Since I posted the list of local yarn stores for Dawn in Paw and mentioned that I'd never been to two of them (or The Yarn Garden that Alrebjc mentioned in her comment)...I wondered why I'd never been to them. So I plugged addresses into mapquest.com and created an itinerary. My almost 17 yo, Alex, just got his driver's license (no, he's not a lousy driver, he's been staying with his dad in OH and it was hard scheduling him into the segment 2 class he needed) and was thrilled to volunteer as chauffeur for Em and I.
We hit In Sheep's Clothing first. Mapquest is stupid. I know how to get to and through Marshall. My husband worked in Marshall for more than 5 years (until recently, when his plant closed and now he's supposed to be based out of Dearborn...which he's rarely IN Dearborn, or even in Michigan, for that matter). Mapquest had us go passed Marshall, turn around and go back into Marshall. Eh. No biggie. At least we avoided the dreaded round-about that way. And we managed to find the shop fairly easily, even with Al driving. We were fortunate enough to find a parking space in the teeny parking area. I don't know where more parking is available, other than on the street?
Now here's where I admit (probably not for the first time) how much I suck. First, I didn't take a camera along. So there are no pics for this entry. Second, I met and had actual conversations with the very nice and personable owners of two shops and I have no recollection of their names. None. My only excuse is that I was overcome with yarn fumes. Or something.
(added 7/19) Em looked up the Michigan Fiber Fest and among the vendors are In Sheep's Clothing with one of the owners listed as Christine Jensen and The Yarn Garden, owner Kimberlee Torkko.
Anyway, back to In Sheep's Clothing...um...I didn't bring anything to take notes (I also didn't take any knitting...can I say again how much I suck? lol). There was yarn. And some needles. Books. Quite a lot of books, as I recall. I don't know, it all kind of ran together into a river of yarny goodness. I do remember some scrapbooking stuff , a room of fabrics and another with sewing machines so I think she caters to the quilting crowd as well. Along with other things we talked about, I learned the owner knows our friends (haven't seen them in ages) who own Ohio Valley Natural Fibers . I managed to get out of there with a hank of Shetland wool yarn that came from the owner's own flock of sheep. I can't show you that though, it's a gift.
And then we were on to The Yarn Garden (winding through side streets on the way out of Marshall to avoid the dreaded round-about) in Charlotte. Once again, it was quite easy to find. Street parking but there were open spaces on the side nearest the store. The shop has a sweet resident dog, whom we learned was a formerly abused rescue. She likes to drop her toys at the feet of customers, hoping they'll play fetch with her. Again, there was yarn. She had some Koigu sock yarn but not many colors. I think she said she didn't care for it and it didn't sell well. I seem to remember a decent selection of Regia sock yarns but didn't look closely. We didn't actually buy anything but fondled everything (even Alex got into the sport of fondling yarn, though I promised not to tell anyone), especially the handpainted yarns and the White Buffalo Unspun. Ooooh, I wanted some of that. Badly. But we really hadn't planned to buy anything at all (multiple yarn shops without shopping--how nuts is that??) and had another stop to make. Kimberlee told us she was selling the shop--though staying on for another year or so before moving to Wisconsin (she really likes snow and cold *shudder*) --and invited Em and I back to knit. We'll do that for sure.
So it was on to Threadbear Fiber Arts Studio. The mapquested directions were easy and straightforward, no passing and doubling back this time. No dreaded round-about. But we couldn't find it. We looked all along the side the address seemed it would be on. Then we turned around and looked all along the other side. And then we drove over the other side of the overpass and did the same thing, though it seemed it couldn't be there because there wasn't much there at all. Alex was ready to turn around and go home at the point I finally remembered I had both the phone number and my cellphone (which I never have because, even though it's MY phone, my daughter always either has it or left it somewhere besides with me). I called. We'd driven passed it on the first try. There's no sign in front of the strip mall it's located in, only a hard-to-see-from-the-road banner in the front window.
Wow. Yarn. LOTS AND LOTS OF YARN. I wished I had my camera to snap some pics of the other two cute shops. I REALLY wished I had my camera at Threadbear...to show you the shelves and racks and pegs and bars of yarn and yarn and MORE yarn. We wandered the store for hours with cries of "look at THIS!" and "oooh, feel THIS!" and "Can you make me a hat out of this?" (Alex, with 40 gazillion dollar a skein black cashmere). It was a fondlefest of epic proportions. Em bought two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "bittersweet." I managed to get out of there with only a small bottle of lavender woolwash. It was hard. Very hard. Of course, it would have been even harder if we'd had actual conversation with anyone in the store. They didn't seem particularly friendly or hovering. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes not.
We will definitely go back again...to all of them. When we have yarn money. LOTS of yarn money.
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