Googling Yarn Shops

I spent this past weekend [tag]googling[/tag] for [tag]yarn shops[/tag] on the internet. Do you know how many shops have a presence on the web? The result of this search was 1,280,000 hits â€“ almost 1.3 million pages that mentioned â€œyarn shopâ€ somewhere on a page or in their meta tags.

YIKES I donâ€™t have time to visit that many websites!

In the results of this search, many hits were [tag]yarn manufacturers[/tag] whose sites I wanted to remove from my search. I further refined this search using the advanced features of [tag]google[/tag]. I asked to perform a search that had â€œyarn shopâ€ mentioned, return pages that had been updated in the past three months, did not contain adult sites, and was written in English. This advanced search returned 294,000 hits. Do you have time to look at all these sites? Sensory overload!

If you followed my steps to this point, you could further search in the results for other criteria, such as location, or specific yarns. Now this is a long way to perform the search, but this is an easy way for most individuals to refine their criteria. Others may want to use a boolen search, which is more convoluted, or a newer method called [tag]Search Engine Math[/tag]. This method has you use the plus sign (+) or a minus (-) sign to fine tune your search.

I used this method to remove any store that mentioned supplies and patterns. This result netted me 144,000 hits. I live in Michigan so I decided to add Michigan to the search and the result was 12,900 hits that mentioned Michigan on their site. Still a hefty amount of pages to look through, but a little more manageable.

Who am I kidding? Need to fine tune the search again and look for stores that sell wool. Ah, now I am down to 361 hits. THAT is better! This result I can bookmark and spend time looking for that special yarn.

This is not a perfect method, many pages slip through the critera and may contain other information such as a list of guilds or a yarn manufacturer listing the stores that sell their yarn. For the most part though, this will help you fine tune your search for material and supplies without spending time clicking on 1.3 million pages.

Next Pattern:

Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

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