Yarn & Textures Spring Forth

I can't believe all the yarn stores that have popped up where I live over the past 15 years, but really in the last 5 years there has been an explosion. There are two stores within 6 blocks of me. Originally Yarn Garden was the first in my neighborhood here is a link to the Yarn Garden store http://yarngarden.net/ The store regularly posts a blog and yes I read the blog and it appears I just missed a great get together for a pub knitting night. I have met at the Yarn Garden in the past with others in our blythe group when first starting to crochet items for my blythe dolls

However instead I ended up going to a different yarn store just a tad out of my neighborhood but right next to the elementary school my son use to go to and this yarn store though quite small has an incredible personal touch with a machine that combines different fibers that you want together onto a spool for you to knit or crochet anything from your imagination or from ravelry. The store is called Yarnia. I believe the link to Yarnia is http://www.yarniapdx.com/ . A friend and I went and explored their shop on Wednesday night. Not only did I end up purchasing several interesting spools to work on in the future, but I also ended up spending a most intimate evening talking with other knitters and crocheters that night as it just happened to be the once a month knit nights. My friend helped a crocheter begin to knit while I continued to work on a soft blue tam that I am crocheting for my blythes. PHOTOS of the spools I bought and the blythe tam I am crocheting will be posted here in the next few days.
Wish I had taken photos there at the store, as it is much smaller than I imagined; but there were about 10 of us in various chairs crocheting and knitting while talking about our families, our pets and yes of course our various projects both finished and those waiting to be done. All around us on the walls were various sweaters, scarves, hats, jackets and wash clothes all made up from various free patterns found at Ravelry (If you don't know about Ravelry it is a great place where people basically journal and photograph the various projects that they have worked on noting the yarn they have used and often sharing the pattern they have used for free or for a nominal fee. http://www.ravelry.com/ I myself am part of the community but I don't always get everything I am knitting or crocheting on the site. Lol)
Finally the last store that is in my neighborhood is called Happy Knits and is beautifully laid out. I have with several others held various blythe meets there with the emphasis of knitting something for our blythe dolls and in the beginning we were teaching various members of our group how to knit.

Here is a photo of chandelier

and some of our blythe group crocheting or knitting at Happy Knits; the link to Happy Knits is http://happyknits.com/

I think I will go back to each store and take various photos of each store and talk to the owners about why they opened their stores - I could then title my next blog, "Why Did You Open a Yarn Store?" I would love to bring the feeling of each store to my blog through words and photos. It certainly was fun this past year holding knit & crochet blythe meets at the different stores. I could then ask members of our blythe group what qualities they like about each store. I may write about a few other topics here before I finish a blog about each yarn store, but I think it would be an interesting piece to write about here in my blog.