Big or Little

[sparklingbutterfly]

Yarn Stores that is....i love the little ones i find they are more cozy and are more personal.....i have a vendetta against micheals right now because they moved to my area and it ended up closing my fav yarn store The Knitting Habit..... i think i might have to cave soon because they have beads....

What is your opinion?  

[Lee Kushrenada]

well I like you really like the little places.
there is this little yarn shop down town were I live and it is very cozy and I love all the yarns...but for being a little store, she has some big prices. xp its all really nice stuff... but I can't afford that! gonk  

[Catcheen]

sparklingbutterfly

Yarn Stores that is....i love the little ones i find they are more cozy and are more personal.....i have a vendetta against micheals right now because they moved to my area and it ended up closing my fav yarn store The Knitting Habit..... i think i might have to cave soon because they have beads....

What is your opinion?

I love little ones... My hands have become fiber snobs and only want to work with stuff I can get at the private owned stores. I'm not a big fan of chain stores anyway.  

[Phishy]

Actually I can't say I prefer the small stores around my house, a lot of them have really snotty employes. Although the little shop in the hospital semi-near me is really sweet. But as Lee Kushranada said, they are pricey and I can't afford them half of the time. Also they seem to only have fingering weight yarn in the summer. And for me that's a major detriment as I knit for dolls a lot.

To be truthful though I don't usually shop at big chains or at small stores. I order my yarn online. It's the only way I can find nice quality yarn at nice reasonable prices.  

[firrantello]

I actually like both. Because little yarn stores don't carry acrylics and honestly, I do like acrylics. But the little yarn store does carry some beautiful cotton I plan on getting for a big project when I'm ready to tackle another big project and can afford to smile
Plus, my hometown doesn't have a yarn store. I have to drive a town over for a little yarn store. My college town however has several. The two I've checked out are either a) overpriced (it's a tourist town too, bummer), b) nothing i like, c) so disorganized it'd be a headache to find more than two balls of the same brand and color, much less dyelot, or d) some combination of them. So, big stores have their advantage.  

[VP Club Freakin Justice]

I like little yarn stores but there really aren't any good ones too close to me. So when I just need a little something I go to Hobby Lobby or Joann's.  

[kochi~mochi]

I like the atmosphere of the little yarn stores, but i can't afford it. gonk Luckily, my local yarn store doesn't mind me coming in to knit and not being able to buy anything other then needles there (cause i'm in love with bamboo). In fact, they pointed me towards knitpicks as a cheaper, though still nice, alternative. They're really very friendly, and always help out.

However, sometimes i need yarn, and i need it now. Michaels sells simply soft, and some other less-expensive, nice yarns. I do buy yarn at Michaels, though i wish i could afford the nice stuff so i didn't have to.  

[Lee Kushrenada]

the one thing I REALLY like about the little stors is, they sell wool...and I don't mean wool yarn... I mean WOOL!
its what I use to spinn and its crazy cheep. heart  

[Brunette_Star]

There's only one little yarn store near my area, and I'm sorry but the women who work there are total snobs. I told them I was a college student looking for a sock pattern. I was looking around at all the cashmere and alpaca and asked if they had wool yarn or acrylic yarn to practice with. The woman clearly wrinkled her nose and asked what I wanted with that. I told her I was going to make a pair of socks for my Dad for Christmas. She handed me a 60% cashmere yarn with angora and wool mixed in. I asked if she had something with more wool in it, and she replied "Well, don't you want to make nice socks?" like it was a horrid sin I didn't want cashmere. I was still trying to be nice at this point and explained my dad's a country man who doesn't like fancy fabrics. (Heck, he'd probably wear cotton ties if he could get away with it!)

The woman asked me what the last project I made was. I told her a baby blanket. I'd used acrylic yarn and a free Lion Brand pattern. She asked "Did I just hear you say Lion Brand?" as though it was a bad thing.

At that point I just left. I'm sure not all small yarn stores are like that, but this one was just ridiculous. That's why I buy yarn at craft stores.  

[gemini6184]

Honestly, not even Michael's has enough of a selection for my taste. It seems like everytime I go there for something I can't find it. I've just started ordering everything off the internet, especially joann's.com because A) I get points for it through memolink and B) i can usually use a coupon from memolink. I'm cheap, to be honest, and I agree with Brunette_Star about fibers - why would you use such a delicate yarn for something thats going to be walked around on? neutral I mean come on. We don't knit/crochet simply because we enjoy it, we do it also because it's cheaper than trying to buy something. I can't buy anything knit hardly anymore because I just start going "oh, I can make that" in my head. And Red Heart has every frickin' color and color combination you can think of. I had a request for red and purple in a sweater but no stripes- guess what I found after racking my brain for ideas? Red Heart's Berries colorway. There's 5 pages of colors just for their Super Saver. I know, its scratchy - but I threw my clapotis I made for someone in the dryer with a sheet of fabric softener for twenty minutes, and you wouldn't recognize it. My friend who used to work at an A.C. Moore couldn't. But no one carries all the Red Heart colors around here. They want people to buy things like Patons or Bernat.

Now I have been to a tiny LYS here in downtown, and I'll be going to them for a ball of Rowan Calmer for a chemo cap I'm being commissioned for. But that's not something you skimp on.  

[Lee Kushrenada]

I really need to look into getting my stuff online... I was once in Joann's looking at yarn, and this grandma was looking at stuff next to me, so being the charming guy I am I asked her what she was making, and we started talking about yarn and what not and I told her that I really just can't aford a lot of the yarns I want, and she asked me if I was buying any of it online.
you know its sad when a grandma is telling you to get with the times. xp  

[Blue-eyes-green]

Hmmm... my favorite yarn store is the largest independently owned fiber store in New England, so I can't really call it small, but I definately prefer the indie stores. I also have the problem of being a fibre snob- acrylc yarn is just awful now that I've discovered wool. However it means I can't knit as much as I'm both broke and cheap. I'm also a needle snob- My favortie needles are bamboo, and metal or even plastic just don't do the trick anymore.  

[Phishy]

Brunette_Star

There's only one little yarn store near my area, and I'm sorry but the women who work there are total snobs. I told them I was a college student looking for a sock pattern. I was looking around at all the cashmere and alpaca and asked if they had wool yarn or acrylic yarn to practice with. The woman clearly wrinkled her nose and asked what I wanted with that. I told her I was going to make a pair of socks for my Dad for Christmas. She handed me a 60% cashmere yarn with angora and wool mixed in. I asked if she had something with more wool in it, and she replied "Well, don't you want to make nice socks?" like it was a horrid sin I didn't want cashmere. I was still trying to be nice at this point and explained my dad's a country man who doesn't like fancy fabrics. (Heck, he'd probably wear cotton ties if he could get away with it!)

The woman asked me what the last project I made was. I told her a baby blanket. I'd used acrylic yarn and a free Lion Brand pattern. She asked "Did I just hear you say Lion Brand?" as though it was a bad thing.

At that point I just left. I'm sure not all small yarn stores are like that, but this one was just ridiculous. That's why I buy yarn at craft stores.

Reminds me a bit of when I went into one of my local yarn stores looking for a specific brand. I had to ask for help because I couldn't find it. They seemed amazed by this. Now I'm thinking to myself, "This tiny building is on the verge of being a fire hazard because the shelves are so close together. These yarns are not sorted by brand, fiber, or weight... and you seem startled by the fact that I cannot find what I'm looking for...." And when they did show me where it was I realized the reason I hadn't seen it before was that it was stuffed between two shelves. And the only colors they had more than one skein of were black, orange, pistachio, and chocolate. neutral

Which is why Knitpicks.com is quickly becoming my favorite place to get yarn.