This Elf Knits - Knitting, Handpainted Yarn, LYS reviews

On Saturday the Knitting Scotsman, our adorable daughter and I will be going to the 5th Annual Shop Hop in the Metro Detroit area. Last year we stumbled upon it while visiting some of the LYS’s that were participating. The first shop we went to we didn’t notice the sign and thought it was a bit odd that the store was so packed. By the second store we had caught on to the sign.

This year we are prepared. We are going to map it out and try to make it to all five stores. There is Basketful of Yarn in Clarkston, Heritage Spinning & Weaving in Lake Orion, Skeins on Main in Rochester, Have You Any Wool? in Berkley, and the Knitting Room in Birmingham.

Each store is giving away a gift with a $10 minimum purchase and if you visit at least 4 of the stores and get your passport stamped then you are entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate. Each store will also snacks and drinks. They are all open from 9am to 5pm to allow people enough time to get to them all. Each store is also promising to have project ideas that you can complete in time for Holiday gift giving.

We absolutely can’t wait and it should be a lot of fun. I’m going to try and not acquire any more yarn, but I am not making any promises. I do need some needles though and would love to find a pattern or two. I know my husband is looking for some small projects he can work on. Maybe I will leave all of the yarn buying to him

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Yarn Quest is located in a strip mall just a few miles from downtown Traverse City. It was the last local yarn store (LYS) that we visited during our trip. It was definitely a shame that it was our last LYS visit.

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This yarn store was a bit out of the way for us, but we decided to check it out because we were relatively close after having lunch in Glen Arbor. Inish Knits is located at 9031 S. Kasson St. in Cedar, MI. It is a very small town with a tiny IGA, ice cream store, a bar/restaurant, and a few other shops.

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Lost Art Yarn Shoppe is located in the heart of historic downtown Traverse City. There appears to be a mix of restaurants, cafés, and shops. We visited on a Thursday afternoon and it appeared to be quite the bustling area. The store is in the middle of the block. There is convenient meter parking behind the store, but I don’t believe that the store had a public door off the back. The meters were kind of neat as they gave you a free 30 minutes by pushing a button.

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This shop is in the back of a bakery. I must say the concept has intrigued me since I first heard rumors of it last year. I was really excited to see it as my perfect-in-my-head LYS has an espresso bar. Dutch Oven Yarn Shop is located in Alanson, Michigan at 7611 Burr Avenue.

In practice though, this shop was not quite what I was expecting. The bakery portion was very nice. It had fresh baked break, cookies, pastries, and deli sandwiches. It also had a very nice seating area. The employee behind the counter there greeted us as we came in. You must enter the bakery in order to get to the yarn store. That was as much of a greeting that we received.

The yarn store portion is to the right of the front door and up some stairs, past the seating area. The store area is not very big, but it is crammed full of all different kinds of yarn. My husband and I were really put off by the lack of any sort of acknowlegment though while we were shopping. Granted it seemed the store employees were at the register dealing with customers, but a simple hello always goes a long way.

We didn’t spend too much time in the store because we wanted to get to our final destination, we had an antsy 3-year-old, and well we were not that impressed. Perhaps my hopes were too high or I had just set a different idea in my head when I had heard about the store. I don’t think we will ever stop in there again.

We did get a couple of cookies before we left though. They were all right, nothing spectacular. Ah well, the pursuit for my “perfect” yarn store goes on.

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On our drive up to Mackinac Island last week we did pass through Mackinaw City but we were running a bit late and decided to head straight for the ferry. After returning from the island on Wednesday we made a stop at Cynthia’s Fine Yarn & Gifts. In fact Cynthia’s is only a few blocks down from the Arnold Ferry Dock.

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Ever since I became a member at Ravelry and was told about this wonderful local yarn store in Lansing, I have been dying to visit it. We live about an hour and a half away though, so it isn’t a matter of just jumping in the car. For Father’s Day yesterday we decided to go on a road trip.

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While we have a favorite LYS, we love to go out and explore all of the ones in our area.  Metro Detroit seems to have an abudance of yarn stores.  It is fun to check them out and see what they carry and how they treat us.  One cause well my husband is a guy who knits.  For some reason that is unusual.  Normally the owners and employees assume that I am the knitter and he is just tagging along.  Which we laugh cause he has more experience and is a much more technical knitter than I am.  We have had some interesting experiences at stores in the area which make him feel like the woman in a car dealership. 

And two because I have a 2-year-old.  We normally get the "oh she isn't going to touch anything, is she?" look.  For which we do not frequent that store anymore and spend our money elsewhere.  My daughter is a very well behaved child who loves yarn.  She loves to touch yarn and pick out pretty colors (normally pink).  If she was a terror then I wouldn't take her. 

Anyway today we visited two stores in our area, City Knits in Mt. Clemens and Indigo Rose in Sterling Heights.  City Knits is in the location that was once occupied that a now defunct yarn store.  I'm not really sure why they would pick the same location as a yarn store that couldn't make it, but they do have two successful downtown Detroit locations so what do I know.  It is a decent size store with a large selection of Cascade, a lot of alpaca, and some sock yarn.  I was not really impressed with the store and I am not sure I will go back.  There was a class going on and a few people browsing.  Two of the customers got the "these are our specials" spiel and we only got a "welcome to city knits."  Not sure if we missed the spiel cause they were busy or what.

We then visited Indigo Rose.  This store is in our backyard but we rarely go there.  I started going there when I was an inexperienced knitter and didn't really know what I liked yet.  We decided to check it out again to see what kind of yarn they carry.  My daughter fell asleep in the car so we didn't get the full family treatment.  Dh and I each went in seperately.  They are a large store but have a very small selection of needles and notions.   The store was completely empty except for two employees.  This store seems to cater to an older crowd and I have never really felt like I fit in.  I'm also not a big fan of their yarn selection, it seems to be a lot of novelty yarn and acrylics.  I prefer natural fibers.

All in all a sort of disappointing day.  Next time I will try to talk a bit about our favorite LYS in the area.

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