two yarn stores better than any in NYC

I don't know what it is about yarn stores in New York. I mean, I know they're all pretty small because of the astronomical rents, but why don't they offer better classes? More fun activities? I get so jealous when I visit other places and see the huge stores with the beautiful layouts and the friendly, helpful staff that aren't bitter if you don't buy a whole lot.

I was lucky enough in my recent business trips to have time to visit two yarn stores, both of which were great, and both of which gave me severe envy.

1. Mouline Fine Yarns: First up, Montreal. Now Montreal has several yarn stores, but I was only able to get to this one based on the time I had and my location in the city. They've just moved into a bigger storefront, and had a lot of selection. I got to see all the Kaffe Fassett Regia colors, although I didn't end up buying any. I got a Canadian colorway instead (since it was, after all, a souvenier of my trip to Canada):



The Kaffe colors were great too--there were both self-striping and variegated colors--but I thought some of the Canadian colorways were just as pretty, and not really that much different. So I guess I was a little underwhelmed. But they were still nice, just not really as spectacular as I thought they would be.



I also bought some Gedifra English Tweed for my assistant's xmas scarf (Interlocking Balloons from Scarf Style). I've been wanting to make this for a long time, and I think he'll really appreciate it. The shop had the yarn on sale, and so I bought four skeins. I think this will be enough, but I can always make it a little shorter if I have to.

The good thing about Mouline was the owner. He was this large, sweaty man with missing teeth, but he was so nice and so helpful that he instantly put you at ease. He is justifiably proud of their selection and their pricing, and if you look at their website, you can see that he passes his savings on things on to the consumer--lots of things are on sale at pretty decent prices. The one thing to beware though, is that he doesn't talk you into buying something other than what you came in for, which might be a danger, as he obviously wants to sell you the best yarn he can. But it was definitely a soft sell, as I didn't feel compelled to buy what he suggested, and I did appreciate the opportunity to see and feel a lot of the Colinette yarns, which are harder to come buy in NYC (at least where I shop, anyway).

I suspect that if I lived in Montreal I'd go there a lot. It was also very big-there was a good sized teaching table in the back, lots of books in their book/pattern area, available for you to thumb through (a feature I really love in a yarn store), and there was still loads of room for customers to look around without feeling pinched or crowded. The owner guy really seems to love what he's doing, and to love talking about yarn, and I had a really good time there and felt very welcome to spend as much time (or money!!) as I wanted. :)

2. The Gourmet Yarn Company: Second stop was in Oklahoma City. I had a car during this trip, and two days with some extra time, so in between all the other sight-seeing I did, I figured out how to get to "Oklahoma City's full-service, up-scale yarn store." It was totally worth it too. The knitters of OKC are very lucky to have a store like this one. I think this was more of a community store than Mouline, but probably because Mouline is more urban-Montreal is a lot more like NYC than OKC is. (Although, one could argue that NYC could REALLY use a friendlier, more community-driven yarn store more on this mold. Knitty City is the only one I've found that even comes close, and it is just too far away from me to make it a regular visit.)

Anyway, I didn't spend as much time in The Gourmet Yarn Co., because I had already spent a lot of money shopping for other stuff, and my suitcase couldn't fit anymore. I did buy one skein of this, though:


I had just finished a scarf for one of my friends for xmas (one gift down! YAY!), and loved, loved, loved it so much I immediately cast this Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande on for a version for me.



The one I made for my friend was made from one skein of Misti Alpaca Bulky, but it is basically the same yarn, although I did find the Plymouth to be a little bit splittier, which could have been because I was knitting it in transit. The ribbing looks fantastic too. It is done in this Eve's rib, which is basically a slipped stitch type thing, with those cute ruffles on the ends. I haven't blocked either one yet, although I am done with the one I started on the trip home. I had connecting flights, so I basically started my scarf when I got to the OKC airport and bound off when I unpacked at home. It was about 4 or 5 hrs of knitting, give or take the changing of planes, etc. Not too shabby! I don't have a picture of it yet, because when I went to bind off my version I had an extra little ball of yarn left over, and I'm debating whether I should tink back the ruffle on the cast-off edge and do a few more rows of ribbing so that I use every last scrap of yarn. I'm pretty sure I'll do that, but I just need to sit down and do it.

Anyway, back to the yarn store. It was in this shopping center, but the website gives such good directions, and OKC is so easy to navigate that I found it easily. The woman working there (I don't know if she was the owner) was very friendly, and you guys--they have knitting retreats! I'm so jealous. I do think I'm going to figure out how to organize one of those for my knitting group though. Perhaps it will just be us spending a weekend at a place upstate just knitting and relaxing, or perhaps I'll try to figure out how to have classes too, but the point is to get away and relax and knit. You should go to their website and look at the pictures of the place they go--it looks so pretty. They have a great selection of basic things like Lamb's Pride, but some other pretty handpainted stuff and lots and lots of sock yarn. The other thing I thought was really great was that they also sell the knitting-themed novels like The Friday Night Knitting Club, the hardback of which Amazon seems to be remaindering, because it is on sale now for $5.99!

The Gourmet Yarn Co. had one big room in the front, with waist-high shelves along several aisles and another room in the back with the teaching table, around which were seated several knitters when I arrived. The woman working came out to greet me, and then let me browse for a while, until I was ready to go. I also picked up some cable needles, which I really needed, and the Holiday Interweave Knits, which is awesome. But that's another post in and of itself (well, along with the two other fiber mags I've gotten since then (Holiday VK and Crochet Today! which for some reason I can't stop buying...).