raederle
02-21-2009, 01:45 AM
Today my DH had to do some research for his thesis at the National Archives, so I trotted out MapMuse and planned a yarn crawl in the area of College Park, MD. And I brought my three year old and six month old with me to four yarn shops.
When I go for a yarn crawl, I'm trying to get to know yarns that I don't get to see at my home LYS. Yarns that are perhaps unique to that shop, from a local dyer, spinner. I want to look around at their notions, needles and patterns for anything that catches my eye as different from what I've seen stocked elsewhere. I don't feel right looking at books, because I know I can buy them cheaper online. But if I'm on a trip and need a pattern from a book rightnow, I'll buy it. The purpose of the yarn crawl for me is not to buy yarn for a specific project, or fill out my knitting library or needle collection, but instead to spend some money each place I go, and get a souvenir skein or something unique I haven't seen before.
I had a mixed experience. The first one was closed (not all yarn shops open at 10am, as I had mistakenly assumed) the second was super nice with toys for my son to play with and had great goods that were unfortunately fairly similar to what's stocked at my home LYS. I had fun looking around while action figures smashed each other up, then were picked up and put away when it was time to go, but I could only find one thing to buy.
The third place was not kid-friendly. I don't want to get into specifics. But I felt we were not welcome.
The last place was awesome, and very well-organized, and helpful, without being too eager. Just right --- we're here if you need us. With TOYS! My son was very appreciative. And I was attracted to some glorious colors (easy-to-find) than will be some small project some day.
Instead of horror stories about bad experiences, I'd love to collect some recommendations for the LYS that your out-of-town friend with kids could lose herself in while not losing her sanity.
Where do you bring your kids?
When I go for a yarn crawl, I'm trying to get to know yarns that I don't get to see at my home LYS. Yarns that are perhaps unique to that shop, from a local dyer, spinner. I want to look around at their notions, needles and patterns for anything that catches my eye as different from what I've seen stocked elsewhere. I don't feel right looking at books, because I know I can buy them cheaper online. But if I'm on a trip and need a pattern from a book rightnow, I'll buy it. The purpose of the yarn crawl for me is not to buy yarn for a specific project, or fill out my knitting library or needle collection, but instead to spend some money each place I go, and get a souvenir skein or something unique I haven't seen before.
I had a mixed experience. The first one was closed (not all yarn shops open at 10am, as I had mistakenly assumed) the second was super nice with toys for my son to play with and had great goods that were unfortunately fairly similar to what's stocked at my home LYS. I had fun looking around while action figures smashed each other up, then were picked up and put away when it was time to go, but I could only find one thing to buy.
The third place was not kid-friendly. I don't want to get into specifics. But I felt we were not welcome.
The last place was awesome, and very well-organized, and helpful, without being too eager. Just right --- we're here if you need us. With TOYS! My son was very appreciative. And I was attracted to some glorious colors (easy-to-find) than will be some small project some day.
Instead of horror stories about bad experiences, I'd love to collect some recommendations for the LYS that your out-of-town friend with kids could lose herself in while not losing her sanity.
Where do you bring your kids?