What's up at Hobby LobbY?

[allycat1987]

The last time I was in HL the employee was talking to some of her friends, and the friends were picking out what yarn they needed to make their afghans, and the employee told them to take the yarn to fabrics and the girl would mark them down! And they were NOT on sale!! I am not a confrontational (is that a word??!) person, so I didn't say anything.

[allycat1987]

The last time I was in HL the employee was talking to her friends who were picking out yarn to make their afghans. After they picked out, the employee told them to take the yarn to fabrics and the girl would mark them down. And they were NOT on sale! I am not a confrontational (is that a word??!) person, so I said nothing.

[cgd]

Oh great, I hate to hear this! The only options I had in my area were Wal-Mart (of course their yarn is gone now), Michael's, and HL. I went to Michael's yesterday, and their yarn selection wasn't nearly as good as HL. In fact, they had almost NO sport-weight yarn, and no RH sport-weight. HL usually has a great selection of all kinds, but I won't be forced to buy some store brand that I don't know. Thank goodness for on-line ordering. Many times I end up ordering from joann.com and may try Knitting Warehouse as suggested above. ARRRGH! Why must our yarn fun be disrupted by stupid retailers? I haven't recovered from Wal-Mart's craft downsizing because I have two WMs on my side of town, but for Michael's and HL I have to drive 25 miles, and now THOSE options are now drying up. Oh well . . .

[loopy1]

Check out www.knitting-warehouse.com while they don't carry everything.. they do have a nice selection. And their shipping is a flat rate.. no matter how much or how little you buy. I try to think of shipping as equivalent to what I would spend on gas (my yarn stores are a far distance from my residence). Maybe there's a way you can rationalize the shipping for your situation?

Sorry I hadn't been to this thread in a few days but thanks for the tip, Lisa. Will check it out! Just got my new customer welcome order from Herrschner's...sale items and free shipping! But their regular prices do seem high. I'd give anything to find some LusterSheen at a reduced price!

[weenah]

i go to my hobby lobby about once a week and everything is fine. plenty of bernat, patons, moda dea (lots of moda dea), red heart, lion brand, and yarn bee. i really like yarn bee, on sale that is. as for their baby yarn: angel fleece, pitter patter and sweet delight twist are machine washable. so is their frosting!

[angt]

I have too noticed that they have tons of the yarnbee and other expensive yarns. They have the Bernat Baby coordinates which I love, but at the same price as my Walmart. I will save the money in gas and go to Walmart and get it.

[LavenderBear]

I hope this isn't the case at our Hobby Lobby! A group of us drive 45 minutes one way to go and shop there, happy that they have a variety of yarn at decent prices for us to choose from! Also, we have a new HL opening up closer to us. But if they are only going to only have Yarn Bee yarns (and their new yarn they just came out with called "I Love This Yarn"), we may have to find another place to shop! I like a variety of yarns, and so do my friends! I need to head over there again soon and will have to check it out! Last time I was there, Pat said that they were going to be moving the yarn department around! We shall see?!

[TX CrochetLover]

The Joann's I shop at has the best selection for a major retailer around me. Michael's varies depending on the store, but they seem to have lots of novelty yarn and just a smidgen of choices otherwise. HL is where I go when I need RH in widely used colors. Ordering online is great, if I have used the yarn or thread before. Joann's is usually pretty fast.

[Trinket]

I noticed a complaint like this one of this board a while back, while I was still just spectating and hadn't joined here yet. I went to the Hobby Lobby that is about 20-25 miles away from here while on a visit to Hattiesburg, where my mother had a doctor's appointment. I wanted to see what was going on, what with all that I heard. When I did check, though, everything seemed fine to me.

 

Our HL DOES have a lot of the Yarn Bee yarns. But they also have about 4 aisles devoted to yarn, so it isn't dominating anything. They have the YB, and they have other baby yarn from other makers. They had the Simply Soft, and they had LOTS of Super Saver. They also had plenty of Bernat and TLC as well as other yarns I can't quite remember at the moment. Everything seemed kosher to me...

 

I even found that new yarn they have called "I Love This Yarn", and I bought as much as that as I could to make a project that I had in mind. It's like Super Saver worsted yarn, but it's softer. I really love it!

 

I guess that this kind of thing just goes on a case by case basis..?

[CROCHETY]

I buy a lot of my yarn online. Knitting-warehouse.com offers $5.99 shipping on any amount, so I always try to have a running list of all the yarn I need and do a big order. Also, yarnsupply.com offers free shipping on any order over $75; I have just started using them. Both these websites have the usual big brand names (KW has more brands) at a discount. Knitpicks.com has free shipping on their yarn for orders over $45.

[V-Hooked]

No Hobby Lobby in my area!!

[kcraven1]

There are two HL stores within a reasonable distance from my house. The one that is just down the street has a horrible yarn selection. Most of it is YB, but there are a few other brands that I like. The really frustrating thing is that they usually only have three or four skeins of each color. If you want to get enough yarn from the same dye lot to finish a project, it has to be special ordered. The other store's yarn department is double the size of the one by my house, but still has problems with quantities.

 

Has anyone noticed that HL seems to be getting rid of most of their pattern books as well?

[Elegant Crochet]

Yarn Bee is made especially for hobby lobby in China!

I had some Icelandic Jewels and had at least eight joins in one skein of 129 yards!

I told hobby lobby about this and they sent me an apology letter and gave me 3 skeins of yarn, my choice. When I went to get the 3 skeins I did not want any Yarn Bee yarn so the manager let me take 2 X 1lb cones of Lily Sugar n Cream and 1 x 1000yard ball of Aunt Lydia's size 10 thread.

And yes my hobby lobby is full of yarn bee yarn, but to their credit they do have TLC, Red Heart and Caron etc, and the new I Love this yarn.

[mythunderbird]

No Hobby Lobby in my area!!

mine either:no:no:no maybe some day they will move into our areas.:hook:hook

[bjc1050]

Just visited a HL in Columbia, SC yesterday. It had everything! Had to tear myself away to be sure I'd have money for the rest of my drive home, lol. However, I DID buy a couple of double ended crochet hooks so that I wouldn't have to order them from JOANN. The price was great and I didn't have to pay shipping or add to my credit card. A very impressive store...they even had fabric. Hope we get one some day...watch out JOANN and MICHAEL'S!

[kmadel]

I'm getting very nervous here! I went to HL this morning & at least 1/3 of their yarn bins were totally empty! I mean wiped out completely! The aisle with the basic RH & SS type yarns was ok, but the next over with all the 'specialty' yarns was almost 1/2 empty! I didn't see anyone re-stocking or anything either.

That's the last place I have to buy yarn around here in-person. I do NOT want to have to start paying shipping on top of the price for yarn! ...sob, sob...

[sunnywolfgar]

probably won't buy be buying any yarn bee ever,,,since its made in China.. after the pet food and pets dying,,, all that mess was from China. I can't remember if I saw that on the news or newspaper or yahoo.

[kcraven1]

I went to the HL in Lewisville, TX on Friday and was told by one of the clerks that they are "resorting" the yarn section and getting rid of the fabric dept.

[loopy1]

I asked at my HL and the fabrics lady said they're doing some rearranging and will be restocking the yarn. I hope she knows what she's talking about!

[Misa]

Yes, our HL is carrying lots more of the YB yarns. I, too, think they're overpriced but I imagine that won't last long.

 

The gals that work in our store must be on orders of death to push the I Love This Yarn! Every time I go in for my RHSS whoever is in the department comes up to me and tries to convince me to use theirs instead. I will admit it has a wonderful feel to it and it's a bit cheaper than the RHSS.

 

I keep telling them, though, that until it has a wider color range, I'll pass. Last week the gal assured me that they are coming out with a color range to give RH a run for its money. That would be nice to see

[redhead]

I WAS excited to here we are getting a HL here in SLC, Utah. Now I'm not so sure.

Last week I was in Joanns they are dicontinuing Luster Sheen. I may have to find a new hobby.

Chris

[trin]

I don't have a HL near me, (JoAnns, Walmart and Michaels... Hancock closed recently...) though what I DO know is that purchasing and stocking decisions can vary from chain to chain and store to store...

Some chains leave these decisions at the local management level, and some do it up at corporate. Hancock locally is closed because the local management wanted to stock "country prints" in a neighborhood where the demand was for tropical and "ethnic" prints. (My friend worked there...) I stopped purchasing fabric there, when I could no longer get the Asian inspired fabrics I wanted... Since it was out of my way, I stopped getting yarn there too....

 

When knitting and crochet and felting and.... other fiber arts are gaining in poplarity, what is with the increased difficulty/expense in getting the yarns we want? Not all of us want to go to the specialty shops where yarn goes for $10- $39/skein and up.... Or are fiber arts being percieved as a "yuppie art" where "no one wants plain acrylic yarn"?

 

Not all of us are willing to pay for shipping... So What's up with the artificial scarcity?

[msmusic]

The scarcity may not be so artificial ... while a lot of yarns are imported, the US mills tend to slow down production or close in the summers when it is hot. So we're probably all noticing the lesser supply in all the stores, and of course they'd like to dump their inventory, so we reap the benefits with the sales we come across.

 

Take heart, the new fall colors and yarns will be out soon, gals!

[Empress Busy Bee]

My Hobby Lobby is now in the middle of rearranging at least part of the store.

I was just at Hobby Lobby in Anderson, SC this weekend and they're mostly done with their rearranging. It looks great. Everything was pretty well stocked to the hilt. New things everywhere.

Yarn Bee has a new line of hooks and needles; looked plastic. Knitting needles had some sparkle. Oh I think they had some wood ones, too. I know there were other brands or known brands with cool new wood hooks.

Seriously, lots of new things.

I really hope my Hobby Lobby looks that good when the dust settles.

[sonnets_and_stitches]

Oh good, because my HL (the only yarn place anywhere near here, really) has been looking very re-arranged lately, and I was very worried about the stock going away . . . FOREVAH!

 

But perhaps not. Perhaps it's all going to be okay.

 

Whew

 

~ Joy