Yarn Snobbery

I admit it.  I have become a yarn snob.

It's is entirely the fault of The Needle Emporium located in Ancaster, ON.  It was a yarn store that I had intended on visiting for quite a while and so finally a friend and I decided to head up there to buy the yarn that she needed for the two scarves that she ordered from me.  Their website is pretty extensive so I emailed them ahead of time so I would know what to expect.  Most online retailers carry a lot more online than they do in their brick and mortar stores, so I figured that it would be the same in this case.  I was surprised when the owner emailed me back and said that they actually have a LOT more in-store than online.  She told me that the store was in an old house and that every room was filled with yarn.

I knew I was in trouble.  Little did I know just how much.

My friend and I found the old stone building easily in the small town of Ancaster and pulled into the tiny parking lot, full of anticipation.  We went in and I immediately hyperventilated.

So.  Much. YARN!!!

This place is by far THE best yarn store I have ever been to.  Wall to wall, floor to ceiling yarn in every shade and color combination you could possibly imagine.  Buckets, baskets, shelves, hooks, cubbies, all filled to the brim with a rainbow of fibers.  Merino, cashmere, angora, silk, alpaca, yak, all organized beautifully for easy shopping.

When you first walk in the door, the walls on either side of the entryway are lace yarns.  Go in to the right and there is a section of accessories and my personal favorite area of the store - sock yarn. I was completely overwhelmed by the incredible, dazzling array of colors, lightweight yarns all begging to be touched.  Julie, the owner, even has custom Lorna's Laces yarns that she has specially made in smaller gram-weight hanks for their linen-stitch scarf kits they specialize in.  If you go back past the door, the room to your left is the DK/Light worsted room and across from it is the regular worsted.  Across the end is the chunky room where I found my long-sought-after hand-painted baby alpaca yarn that I made into this:

And with that I was a full-on yarn snob.  Once I felt the quality and saw the beauty of these yarns, I knew I couldn't go back.  I'm doomed.

I ended up purchasing yarn for several projects - the blue is for my friend's infinity scarf (which accidentally turned out to be the exact yarn for the pattern), the grey for my cousin's baby blanket, black for a scarf for my dad and the hand-painted alpaca for me.