Knitting

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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.

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.

Have you read?

Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork. 

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn. 

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look. 

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me. 

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. 

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.