Oh no - we have a LYS!

[sonnets_and_stitches]

I was a moron and decided to see where was the nearest LYS. I was so confident that the nearest one was hours and hours away. Instead, there is one IN TOWN. I even recognize the name of the street it's on.

 

I'm toast! Toast, I tell you! I can't buy anything if I visit, and I don't want to be one of those annoying people who visit but never buy. But how can I not go?

 

I was so sure that Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart were it, as far as local yarn sources.

 

Oh man . . . if I go, how will I keep from buying something?

 

Toast ~ Joy

[birdlady1]

Oh oh, there goes the tax refund!

 

In what part of the world is this newly discovered LYS?

[carrie_dyer]

stupid question what is LYS???

[ErinLindsey]

stupid question what is LYS???

 

Local Yarn Store. Usually privately owned and not a chain store like Hobby Lobby or Walmart.

[Addey]

Hmm.... I could think of worse things.

I guess the easiest way to not buy anything (or much) would be to only take say, $20 or whatever "allowence" you give yourself for the trip into the store, not your whole wallet or purse. Then you can't spend any more without going back out to the car (or better yet, leave everything buy your driver's liscense at home...). If we treat ourselves like we treat our kids when we don't want them spending every dime they have, then you can go, enjoy and maybe pick up a little something without blowing the budget too badly. There are some very nice things at most LYS that you can have for $20 or less...

[laurastar0962]

you might as well give up, "resistance is futile" <said in best robotic voice>

[charitas32]

Arrgh, just give up now and only carry cash. I found one 5 minutes walk from my flat, and i can never go back as i quilt bourght after the oweners, who have to unlock to let you in made me coffee the first time and heaped shade cards upon me. Its a tiny wharehouse type placebut stocks the whole king cole range. You'll just have to get used to the temptation, it can be done, i lve in an old mill town and have to cope with the existance of 5 lys, plus local charity shop finds. Good luck with the willpower

[OzRebel]

Good luck is all I can say! And you can try the suggestion of only taking a ltd amt of money... that's what I've done going to Vegas! I have about 3 LYS here, and I have trouble not indulging when I go in...

[sonnets_and_stitches]

Tax refund? You mean, gas money?

 

I think I'm more nervous about the store owners being snobs. I was cut by a knitter in Hobby Lobby last week while going through discounted yarn, and perusing the store's website makes it clear that it considers itself to be a knitting-themed store. All the publications available are knit-related, different branches of "The Knit Club" meet different nights a week . . . I don't mind being "The Lone Crocheter" if the knitters are good-natured about it, but I'm afraid that I won't find the reception very friendly.

 

But maybe I'm just borrowing trouble?

 

~ Joy

[crochet_hen]

Sounds like you need back-up. If it weren't for the price of gas, I would head down there and take them on with you. Maybe you can draft your mother to go...she is a force to be reckoned with!

 

Tax refund? You mean, gas money?

 

I think I'm more nervous about the store owners being snobs. I was cut by a knitter in Hobby Lobby last week while going through discounted yarn, and perusing the store's website makes it clear that it considers itself to be a knitting-themed store. All the publications available are knit-related, different branches of "The Knit Club" meet different nights a week . . . I don't mind being "The Lone Crocheter" if the knitters are good-natured about it, but I'm afraid that I won't find the reception very friendly.

 

But maybe I'm just borrowing trouble?

 

~ Joy

[ErinLindsey]

Tax refund? You mean, gas money?

 

I think I'm more nervous about the store owners being snobs. I was cut by a knitter in Hobby Lobby last week while going through discounted yarn, and perusing the store's website makes it clear that it considers itself to be a knitting-themed store. All the publications available are knit-related, different branches of "The Knit Club" meet different nights a week . . . I don't mind being "The Lone Crocheter" if the knitters are good-natured about it, but I'm afraid that I won't find the reception very friendly.

 

But maybe I'm just borrowing trouble?

 

~ Joy

 

You were cut by a knitter? What happened? Did you get between her and a clearanced skein of Yarn Bee??

[HomekeepingGran]

Cut by the knitters, hey? I don't know where you live, but in the South an LYS is as likely to teach crochet as knitting. Mine (about an hour away) has lovely samples of both lying about and a rather complete selection of Cébélia thread in several sizes. Oh, and some tatting stuff, too. I DO know what you're talking about, though, since I also frequent a knitting forum. Some — not all, by far — of those people are snobby about being knitters. You won't know what it's like until you try, Joy. And this new LYS is probably perfectly nice. After all, what do they care what you do with the yarn as long as you buy it from them?

 

You might scope it out with no money at all the first time. That way you can get a feel for how much cash you need to take for a typical project. And ask about sales. Ours takes 10% off every item you buy during January and June. Nice!

[sonnets_and_stitches]

You were cut by a knitter? What happened? Did you get between her and a clearanced skein of Yarn Bee??

 

Ummm, yeah, I'm trying to think how to explain the slang. Not literally cut-drawing-blood-someone-call-the-ER-or-get-me-a-Band-Aid. Cut as in "interrupted" or "talked over."

 

What happened was that I was talking to my mother about chenille and how I was having trouble with it because the chenille I chose for my project was too bulky, and a lady that we don't know (but was standing right there) said, "Of course it's a lovely yarn! Just knit with it!" I began to explain that it was the chenille which was too bulky for my project (for a very tiny teddy bear), but I only got five or six words in when she started saying things like "What's wrong with you? KNIT with it and you won't have any problems!" I don't think she had an utterance which didn't have the phrase "knit with it!" She didn't even know what my project was. I mean, what if I had been making a hammock? She didn't even know that I wasn't a knitter, because I hadn't said anything like "crochet" or "hook." I had just been talking about the yarn. My mom started chortling at her (they call my mom "The Bulldog" -she's not to be messed with!) and I dragged her into a different aisle so that there wouldn't be a scene.

 

Anyhow, that's "cutting" someone.

 

I've said it that way for years and I keep forgetting that I have to explain it. Have you ever read Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass? It's the second Alice in Wonderland book. There's a short scene from Chapter 9 which puns on this meaning of "cut."

 

~~

The waiters set a leg of mutton before Alice, who looked at it rather anxiously, as she had never had to carve a joint before.

 

`You look a little shy: let me introduce you to that leg of mutton,' said the Red Queen. `Alice--Mutton: Mutton--Alice.' The leg of mutton got up in the dish and made a little bow to Alice; and Alice returned the bow, not knowing whether to be frightened or amused.

 

`May I give you a slice?' she said, taking up the knife and fork, and looking from one Queen to the other.

 

`Certainly not,' the Red Queen said, very decidedly: `it isn't etiquette to cut anyone you've been introduced to. Remove the joint!'

[HomekeepingGran]

"Cutting someone" is a British term, I think. At least, it's normally in British lit where I see it. Long live Jane Austen!!!

[ErinLindsey]

Ummm, yeah, I'm trying to think how to explain the slang. Not literally cut-drawing-blood-someone-call-the-ER-or-get-me-a-Band-Aid. Cut as in "interrupted" or "talked over."

 

Ok, I was wondering if you'd just stepped between the knitter and a good deal on some yarn and she got territorial or something.

 

I've met a few arrogant knitters before. Some of them are related to me. My late maternal grandmother was one. I only got to see her maybe 5 times in my life, but one of the last times I visited her, I happened to mention that I was crocheting an afghan or something, and she made this comment how "crochet is for poor folk..." (and I think in her "proper Southern lady" mind, that mean "the colored people")

 

So, I not only had a knitting snob for a grandma, she was also apparently a racist. Amazing, I had two racist grandparents, and my own parents managed to somehow avoid being racists themselves, and therefore taught me to be a nicely open minded, non-racist person. Yay parents!

 

My sister is a bit of a knitting snob, but not too badly, I found evidence the other day that she crochets too. She left some stuff behind when she stopped in town awhile back while she was moving across country. I had to look in one of the boxes for her knitting needles for her and found some crocheted dishclothes. She'd left her knitting supplies at my house by accident.

 

When she was here, she was showing me a knitted dishcloth that she'd made, and when I asked her questions about how she did it, she got all huffy about it and said it was really easy. (for her maybe, I'm still a newbie knitter)

[sonnets_and_stitches]

I hunted down the address today, and it was all for naught. It was an antique store, and when I asked the shop owner, she said that the yarn store went out of business in 2006! I wish their website had said something about being out of business.

 

Oh well. I took my $10 bill to the library instead, and bought books out of the discard room. Hard to beat 25 cents a piece.

 

~ Joy

[misssmaggie]

I hunted down the address today, and it was all for naught. It was an antique store, and when I asked the shop owner, she said that the yarn store went out of business in 2006! I wish their website had said something about being out of business.

 

 

~ Joy

 

[bbutton]

I've heard a lot about snobby knitters, but so far I've never met one. I knit, crochet, embroider and sew, and I guess I've been lucky in meeting nice people!

[darski]

I hunted down the address today, and it was all for naught. It was an antique store, and when I asked the shop owner, she said that the yarn store went out of business in 2006! I wish their website had said something about being out of business.

 

Oh well. I took my $10 bill to the library instead, and bought books out of the discard room. Hard to beat 25 cents a piece.

 

~ Joy

 

I don't know whether to congratulate you or cry with you. Your wallet may be safer but what of the joy of the petting zoo?

[sonnets_and_stitches]

I think at this point, it's better to congratulate me. I have a respectable stash for our budget and space considerations, and I'm also very busy making and crocheting with plarn (which is free!). If I begin to feel dizzy from the lack of non-petroleum-based yarns, I can hop over to the charity shop and hunt for something to frog.

 

I mean, I'd pay for it first - I wouldn't just frog it there in the store!

 

Thanks for the support, guys. I truly appreciate it.

 

~ Joy