas to check out a trunk show at Park Avenue Yarns. I'm saving my post about the trunk show itself for another day (perhaps another yarny day, with lots of lovely yarny giveaway potential. Indeed, I may have shopped for you while I was out!)

But I was so excited because I just absolutely love this yarn store, and I want to tell you all about it.

So if you go to the website I liked above, you can see the front of the store. It's a cute little house on a street with some other shops-in-houses. As I walked up to the front entrance, I was amused by the yarn bombings on the porch:

It was super cute. Once I got in, I was immediately overwhelmed. In a good way.

Square shelving units create "aisles" of yarn, and there are two back rooms- one with couches for hanging out (this is where the trunk show was) and one with a large table for classes. Everything in the shop is tidy and organized, so walking through, it was quite easy to see things and compare items.

Each table is curated and displayed with intent. It's so nice to walk in a store where a display table has a clear feature. Yarns were piled in baskets or bowls, not left on a table to fall all over the place. The store recognizes knitting, but also crochet (a large selection of books and hooks) and spinning (you can see the wheel, and they carry fiber and if I recall correctly, a few drop spindles).

My favorite thing about this store is definitely the variety of products. Normally, when I go into a yarn store, the owner or merchant's preferences are super easy to predict. There are lots of yarns in a specific color range, for instance. Or fifteen different kinds of Debbie Bliss, a handful of Rowan, and no indies. Park Avenue has a nice spread of local indies, small, specialty brands, and big names. Aside from the Vice yarn, I picked up two skeins of Classic Elite Chalet, which is a wonderfully squishy braided ply yarn. The friendly lady behind the counter was making a project with it, and we chatted for a bit about the yarn and how it works. She even showed me her project, which was lovely.

It's nice when employees are invested in talking about your project plans. I had an excellent experience at Park Ave, and my only complaint is it's woefully far from me- 40 minutes in the car, as opposed to the 10-minute hop to my current LYS. Regardless, I think Park Ave is going to be my primary stop for projects. I know I'll find something I like there, and probably a bunch of other things I didn't plan on buying!

Next week, I have a guest post planned. I was going to set it up this week, but my lovely guest poster has some surprises in store for you, and they'll be perfect to ring in October!
- YX

The LYS dilemma

Let's talk about local yarn stores. Have you ever noticed that local yarn stores don't typically seem to carry independent yarns? I've been to many places all over the country, but it seems like many yarn stores carry a very specific set of manufacturers.

I think one of the main reasons the local yarn stores don't carry independent yarns is because they're too varied for the general customer. It's a much smarter, from a business standpoint, to have a balanced variety of weights and fibers, in a series of popular colors. Beyond that, a large number of "big name" distributors have required minimum order amounts a retailer must buy in order to carry their yarn. And once you get into the indies, how can you really choose? There's so many fiber blends and color combinations that it would be difficult to pick things that you know would sell.

On the other hand, as a frequent yarn store shopper, I find it very frustrating to go into a place that sells three major brands and not much else. I know what Rowan, Debblie Bliss, and Cascade have to offer. I also know that a sweater quantity of those yarns can be easily acquired online. Furthermore, I know that every other store in the general area is going to have something similar.

I'd love to go into a store that primarily sells varied types of yarn. Crazy color combinations, fun dyeing techniques or weird blends. I want to see brands I've never heard of before, with amazing blends that are softer and feel "more special" than the standard stuff. Why are "workhorse" yarns the focus in many local yarn stores? If I want a sweater quantity of Cascade 220, wouldn't it make more sense to order it online and verify that I have matched dyelots?

The yarn above is one I bought at Loop, a gorgeous and near-perfect yarn shop in London. Near perfect only because it requires a bit of a trek for me to get there. Although they have some "regular" yarn, I find their collection to be more curated. There are maybe 5 colorways of a certain base instead of all 15. You may struggle to find the seven skeins of Yarn A that you needed, but, in my opinion, you gain so much more.

For one thing, a yarn shop with a ton of indie yarns supports the little guys who need the exposure. You know who Rowan is. You know what their yarns are like. You can see seventy projects done with a Rowan base on Ravelry. One the other hand, buying indie yarn online is a crapshoot. Sometimes you get amazing things and other times you get half-white, crunchy, scratchy skeins with five knots. A shop with a selection of great indie yarns gives me exposure to things I may have wondered about online and introduces me to new things I might like.

Second, a selection of indie yarn tells me a lot about the LYS owner and staff. Imagine walking into a shop with "Julie's pick of the week" or having someone behind the counter telling you why Brand Q yarn is so awesome in a cowl they're knitting. When you really like something, you get excited. You want to share it. But if everyone already knows it, you're not able to share in that new experience with them.

Third, I strongly believe in the potential for yarn to "tell you" what it wants to be. If I love a yarn, and there's only one skein of it available, I'm going to get that skein and find a pattern that fits it. Knitting is a tactile experience, and I'm not walking away from a good opportunity to play with some pretty string because there's not enough to make the next thing on my queue. I tend to follow my desires and instincts in a slightly less rigid way.

Finally, a shop with a variety of indie yarns has more flexibility to change up the stock in the shop. Since you don't have to reorder $750 worth of a brand, you can get a few skeins from one person, try a sampler from another, and get a solid stock of a third. Every time you visit the store, you'd want to stay and browse, because the products are always changing. Right now, when I walk into my LYS's, aside from a few "seasonal" new things, there isn't much that I haven't already seen.

At the end of the day, I firmly believe in supporting the little guy. Especially when there are so many great indies who are breaking out and becoming mainstays in the industry- Madelinetosh and Cephalopod (pictured above) spring to mind immediately.

What does your ideal yarn store carry? What do you dislike about your current LYS? What indie dyers are your favorites? Tell me everything in the comments!
- YX

Into the stashbin...

Howdy! Hope everyone had a nice holiday...

I took some time to photograph a few things I'd picked up during my recent travels.

First, this gorgeous Anzula Cloud I tweeted about the other day:

Beautifully soft AND machine washable! It's a perfect semisolid dusty rose, which will eventually become a sweater. 4 skeins totals a whopping 2300 yards, so plenty enough for something dramatic. Get in mah belleh!

Next is some tosh sport in "scarlet"... Picked up for a hat project for a soon-to-be older brother. All the babies get attention, so I'm whipping him up a quick project in his favorite color:

It's such a common yarn, so I'll spare you the long description. I WILL say that this is a gorgeous, true, bright red colorway. I had a hard time finding a bright red that wasn't paired with pink or orange... or else had zero depth, whatsoever. Plenty of reds that aren't gorgeous, but this one fit all my needs.

I picked up this Shibui Baby Alpaca DK at Gather Here in Cambridge, and my mouth still waters when I squoosh it:

I love these colors together... Can we say Fair Isle? I also got some Gather Here fabric for Christmas, courtesy of Husband Claus, which is going to become a dress, eventually... But that's a different blog.

Finally, I scored some of the (relatively) new Wollmeise DK a few weeks ago, and it showed up right before the holiday:

For those who are fans of everything -meise, the DK will not disappoint. It has the same feel, strength, and twist of the popular sock yarns, but in a slightly heftier weight. For comparison, I took a shot of the three weights together:

Lace is on the right, followed by fingering and then the DK. The lace looks really thick, but it's only because the skein isn't twisted as tight as the others. You could knock someone out with a skein of WM sock yarn. It's like a little wool Billy club!

Anyhow, 4 skeins of the DK are going to end up in some kind of sweatery end, but exactly what, I'm unsure.

I have a new sweater WIP to show you this week, and I'll need some help picking out a yarn for an upcoming lace shawl project! So please give me your opinions on that when we get to it. Giveaway winners are being picked next week! What happened to December?! We're almost to 2013!

- YX

Shopping! Winter 2012/13

I've gotten a ton of catalogs recently, and I wanted to share more cute knit and knit-inspired things with you guys!

West Elm has this awesome cable-print rug. I love this, and I'm thinking about getting two little ones for the sides of the bed in my guest room. The sizes go from 2x3 all the way up to 5x8. It could be wintery or fit in well with summery themes, too, since you could always interpret it as a New England beachy/boaty vibe.

Free People always has great knitwear, and I found a few things that look downright hand knitted.
The Cloud Pattern Pullover looks like a cozy scrap sweater:

and the Animal Cardigan looks like it could be made from a multi-colored hand dyed yarn. Anyone else kind of think it looks like Wollmeise's Rhabarbar?

And Crate and Barrel is killing me with these hilarious/adorable knitted penguin Christmas ornaments:

I'll be on the lookout for more stuff as the season goes on! Have you found anything fun yet? Show me in the comments!
- YX

(October giveaway!)

Retail love: Allsaints Spitalfields

Have you ever found a clothing store that fits your personal style so closely that you could see yourself wearing everything they offer? While in London, I found All Saints, a cute little store with a great window display:

Vintage sewing machines! The store is a chain, and I saw a few different shops during my wanderings... Everything I saw in the store is something I could see myself wearing, which is quite an accomplishment. Soooo how about I share some cool knitwear from the store?

The Jagger Cardigan is gorgeous and drapey without being fussy. Would be super pretty over a lace or satiny tank.

Next is the Summer Court Jumper Dress in a similar color. I love the diversity of patterns here, not just in texture but also in opacity. I'd love to see densities mixed like this on a knit pattern. I bet there would be quite a bit of picking up stitches!

The Paleka Pullover makes use of some awesome drop stitches and cables. This sweater over a neon tank? Love it.

Love them all! Too bad the brand, as cute as it is, is WAY out of my price range for clothing! I'll never understand how people can afford expensive stuff like that! I have yarn to buy!

But you don't! You can get some for free right here!
- YX

Shop: Loop London

Our trip in London is winding down... We leave on Friday, and it seems like time has absolutely flown by. On Sunday, our big plan was to go to Loop in Islington. Loop, for the uninitiated, is a beautiful little shop in London that has a pretty decent following in the yarn community. It's the only place that retails Wollmeise (except for Claudia's shop in Munich, natch), and they have an excellent offering of yarn.

The shop is two stories and carries a variety of yarn brands. Thus far, in my yarny travels, Loop is the closest thing to an ideal yarn store I've found. Everything they carried was something I could see myself buying and using. Like, I think I peed myself a little bit when I walked in. One of the most annoying experiences I have in yarn shopping is when you walk into a new store and they have two giant displays full of one company's yarn. I remember walking into a new store that sold a ton of Blue Sky products, every Rowan product ever sold, and a teeny little shelf with a handful of other things. Talk about disappointing! 

ANYWAY, at Loop, I ended up with a few purchases:

For my Pinctada vest, I picked up some Madelinetosh Tosh DK in "Molly Ringwald". I'll have some WIP photos (and a WIP regaling you with my personal frustrations and failures) later. Here's my awesome hotel stash photo:

Next, I was seduced by this skein of Old Maiden Aunt Alpaca/Silk Sport/DK in "Toast". I have no plans for this skein as yet, but it's got some pinkiness to it and that beautiful brown ribbon. It's so pretty I think I would just be happy looking at it from time to time without actually making anything from it:

I was drawn to some cute little 50g Malabrigo lace skeins, in Green Apple and Pearl Ten. There'll be some kind of cowl project with the two of these. Perhaps an Encadre?:

The real gem of the trip was learning about Artisan Yarns. I got two skeins of this Baby Camel/Silk fingering weight yarn that just feels and looks incredible. It has an amazing sheen and just ugh, I want to rub it on my face and sleep with it under my pillow so no one can steal it. I need to learn more about these folks:

One skein is this pale pink, "Pale Madder", and the other is a golden color: 

I'm thinking of something with teeny stripes, like the White Rabbit Mitts we looked at last week. 

So, I'm thinking I'll have to sneak back there before I leave... I didn't get anything blue! Speaking of which, you can get something blue right here!

- YX

Acquisition: Tosh!

Last weekend, I happened out to Nimblefingers, an awesome little yarn/needlework store in Houston. This store isn't as close to my house as others, but I'm drawn to it because they're my primary supplier of Madelinetosh yarn! I was initially looking for a skein of the mesmerizing Edison Bulb colorway, to continue feeding my neon craving:

Alas, they were out of it, but I managed to snag a skein of Tosh DK in "Pop Rocks":

I also happened upon a breathtaking skein of Lace in "Nostalgia":

I picked both up. I'm thinking the pink will team with the leftovers from my Raphaelite Shawl to make a pair of fingerless mitts. I think I'll improvise the pattern this time, instead of using a pre-written one.

The lace will become an airy dress of my own design, which is still in the nascent phases of sketching. More on that later.

And lastly, I got an awesome I got an awesome package from Sunrise Fiber Co., which included that skein of UFO I ordered after the Etsy shopping post.

Although the skein I got isn't quite as vibrant as the photo on Etsy, I think it's charming and balanced, and will make some awesome mitts or socks in the near future.

I keep saying I have way too much yarn in my life, and it's true. Luckily, I'm plugging away at stash as well as working on newer yarns. Perhaps I should do a clean out and offer up another giveaway? What would you like to win in a giveaway? Wollmeise? Tosh? Magic angel hair/qiviut? Let me know in the comments!
- YX

Window shopping: Etsy yarn

I was idly browsing Etsy last night and happened upon some interesting yarn! Although I'm on somewhat of a yarn diet, I figured I'd share it with anyone who was actively shopping.

Etsy is such a great resource for handmade things, but it's also great for hand dyed and spun yarns, as well as recycled yarn! Great cashmere at reasonable prices, silks, and a guilt-free conscience for re-loving fiber that was given away.

Sunrise Fiber Co.'s Neon Green Silver sock yarn:

Lightbrown Hare's Jackalope sock in Luna Cat:

Wild Hare's Handspun Self-striping Bulky Superwash in Peacock Gradient:

ShopYarnLove's Poppies in Winter sock:

Gnome Acres's Fawkes the Phoenix lace:

I love them all! That first one is really killing me! I can't wear green near my face, but I could see awesome gloves or iPhone accessories with it! Eeep!

Leave your pick in the comments! 

- YX