North Puget Sound LYS Tour 2013, Day 2

Hello:

Today was the 2nd day of the 2013 LYS Tour for North Puget Sound.  Eight Eastside Stitchers got together to visit the shops today.  The plan was to meet at my house by 4:15 pm and drive to downtown Seattle by 5:00 pm for the first shop where we would meet the 8th member of the day's group, Tara1682, who was busing downtown from her job.

So Much Yarn

2107 Elliott Avenue #204
Seattle, WA 98121
206-443-0727

So Much Yarn is upstairs in the Cost Plus World Market building.  There is street parking (if you are lucky), or you can park in the Cost Plus World Market Parking lot inside.  We did that last year, and if you buy something (small and cheap) at the Market, they will validate your parking, so it is relatively free.

The yarn shop is down a cute open hallway.

And, at first you might think it is going to be small.  It is small, but not the smallest shop I have been in, and they make good use of their space.  This shop has a very wide selection of yarns.  They also pride themselves on their excellent service.

I was amazed at the amount of different yarn companies represented.

The shop has been in business for over 4 years at this address.  They serve the downtown clientele, with an excellent selection of  yarn from all purpose to art.

 

Seattle Yarn

5633 California Avenue SW
Seattle, WA 98136

Seattle Yarn is located in West Seattle.  They have a nice size parking lot in front of the store.  

This in not a small store, and the size is reflected in the amount and variety of yarns on display.

The aim of the owners is to enable you to do what you want.  They want fully functional customers.  To that end, they try to carry a huge variety of yarn.  As the owner described it to me, "The good, the bad, and the ugly."

They don't always publicize their sales because they like to surprise their customers.  They want shopping for yarn to be an adventure, a surprise every time you come to the store.  Just like they want the yarn to be a surprise.  Yes they carry many beautiful "regular" work horse yarns,

but they also carry the unexpected, and that can include an unexpected Trunk Show.

Seattle Yarn has been in business for 15 years, and in September, will have a month long celebration of their 15th Anniversary with sales and activities.

Makers’Merchantile

18437 East Valley Highway, #102
Kent, WA 98032
425-251-1239

Maker's Mercantile is the home of Skacel.  It is full of their yarn

and of course the wonderful Addi knitting needles.

They shop sells more than yarn and needles, however.  they have fiber for felting,

as well as fabric for sewing,

and crafting ideas of all kinds.

In their classroom, today, they had the designs from their reality knitting competition, The Fiber Factor. on display.  I couldn't take any photos, but, yarn crawlers could see the finished items from round 1 of the competition up close.

One interesting yarn they had in the store was their TeeCakes yarn, which is made from recycled T-shirts.

 

TheKnittery

601 S. Grady Way
Renton, WA 98057

Last year, when I visited the Knittery for the first time on the 2012 LYS Crawl, I thought it had a great selection of low to mid-priced yarns.  This was the shop for projects where you wanted something better than what you could find at Jo-Ann's or Michaels, but didn't want a high end yarn that was going to be difficult to wash and would break the bank.

My estimation of this store has changed quite a bit.  I still think it is a great place to buy your regular work-horse yarns, especially if you are knitting for kids or babies and want stuff that is reasonably priced, easy to care, and still much much lovelier than anything you could find at a craft store.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of what I would call higher end yarns there, too.  They had a decent selection of Madelintosh, and quite a bit of Rowan.

In fact, when I asked the owner what her favorite yarn is, although, like any good mother, she was reluctant to choose, she said right now she is really into the Rowan Fine Art Sock they have just begun to carry.  There is also a really nice book of patterns by Rowan to support the yarn line.

The Knittery has been in business for more than 45 years in the city of Renton.  They have watched knitting cycle up and down throughout those years.

How have they lasted so long in such a crazy field?

You have to work hard at it, but enjoy it, the owner told me.  The most important thing is to have fun and don't take yourself too seriously.

Perhaps the best endorsement came from a customer who was sitting at their generous knitting table, knitting.  "This is a great shop for helping knitters, for trouble shooting."  She went on to explain that at the Knittery, the staff helps everyone who comes in.  If you are stuck in your knitting, you can be sure someone will help you, not tell you to take a class, but actually sit down and help you right there with your knitting.

This doesn't mean that their classes are neglected.  In fact, classes are so popular at this yarn store, that they are completely booked up through September.

Tomorrow is the giant crunch day of yarn crawling where we will head up north and try to get quite a few shops visited.  I am not sure if I will have any energy when I get home to post, but I will try.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet on a Yarn Craw.

2012 Puget Sound LYS Crawl Day 1

2012.05.18 Black Bart Iris

I have been participating in the 21 shops in 4 days madness called the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour.

Day 1
Yesterday, I got home at about 9 pm and seriously, I was exhausted.  We only hit 4 stores.  But I was dead.

Well, I went to 5 stores because I snuck off to Serial Knitters in Kirkland Washington by myself first, right when it opened.

It's a wonderful shop, although it seems small, it has a terrific selection.








They are currently having an Abstract Fiber Trunk Show, and wow those yarns are yummy.

What's best about it is, this is my most "local" of LYS's and it is really great to be able to see the yarn in real life.  And touch it!



Allifer came over at about 2:30 pm and we headed across Lake Washington to meet up with GwenS.

Our first stop was So Much Yarn  in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, near the Pike Place Market.

I am writing this with the help of GwenS who took great notes.  (I was the driver).  So Much Yarn is upstairs and the space is small, but they have it packed with some wonderful yarns.  At every shop I asked the owners if they had anything that was unique to their shop.  Not every shop had an answer to that, but So Much Yarn did.  They carry a line of alpaca sock yarns from a local farm.  The yarns are all undyed, in the natural colors of the alpacas, some are blended, and they are named for each alpaca.  I had to buy a skein, knowing that I would be able to use it during the Solid Socks Challenge for Brown next year. They had a great mix of yarns at various prices, so you could find something really special, and still afford it.

Our second stop was The Knittery in Renton.

This is a well lit, open space, with a large selection of general workhorse yarns.

Our third stop was the Yarn Stash in Burien.


One of the fun things about the tour is that every shop has 2 featured patterns, and the yarn (the pattern can use 1 or 2 skeins) for the pattern on sale for 10% off.  Most of the patterns have been specially created for the Tour.  The pattern at the Yarn Stash this year is a pair of fingerless mitts, and is really nice.  It can be done with color work, or using texture instead of the 2nd color.  It was one of our favorite patterns.


The final stop for yesterday, was Seattle Yarn in West Seattle.



This shop was a delightful surprise.  It was much larger than expected, and had a really nice selection of both brands and prices.

A few of the stores had this sign in the window, Seattle Yarn did, and it was important to us because we had Allifer and Ellyol with us, both primarily crocheters (as well as me).




They had a huge button selection.

Gwen was particularly happy with their selection of Malabrigo and Madelinetosh.








I will try to get photos of today's excursion up tomorrow, etc.  But we are going to hit the northern most shops on the Tour, and it will be an absolutely crazy day.  I hope I have enough energy to blog.

Good night.  Stay safe and well.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet one growing yarn stash at a time!