Yarn Shops Galore

OK so here is a series of pretty dorky looking shots of me shopping up a storm in the San Francisco Yarn stores. I managed to get to five in less than ten days which is pretty good going with a husband in tow!!!

The first is in Artfibres in the downtown finacial district San Fran. I'm looking fat/pregnant and stupidly pleased with my purchase. This was the first shop I visited and in hindsight I wish I'd bought a few more things. (Do you ever not feel like this??) JT was with me - It was the first shop and I was being circumspect. They have all their own yarns manufactured angling at the fashion industry buyer but fun fun fun for the little ole home knitter. As far as I know, you cant get their stock anywhere else.


The second was Urban Knitting Studio in Hayes Valley. A few days later. A big concrete, hip city kinda space. I managed to leave with a few goodies. Saw Minnowknits patterns for the first time! Touched Muench Touch Me for the first time (heaven!!) Ogled Japanese yarns from Habu Textiles in New York - ooohhh ahhhh!!!


The next stop was Imagiknit. Which was the HUGEST store yet. JT walked around the block and there was tooo much to look at loads of Colinette! I nearly had a stroke at how expensive Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb was. Then JT came back and cramped my style.....He wasn't patient that day. Lucky really because I hadn't even been able to begin with the patterns and who knows what that would have done to my credit card.


In the next shot you can see the SECOND room of Imagiknit!! It was a huge store and loads of samples everywhere including heaps of full garments.


Are you sick of this yarn binge yet?? The next time I went shopping was by myself. I had all day and I went to two stores. The first was Atelier. A much smaller store but in a lovely neighbourhood. In a bizarre coincidence the owner was about to take a trip to Australia to attend a wedding at Avoca Beach. The town where I grew up and where my Mum and Dad still live!! Wierd! I only got an outside photo of this one.

Then Greenwich Yarn and Stitch works. Ohhh man did I have fun in this store as you can see from my cheshire cat grin. I sat with a real local knitting group for a while, while they wound off a skein for me and had chats with real knitting locals. I bought loads of Koigu, some great Green Mountain Spinnery wool cotton and many many more things besides. I was there for ages and really felt welcome and at home. It was not a huge store but they had heaps of stuff it wasn't overwhelming tho. Oh what fun fun fun.

And if you have made it this far into my journey you need to know that the shot below shows all the stuff that made me need a whole extra bag on the way back - that is our washing basket - full!!!!! There's a few books, mags and patterns there as well as yarn and in my defence I will just say. ITS NOT ALL FOR ME!!

PHEW!!!!!