Jeeze, my life just won’t let me get back to
regular blogging. Hopefully now things will settle down and I can get
time to write more consistently. In any case, today I wanted to talk
about my Local Yarn Store (LYS): Natural Stitches.
I’ve mentioned them a few times before and they are great. Or, rather,
were great. They closed last month, much to the sadness of the
community.
Now, Natural Stitches was my most local LYS, but
not the only one. I guess that’s one of the perks of living in a big
city. There are a handful of yarn stores around, but this one was only a
10 min drive up the road. And, I’m a little
ashamed to say, the only LYS I’ve visited in Pittsburgh. I always
meant to go to more, or at least go to Natural Stitches more often.
However, I’m an internet shopper by heart and, most of the time, I was
fine waiting for my yarn to arrive. When I really
needed to look at colors or needed something ASAP (like size 5 DPNs
which I somehow didn’t have), then I’d make a run to Natural Stitches.
The staff there were always friendly and nice. I’ve been there a
handful of times, but I’m nowhere near a regular visitor
so when they remembered me on my second trip (which was months after my
first trip), I was amazed. They were always there to give a
recommendation or help you find that perfect yarn/pattern pairing. But
they also knew that sometimes it was best to let people
browse. I really dislike it when I get followed around the store by a
super helpful (but annoying) sales person asking all sorts of
questions. A simple “I’m just browsing” was enough to give me the space
I needed to explore the store. I really wish I went
there more, and can’t help but think that if I had just bought the yarn
I purchased online at Natural Stitches instead, maybe they’d still be
here. (this isn’t to say that I bought enough yarn to keep a store in
business, but I’m sure any bit helps) I think
part of this aversion to shopping in person is that if I touch it, it
almost always goes in the basket. I have very low self-control when it
comes to all things woolly. This is why I’ve put myself on a strict yarn
diet for the foreseeable future – but that’s
a whole blog post by itself.
I saw the news about Natural Stitches closing on
Instagram and was immediately struck with two simultaneous emotions:
sadness that they were closing, but happiness because they’d be having a
huge close out sale. Did I feel bad about these
mixed emotions? Absolutely. Did that stop my from stocking up at the
sale? Absolutely not. When I went, everything was marked at least 40%
off and I used this opportunity to purchase yarn and fiber that would
usually be out of my price range. But at 40%
off, who could say no? Here are some of the new yarns and fiber I’m
excited to try:
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Handpainted Roving
50%
Wool - Merino
50%
Other Animal - Yak
: Gastropod Shuffle
Yarn Hollow Panda Top
60%
Wool - Merino
30%
Cellulose - Bamboo (Bast)
10%
Manufactured Fibers - Nylon / Polyamide
: Rust
Yarn Hollow BFL Superwash
100%
Wool - Bluefaced Leicester (BFL)
: Highland Park
Frabjous Fibers Cheshire Cat
100% Merino
: Cabbages Kings
Berroco Inca Tweed
50% Wool, 30% Alpaca, 14% Acrylic, 6% Rayon
: 8959 Anochecer
Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool
100% Wool
: 8061
Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool
100% Wool
Colorway: 8025
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight
100% Merino
Colorway: Under the Bridge
Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball Crazy
75% Wool, 25% Nylon
: 2266 Meilenstein
Bare Naked Wools Stone Soup Fingering
80% Wool, 15% Alpaca, 3% Other, 2% Cellulose
: Slate
Bare Naked Wools Stone Soup Fingering
80% Wool, 15% Alpaca, 3% Other, 2% Cellulose
: River Rock
Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic
75% Wool, 25% Nylon
Color 85.0011
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