Yarn crawl & lots of $$ spent
I spent lots of $$ on knitting-related things Saturday, Sunday and Today.
My friend Jane and I spent half of Saturday on a yarn crawl in West Los Angeles. We went to Wild Fiber, Yarns Unlimited, A Mano Yarn, and finally, Stitches from the Heart. Wild Fiber is a large store that's well stocked, clean, and well organized. It's bright, cheery and carry lots of gorgeous specialty yarns. However, one certainly pays for the nice organization and zip code. For example, it charges $14-$16 for Manos del Uruguay (one of my faves), whereas my LYS, Velona charges $12.95-$13.95. However, Wild Fiber's selection of Manos is to die for! I bought some white merino roving at $1.80 per yard and some older magazines for 50% off. Jane bought a ball of orange/rust colored yarn. (Btw- Velona is disorganized and overpacked, but I still like it and haven't had any bad experiences there.)
The second stop was Yarns Unlimited. It is a dark and dim store and has very narrow and tight quarters. The store carries a lot of yucky synthetic yarn in the front par of the store -- not at all inviting to the yarn snob. The back half of the store has some better yarns, but still not impressive. The best yarn that I saw was a small section of Cascade 220 in a narrow hallway. The prices overall aren't bad.
The 3rd stop was A Mano Yarn Center, which is smaller than Wild Fiber, but they carry a nice variety of yarn, books and notions for a store this size. It's well organized, cozy and friendly. The staff offered us bread and homemade jam and had super customer service. I bought some wool roving with grays and blues for $1.55 per oz. and I bought 4 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool at 40% off the regular price for a future tank/sweater project. Jane bought several hanks and balls of yarn on sale, including a chunky handspun one. Gorgeous!
The last stop was Stitches from the Heart, a charity and a nonpfrofit store helping premies across the country. The store has a very small yarn selection and is run by volunteers. Most of the yarn is baby yarn (surprise, surprise). Pastels and synthetics -- definitely not my kind of yarn. Although, I must note they carry Southwest Trading Co.'s Karaoke (wool/soy silk) and Berroco Alpaca, 2 nice yarns.
On Sunday, I went to Laguna Beach for my knitting group's beach party. (I'll post about the knitting event and pictures in a separate post). About half a mile from the beach is Strands and Stitches, where Aubrey, Maria (colleague that I converted to the yarn world) and I stopped at the end of the day. Strands and Stitches is rather unique in that all the yarns are organized by color. This medium-ish store has a nice selection of yarn and also specializes in embroidery threads and yarns. They don't have as many knitted samples as some of the other stores I've been to, which I noticed for some odd reason. Aubrey and I purchased some Mango Moon recycled sari silk yarn.
Tonight, I bought some reactive dyes and mordants online at Dharma Trading so that I can dye some cotton yarns I've had for some time. I'm also going to torture myself again and try the reactive dyes with the Stinky Silk. I als0 went to another online store and bought 2 Addis and a bag each (10 per bag) of SWTC Karaoke and Mondial Cotton. I'm planning to use the Mondial Cotton for a Butterfly Vest cami from a Rowan book I borrowed. As for the Karaoke, it's an unplanned purchase, but it's on sale for a great price and I'm sure I would use it for something pretty! :)
My friend Jane and I spent half of Saturday on a yarn crawl in West Los Angeles. We went to Wild Fiber, Yarns Unlimited, A Mano Yarn, and finally, Stitches from the Heart. Wild Fiber is a large store that's well stocked, clean, and well organized. It's bright, cheery and carry lots of gorgeous specialty yarns. However, one certainly pays for the nice organization and zip code. For example, it charges $14-$16 for Manos del Uruguay (one of my faves), whereas my LYS, Velona charges $12.95-$13.95. However, Wild Fiber's selection of Manos is to die for! I bought some white merino roving at $1.80 per yard and some older magazines for 50% off. Jane bought a ball of orange/rust colored yarn. (Btw- Velona is disorganized and overpacked, but I still like it and haven't had any bad experiences there.)
The second stop was Yarns Unlimited. It is a dark and dim store and has very narrow and tight quarters. The store carries a lot of yucky synthetic yarn in the front par of the store -- not at all inviting to the yarn snob. The back half of the store has some better yarns, but still not impressive. The best yarn that I saw was a small section of Cascade 220 in a narrow hallway. The prices overall aren't bad.
The 3rd stop was A Mano Yarn Center, which is smaller than Wild Fiber, but they carry a nice variety of yarn, books and notions for a store this size. It's well organized, cozy and friendly. The staff offered us bread and homemade jam and had super customer service. I bought some wool roving with grays and blues for $1.55 per oz. and I bought 4 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool at 40% off the regular price for a future tank/sweater project. Jane bought several hanks and balls of yarn on sale, including a chunky handspun one. Gorgeous!
The last stop was Stitches from the Heart, a charity and a nonpfrofit store helping premies across the country. The store has a very small yarn selection and is run by volunteers. Most of the yarn is baby yarn (surprise, surprise). Pastels and synthetics -- definitely not my kind of yarn. Although, I must note they carry Southwest Trading Co.'s Karaoke (wool/soy silk) and Berroco Alpaca, 2 nice yarns.
On Sunday, I went to Laguna Beach for my knitting group's beach party. (I'll post about the knitting event and pictures in a separate post). About half a mile from the beach is Strands and Stitches, where Aubrey, Maria (colleague that I converted to the yarn world) and I stopped at the end of the day. Strands and Stitches is rather unique in that all the yarns are organized by color. This medium-ish store has a nice selection of yarn and also specializes in embroidery threads and yarns. They don't have as many knitted samples as some of the other stores I've been to, which I noticed for some odd reason. Aubrey and I purchased some Mango Moon recycled sari silk yarn.
Tonight, I bought some reactive dyes and mordants online at Dharma Trading so that I can dye some cotton yarns I've had for some time. I'm also going to torture myself again and try the reactive dyes with the Stinky Silk. I als0 went to another online store and bought 2 Addis and a bag each (10 per bag) of SWTC Karaoke and Mondial Cotton. I'm planning to use the Mondial Cotton for a Butterfly Vest cami from a Rowan book I borrowed. As for the Karaoke, it's an unplanned purchase, but it's on sale for a great price and I'm sure I would use it for something pretty! :)
Labels: knitting
posted by CraftyDiversions at
9:19 PM
1 Comments:
I love Wild Fiber but I only go there for things when I want to drool or find stuff I have trouble finding elsewhere. While they certainly have a bit of my money, I can't shop there too much lest I spend the rent money.
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