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Support Your Local Yarn Store, Wherever You Happen to Be

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good earth yarnA couple of weekends ago my husband and I went to Kansas City to celebrate our wedding anniversary. While in Overland Park visiting the Penzey’s store (aka, the happiest place on earth) we did a little wandering around the super-cute neighborhood its situated in and found a yarn store, among other really cool, really specialized shops.

My husband was kind enough to leave me alone with the yarn for a little while, and I came out with a few skeins of a linen-cotton blend (Good Earth from Fibra Natura, to be precise) in light purple to make something for my girl. Even though I hadn’t been planning any yarn shop visits for the weekend, I’m pretty much incapable of going into a yarn store and not buying something.

That’s not because I’m a huge yarn junkie, though I guess I am. I just know that yarn shops are small businesses that need our support. I want my local shop to stay around, and I’m sure the knitters and crocheters of Overland Park want their store, too. So it’s worth it to me to spend a little money on something I’m pretty sure I’ll use anyway. Someday.

I bring all this up because Sally Melville has a post on her blog about the same topic. More generally she’s talking about people who window shop in stores and then go buy the yarn online to save a few bucks. I buy a lot of yarn online, too, but I’m really trying to make an effort to buy local when I can (and, honestly, trying not to buy that much right now).

How about you? Do you have a local yarn shop? Do you mostly buy online? Do you buy yarn when you travel? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Comments

  1. I love my LYS. Sometimes online can be a little cheaper, but I love the personal service and the ability to fondle the yarn before I buy 🙂

  2. i thnk you are right on the money with this one…..and, my parents live in overland park. nice to know there is a shop there for the next time i go visit…..

  3. I am lucky enough to live across the river from Portland, Oregon where there are at least 19 LYS. I have only bought yarn on line once because I carefully watch for sale in the LYS. Now of course we all know about the wonderful yarns that aren’t on sale that we just have to have and we love the owner of the shop and just one or two skeins will fit in the stash.

  4. I’d like to buy online, but in Russia post cost is rather expensive to buy few gramms of yarn. So the most buy online only when they buy huge amounts, still I like my local store and some stores I can visit near my work.
    I do think helping small businesses is a good thing indeed!

  5. I think I know just the yarn shop you’re writing about…around the corner and halfway down a street from Penzey’s. Ah, KC, part of my beloved home state!

  6. Oh and I much prefer patronizing the LYS to buying online, because I can see color in person more truly than on a computer screen.

  7. Sadly, there’s only 1 LYS in my area and double sad,the owner is not knowledgeable or helpful. I doubt she’ll be in business very long.Anyone want to open one up in my area???

  8. As a yarn store owner, thank you if you shop your LYS. And remember, if you want somewhere to go sit and knit/crochet and ask for help, you need to buy at your LYS or it won’t be there for long.

  9. I map many of my road trips using an app on my smartphone (Yarn Places). Gives me the opportunity to visit yarn apps wherever I visit.

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Yarn Cozy Knitting Patterns

I’ve been toying with the idea of making a yarn cozy or yarn ball holder on the circular knitting machine, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. In the meantime, here are some yarn cozy knitting patterns you can make with knitting needles. Use yarn to hold you yarn!

In its simplest form, a yarn cozy is just a sleeve or a little basket that holds your yarn when you’re working with a center-pull ball so it doesn’t fall apart when you knit. The easiest ones I could find are from Love in Stitches KN, which has a regular size and a mini size. They’re worked with sock yarn and there are options for making them with ribbing, faux cables and with self-striping yarn.

For bigger cakes there’s a project called We call it the “bail holder” from Nicole LeBlanc. This pattern is available on Ravelry and you can use any yarn and make it any size you like. It features an I-cord edging that has a loop in it so you can thread they yarn through the loop to keep it extra contained as you knit.

Another large one that has a slightly fancier pattern is this one by Mareike Meye. You can use any yarn and any gauge, and slip stitch pattern worked in different colors on the sides makes it a little more fun and uses a bit more stash. A strap buttons across the top to hold the ball in place and you can add a buttonhole to the middle of the strap to thread the yarn through. Check this one out on Ravelry.

Adding lace to a yarn cozy makes it fit a wider variety of balls and expand or shrink a bit as needed. Jennifer Sugarman’s Ball Sack uses sock yarn and is made to hold sock yarn. It has the option of making I-cord or using ribbon or cord you already have to make a drawstring at the top. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

Another lacy option is the yarn ball holder from Frugal Knitting Haus. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has an easy mesh lace pattern and an I-cord drawstring that’s sewn together at the ends so you could loop it over your wrist while you knit if you like. This pattern is also on Ravelry.

Speaking of wrist yarn holders, I also found this one form Knituition. This one uses sport weight yarn and has a spiral rib pattern on the body. The strap is attached to the bag with D-rings, or you could make it a little longer and just sew it into the bag.