25 April, 2009

Somehow, they survive

I'm talking about LYSs (local yarn stores) in small, "out of the way" towns.

A knitting friend in Murphys (another small town) mentioned a "fiber store" in Jackson, CA. We drive right by Jackson's Main Street" on our way up to the mountains, so we "detoured" from the highway yesterday to drive down historic and tiny Main Street.

I didn't think of grabbing my camera, but found the charming beading store,
The Hole Affair. I was there to look at her knitting "stuff," but the store would be a beader's heaven. It was well lit, extremely well organized and laid out, and very welcoming. The salesperson (owner?) happily pointed out some new yarn she had, and mentioned that she was slowly increasing her smallish yarn inventory. But she had the basics -- sock yarn, summer yarns, lace yarns, Addis and Clover needles -- who needs more! The store also has embroidery floss, crochet hooks and a lovely classroom area towards the back.

So of course I contributed to the local economy and bought some Cascade Heritage sock yarn to try, and some Skacel merino lace for something from the Knitted Lace of Estonia book.

Here's a start with the Cascade: Tesserae from Knitspot.



The shop is located on a "typical" Mother Lode old "historic" Main Street that hosts antique shops, small places to eat ... and unfortunately enough places for lease that you cringe for the local population. If you ever had a chance to stop in these small towns - do! They are fun, and full of local history. Jackson continues down the road with larger shopping areas and of course, even a McDonalds down the road.

After some nice sandwiches at a local deli, we drove out of Jackson and then up to Bear Valley. There is still enough snow up here to need boots and gloves, and of course the road up to the house is still closed. We have fine-tuned pulling two plastic sleds up the hill with our stuff: 2 IKEA red cloth boxes, 2 coolers, a backpack for my junk and my "new" IKEA messenger bag "travel knitting" bag up the hill -- works well!

Today it is so sunny up here we can't open the shades yet -- otherwise we'd have to put on sunglasses (inside the house)!

2 comments:

Dee D said...

Oh what a wonderful shop to find. I'd be heaven! Love the photo (and the look of the sock). I've been wondering - all you sock knitters out there - what do you wear for shoes so the lovely socks show?

gletting said...

Hello, I joined you to your LYS today!
Grete