so, yeah, adventurous day today. first off, I went to Michael’s and was very disappointed to discover that I couldn’t find a damn thing to use my 50% off coupons on. no good books, no good knitting needles, and no 100% wool so that I can stick a flower in place of the skull on the mini-tote I started. *sigh* so I ventured onwards and upwards to whatever odd suburb that Amazing Threads & Yarn Cafe are in (I think there’s like 3-4 towns that share the same zip code, cuz what mapquest comes up with for a city isn’t the same as what the yarn shops say their city is). so yeah. I had gone to a Michael’s up there (as well as the one closer to home) in the hopes that they might have some different books or something - which they had a couple instock that weren’t at the first store, but nothing I really wanted to buy. so leaving, I turned the wrong way on the road that leads to Amazing Threads (AT). finally found a road that I could turn onto and turn around on, and went the right direction. then I went thru the light at the road I should have turned onto (we went from big readable signs to ‘where’s the sign’ sized signs within a couple lights, I think), and ended up going up a road past UPS, and back, then back south, and finally found the ‘entrance’ to the subdivision/condo looking business complex. I swear, I’ve never seen a business complex that looks like a housing area, but yeah…
the shop (AT) itself is pretty nice. things are organized well, you can reach everything (the yarn shelves don’t have yarn at ceiling height, from what I remember), you can move thru the aisles… some of the yarn seemed a bit pricey (to me) compared to other shops around town. they had a sale recently, and still have a number of yarns in 30%-off and 50%-off bins. I managed to find a ball of the Paris mohair stuff that I’m using for my legwarmers in black in the 50% off bin, so I bought it. they also had Noro 100% cashmere at 50% off - I’m really thinking I should have grabbed some, but not having a project in mind, I didn’t feel I should/could spend the money on it, even 1/2 priced… if you know of any projects that would be suitable for such a yarn, let me know. I’m guessing that this is what it was.
at this point, I was quite toasty, so upon returning to the car, I took off my coat. ah, what a wonderful feeling! we better not get snow again. (I swear, the last time we had a day of ‘heat wave’, it snowed and returned to freezing temps within the week)
I then made my way back south a bit and realized that my quick notes on how to get from the interstate to Yarn Cafe weren’t very detailed, and once again, I ended up driving past it. *sigh* on the return pass, I recognized the Conoco station as being a landmark from directions I’d seen online. aha, there it is! it’s located on the corner of a little strip mall thing near an animal hospital. walked inside and was momentarily overwhelmed (and blind - bright sun into dark-ish shop will do that to you). figured out what was going on (sort of) and made my way round to the yarn. I don’t know if you can tell this from the pics on their website, but the black squares that hold the yarn go very high - to the ceiling or close to it. so reaching some yarns/colors can be a bit of an adventure (unless I missed that that was just stock and there were those colors lower as well…). the store sort of seemed to be split into two sections - the fluffy & sparkly yarns were in the front half of the store, and the more ’standard’ yarns (Galway wool and Plymouth encore, etc) in the back half. there were comfy looking chairs & sofas in the front area, and I think a table & chairs in the back half. the cafe and some cafe-type tables and chairs were towards the back as well. then the main register was towards the front, and sort of behind it was some more shelving with sock and other yarns and a door to the office I guess. this probably doesn’t make much sense… let’s try to explain better. if you stand in the door, on the left front corner is the ‘fluffy’ yarn section, the back left is the ’standard’ section, the back right is the cafe, and the front right is the register, sock yarn, and office area. yeah, that makes a bit more sense. at this point, I’ve been rambling for a bit, and if I haven’t mentioned it already, for some reason, the store wasn’t quite what I was envisioning. I think the website gave me a more ‘woody’ impression. while I liked the Galway wool, I didn’t buy any this time around, so I didn’t buy anything, nor did I get anything from the cafe section this time around. but it looks like a nice cozy atmosphere. while I was there (between 1-2pm) there were a number of people in the squooshy chairs knitting and chatting.
the drive is a bit far from home (and incredibly annoying considering the construction up I-494 in the southwest ‘corner’) so I probably won’t make it up there much (to either store) aside from sales or classes (if they have some I’d like). unless we end up moving to the north suburbs. =]
