Yarn shops, my favorite place to hang out and touch all the yarn. There is nothing more joyful than meeting up with your fiber friends at one or a few local yarn shops on the weekend. That joy seems like an old dream now.
As is the case with most of us, this simple joy has been taken away from us by Covid-19. The good part is during this Pandemic most shops offered online shopping. I was happy to still be able to support, but my goodness nothing replaces actually being in the store.
The world is starting to re-open in phases. Here on the east coast the yarn shops can open with restrictions. You guys know I love String Thing Studio in Brooklyn NY and they just reopened last week. The owners have to rearrange the shops. They have to rethink classes or knit nights. In other words they have a ton of work to do in order to prepare for the new normal. My question is will you go?
Do you have a Local Yarn Shop in your area? If yes, under normal circumstances how often did you visit? Will the changes stop you from visiting?
I know I am missing my peeps, so if I get a chance to visit, I am going!
I go, but I go to pick up yarn I order online ahead of time. I’m still doing sit and stitches and the like online. So…I’m still spending money, but am not browsing. I’ll chat a bit, masked, but am not hanging out there for long periods of time as I used to do.
My LYS is Webs, about 1 hour away from where I live. Since they reopened, I’ve been once, but it was pretty empty. I was absolutely welcomed back by the staff, and it was so nice to be there, but it just didn’t feel like I hoped it would. The bustle and excitement was very subdued. It will take some time for that to come back, I suspect, but I clearly will keep going there. Online is fine, but a skein in the hand is worth…well you know.
I went this past weekend. I loved every minute. I got to finish the last cuff on a sweater!
I have 3 LYSs. I’ve been to two of them since March. It’s definitely weird, no chatty crafters sitting around crafting. Run in, grab your stuff, get out. Masks on and one of them (the larger one) has directional signs to promote distancing. It feels weird to touch the yarn, like I shouldn’t just in case. I hate that. I’ve been shopping more online and have been frequenting the websites of the local dyers if I can’t get to the shop. But I miss instant shopping gratification! 😭
I will do both. I miss seeing my friends at the yarn shop. Shopping online is easy for me and I go and do curbside pick up. My LYS is doing in store shopping by appointment until all the employees are back.
I will do both. I miss seeing my friends at the yarn shop. Shopping online is easy for me and I go and do curbside pick up. My LYS is doing in store shopping by appointment until all the employees are back.
Oh, yes m’am, I will be going! We went to one of our lys last week. It was a different experience, and there was a lot of dancing back and forth to make sure other patrons have space. I left with some lovely yarn and a happy sigh.
There really is no substitute for the actual experience of seeing the fiber in person. I had to remind myself that I should look with my eyes and not my hands unless I was thinking hard of purchasing. No one needs my germs, even with the hand sanitizer.
During the summer, I am hours away from my wee winter LYS. I will certainly be back on Pat’s door step as soon as I can. Any yarn I can squish in person certainly will be squished! Personally, living at the back of beyond has its advantages, and through the first stage of this dreadful go ’round there were three confirmed cases and no hospitalizations in our portion of the Province. Others weren’t as lucky.
Wash your hands, wear a mask, and according to our Provincial Minister of Health, “Don’t let them lick the shopping cart handles!”
Be well and stitch on!
I am so sad because our sweet little yarn store in town is closing. The Pandemic plus surgery pretty much did her in. If I was a bit younger I seriously would have looked at buying it. There are other stores in the next towns but each are 25-40 min away. I have really missed going in and spending time with everyone and fondling the yummy balls of yarn. I’ve been in twice since she has reopened for a few hours a day and I know I’ll be in again before she closes the end of the month. It will be like a piece of me Is missing for sure
Our LYS closed over a year ago, so I have to shop online if I want to buy yarn and support another “LYS”. I miss in person stitch togetherness! I miss being able to feel all the yarn! If I felt comfortable enough to travel, I’d visit one or more yarn shops wherever I am. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to. Even the joy of going to a yarn retreat or Stitches is a far way away. For now, I’m just supporting from afar.
My LYS is String Thing and I love that place so much. I wasn’t a very frequent visitor before because I’m a slow knitter and there is only so much yarn one can keep in a Brooklyn sized apartment. I bought a membership when they were closed to help them keep going and felt a wave of panic when the fundraiser was posted. (I did contribute right away and I was so emotional when it was fully funded!) The new circumstances are not going to keep me away. In fact, I’m planning on going soon because I want them to stick around for a good long time.
I was able to visit my LYS recently, by appointment. So I called, and got right in! It was a delight to see the color in person, and be able to touch what I was interested in purchasing. I will definitely go back. My local spot is small, but I had always been able to chat with others. I really missed that interaction. so I’m hoping that will return in the future. Another close by shop has had outside knit times, bring your own chair, and mask. I haven’t been able to attend yet, due to work conflicts.
I’m looking forward to festivals in the future.
I love how the shops are adjusting
I have visited two local yarn stores. Each time In a mask and I was the only one in the shop. Certainly not the same experience as pre-virus. Seeing color and feeling the fiber is very important to me. I miss all of my friends at my local library knitting group. But I am grateful to have a creative activity during this lonely time.
🤗
I am an owner of a LYS. We are not a huge shop so have limited the number of people to 3. Masks are mandatory in our area. Everyone has been so wonderful to comply. We have also reduced our hours to 10am-3pm. No classes. No sit & knit. That’s the part we really miss. Thank you to all of our lovely customers that are visiting. We so enjoy seeing you. ❤️
Yay!!
Yes! I went to my lys in RI as soon as they opened. But, definitely a little strange. It’s a small shop so only a few people at a time are allowed in and we wear masks and no one is hanging around. They are still doing curb side pickup too. My Mom works in an lys in southern MD which I visit every time I’m there. Last week was the first time I got a chance to drive down and see my parents for the weekend. They are 80 and in good health but still nervous about seeing people. I did make a trip up the hill to the store and make a purchase. I have such a huge stash I thought maybe this would be a good time to cut back on yarn purchasing but I think supporting the stores might be more important. At least it gives me an excuse to not feel guilty about adding to the stash. 😂😉
Lol
I admit it…I am chicken because stiffer restrictions have been imposed again after some places reopened and have had to shutter again. The curve hasn’t flattened. I am knitting a lot and shopping my stash. I don’t even know if our one LYS has reopened. I don’t think so. I will be very happy when we get to some kind of new normal.
I can’t wait to get back, it’s the seeing the yatn, asking questions on a pattern, walking out with that “I just had to” purchase. I miss that. Xx
Portland, Oregon has several wonderful shops. I can walk to Weird Sisters / Two Rivers Books in the St Johns neighborhood (and frequented it weekly pre-Covid for Knit Night and classes). Starlight Knitting, across town in the Woodstock area, is another favorite, and Close Knit in the Alberta Arts neighborhood has a great staff willing help with knitting dilemmas. Unfortunately Twisted has gone totally online (I do like to “squeeze” my choices before purchasing) but through them I discovered Lolabean so even tho’ I can’t physically visit they’ll still get my $ and support 😀 LYS are the best and the women and men who own them rock.
Hi Gaye, yes I will go to my lys. They have made changes in set to keep everyone safe. LOL she has Lolabean so I got to get my fix. But seriously yes, I want my lys to survive this. I can only imagine its challenging. I just hope and pray we can all keep a balance and follow the sanitation practices out beyond the yarn shop visits and homes. That’s important that people don’t get relaxed in keeping covid guard up. Stay safe you and ShelbeyM 🤗💖
The most local to me closed a year or 2 ago. I didn’t go there often. I had a friend who had a shop about 35 minutes away and I used to go a few Saturdays a month, sometimes every one to hang out.
Now, a friend 45 minutes away from me has a shop about 15-20 minutes from her that we visit when we hang out at her house. She has been once I think since they reopened and she was happy to go in.
Otherwise, WEBS is about 1/2 hour or so from her and we do go there occasionally. I’ve ordered a few times as I wanted yarn to make sweaters for my 2 little great nieces.
Otherwise, there a few an hour or more away that we go visit when we head that way (usually in the summer when we head to one restaurant for lobster rolls) but not sure if we will go back there yet. We may go for lobster rolls but that’s because they have outside dining.
My LYS is downtown. I live in a suburban community, so it’s a little drive to get there. They have been part of this city for many years and were doing so well, offering KALs, assembling kits, etc. But it is falling to Covid-19. They are closing at the end of this month. I’m so grieved. I’ll have to travel 2 hours in any direction to find another yarn store. I pray another will open closer. I’m still working on my last project from my LYS. It is very sad to lose this resource because it’s not the same, seeing yarn online vs seeing and fondling the yarn in person.
Thanks for another great post!
I am still not feeling very confident about lingering in a shop these days.
Maybe by the time Toronto moves to stage 3 (in-restaurant dining etc), then I may feel ready for stage 2 (patios).
I have been trying to shop a bit online as I know the local stores are suffering. Some are offering delivery. i think they are also offering order by phone, then pick up.
I am also trying to buy patterns online to help the designers who can’t teach this year!
I feel like either “in the (recent) old days” the Toronto downtown stores were no longer really offering sit and chat times, or they were not scheduled at times I could visit. Sometimes I didn’t feel right about hanging out if I wasn’t knitting anything from that store …
I could knit for a few years with what is in my stash … and I am trying to use it up.
🤗
Black Mountain Yarn Shop is my LYS. I went weekly for sit and knit and often on aSaturday to hang out for a while. Definitely miss the in store experience but Donna and Don are so accommodating I’ve done lots of shopping over the phone and online, by curbside pickup. They reopened by appointment at the beginning of July and I will definitely be stopping by if for nothing else but to inhale the yarn fumes. Some of us weekly knitters have been meeting by Zoom and since the weather is nice now, I’m a local park where we bring our chairs and lunch. That has kept us all somewhat sane during these crazy times.
Don’t you love this community
We have to make appointments to go into a LYS (or most retail stores) but I am doing it next week! I want to support them. I do buy online sometimes, but it’s not the same as touching, touching touching the merchandise. Textile is tactile!!!
🤗
I am lucky to live in MN where we have about a dozen LYS’s in the Twin Cities area. I have visited two of the shops in my area. I visited Twisted Loop, my favorite shop, this last Saturday. They had a social distancing knitting group out on the grass for two hours before the shop opened. Once the shop opened for business for the day, I had to wear a mask and wash my hands before going in but man Oh man that yarn felt amazing!
Nice!!!
As an LYS owner I found this post very informative! Thank you GG for asking the question and to all of you who responded. We have been closed since the beginning of March and it’s tough. I constantly struggle with the decision to reopen or not. We are staying busy filling online orders and helping over the phone but it’s not the same on several fronts, helping a customer pick the perfect colors is what we do and doing it in person and seeing their faces light up when THE PERFECT THING is found is very special. Plus… let’s be honest we all spend more money in store than online. Something are just easier to buy in person and shop owners have invested a lot of money in inventory specifically geared toward the person shopping experience. Our state is still very much infected and opening now would be a detriment to my community and so we’ll stay closed but…. everyday I’m tempted. We are offering shopping appointments and that is working out well but like another reader stated the bustle of a full yarn shop is so exciting! I can’t wait to get back to those days.
I am happy the online is keeping you guys busy. Love you mean it!
My BKFF works at my LYS, which is only 5 min away. I love, love, love to sit and knit on the comfy couch while she works. If it’s busy, I often help people or wind yarn. I miss that so much!
Now they are allowed to be open 11am – 3pm, with a table in the doorway. They can bring you yarn to look at, but you can’t wander and touch yet. Sigh.
I am still going! I stand there in my mask, chatting with my bestie, waiting for things to hit the new normal!
Thank you, GG, for asking about going back to LYSs! I agree with Laura, super informative. I work at a small LYS in MA. Online and phone orders, curbside pickups and shipping, and virtual shopping via FaceTime helped keep us going while we were closed. We missed out on our yarn crawl this year which usually helps carry us through the inevitable summer slowdown. We’ve been open in some capacity (started with appointment only, now limited hours with limited shoppers) since we were allowed to reopen in mid-June. We can’t have classes or sit n knit or private lessons or offer the kinds of help we usually do. These days, I spend a good portion of the time I’m at work cleaning, wiping down surfaces, making sure I’m doing everything I can to keep myself and our customers safe while in the shop. I miss our customers, our “people”, the connections and conversations, a busy day where I don’t sit down all day and come home feeling tired but filled up all at the same time. It’s been so wonderful to have shoppers back in the store these past few weeks, with all of us behind our masks. Even in the best of times, local yarn shops need all the business and support they can get to survive. I’m hoping more shops survive these hard times than don’t but worry every day that may not be the case.
I pray everyone survives. 🙏🏾