When I moved to Atlanta five years ago, I was told by one knit shop owner (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) that there's not much knitting in the south because it's so hot--who would want to (a) knit and (b) wear something knitted? I quickly learned that's a lie. First off, knitters will knit and that's just the way it goes. We knit with cotton (or soy or bamboo) if we can't wear wool, or we wear wool anyway because it's so pretty and there is that one day in mid-January when it's cold, or we knit for some poor soul who hasn't gotten the message and moved to the south where it's warm. (That would be, uh, my whole family!)
So when I got here, there were about four shops in Atlanta (that I knew about): Cast On Cottage, Needle Nook, Strings and Strands, and Nease's Needleworks. Now there are about twenty. (I'm not taking credit for this upswing, but I don't think it's pure coincidence.)
All of which is a long way of saying: it doesn't surprise me that there are FOUR yarn shops within a short drive of my sister's house in Sedona. (And, with all due respect to Sedona and Arizona, there's NOTHING within a short drive of anything in northern Arizona. And "short drive" is relative--within 100 miles or two hours is a "short drive.") Knitting is everywhere, and the fact that Arizona is hot and dry (although somewhat less so in the northern part, thank goodness) hasn't kept down the knitting population. The last time I was there, about two years ago, I dragged Deirdre with me to Red Rock Knits, within a mile of her house. She had not converted to the cult and politely stood about while I eagerly pawed through the yarns and books and made little mewing sounds of comfort. She looked around when I suggested she might want to take knitting lessons there and said things like "ummm" and "uh huh" and "sure, I'll check on that," but I knew she just didn't get it.
Then, the epiphany. In January, my other sister Debbie taught Deirdre to knit. No, we didn't make her drink the Kool-Aid--she came with us to our favorite yarn shop in Virginia, Uniquities (no website, just google Uniquities in Vienna, VA) and, as we looked on in shock and awe, she began to fondle the yarn. Well, I shouldn't have been surprised. Uniquities is, well, unique, and only a troglodyte could go there and not want to knit. Anyway, Debbie taught her to knit that day and she's been on a Big Mexico hat binge ever since.
Bottom line, when I got to Sedona she was ready, nay eager, to go on a yarn crawl with me, ready to branch out from Big Mexico into bigger and better things--Socks! Unfortunately, I was out there with no money, none, nada, zilch, for reasons that are too complicated and pitiful to discuss. So I was determined to go to four shops and purchase NOTHING. No prob--yeah, right!
Okay, Red Rock Knits. I went there by myself while Deirdre was at work, so maybe it doesn't count, but I'll count it because, well, because I can. Four skeins of Lopi and a circular needle. I wrote this extravagance off to charity, because the Lopi would make two CIC vests.
On Thursday, we had to go to Prescott. After a brief detour to an antique shop in Cottonwood, where a gorgeous little pitcher of West Virginia glass jumped into my purse (yes, I paid for it!), we made it to Jerome. Of course, I had left my Knitter's ShopFinder back in my suitcase. Well, how difficult could it be to find the yarn shop in Jerome, for God's sake? The whole town is about half a mile square, I reasoned. After thirty minutes of driving the spiral staircase that is Jerome, Deirdre and I defeatedly struggled into a restaurant to ask for directions. (When in doubt, eat!) Jerome is an old mining town on a mountain and is completely vertical. The instructions to anything invariably include the words "up the hill" or "down the stairs." As we wolfed down our huge burgers and looked out over the incredible view, we learned that the yarn shop was "just down those stairs." Hmmm....our car was up, waaaayyyy up, that hill. And we had just been where she was pointing, repeatedly, did I say several times? Oh, well.
When we finally found the shop and (more finally) found a parking place, we went up the stairs the waitress had pointed at. Yes, the shop was up some stairs from the street, but down the stairs from the restaurant. I said it was vertical, yes? OMG! Knit 1 Bead 2--what an incredible place! We met the owner, Erica Raspberry, and she was delightful. But the yarn! It's all arranged by color, so when you look at a HUGE display of, say, ocean blue yarn, there's every conceivable texture and weight. Almost overwhelming. I knew Deirdre was truly and forever hooked when she dived toward a shelf and grabbed some Koigu. You just can't go wrong with Koigu. So she bought some Koigu and some DPNs and I bought (yes, I know I said I had no money) some blue Koigu. Only three skeins. I was really good.
Then on to Prescott for D's medical appointment. While I waited in the reception area, I knitted on my Lopi CIC vest and the lovely and helpful receptionist said, "well, while you're here in Prescott you'll be going to The Fiber Shop, won't you?" Would we? Well, yuh! She drew us a map which made me a little queasy after our Jerome experience, but Prescott is flat so we found it in two minutes. She said, "look for the two giant horses in the front yard," but for some reason we were still amazed to see two giant iron horse sculptures on the side of the road and, behind them, The Fiber Shop. Again, no website, but a wonderful selection of yarns, again arranged by color. We met the owner and her mother (I think), both lovely people and very knowledgeable. Deirdre found a gorgeous cabled scarf she wanted to make and bought the yarn--ruby red Angora--and a couple of circular needles, and I bought her (yes, I know!) a basic knitting book (The Knitter's Handbook, XRS) to explain things like Kitchenering and cabling since I was leaving in a few days. Then we jumped back into the car and I started drawing the cabled scarf since we didn't have the pattern. I had a pattern written by the time we got out of town.
We (finally!) got home and, after dinner, sat down to knit. It developed that Deirdre still needed some basic training so we worked on that while I cast on a sock out of my new Koigu. And tore it out, and cast it on, and tore it out, etc. You couldn't even call what I was doing tinking--it was just flat not going the way I thought it should. Deirdre was happily practicing her longtail cast-on and swatching. Oh, heaven, oh, bliss, to be sitting on a couch with my baby sister knitting!
Were we done? Not quite. On Saturday, we drove up Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. I had been through Flag before, always on my way to somewhere else, like the Grand Canyon, but I'd never walked through the town. And, joy of joys, there was a yarn shop to check out. Unravel (yes, this time there's a website! What is it with these yarn shops? This is a business--get a website, already!) Although we didn't meet him, there's a great article in Knitty about the owners, one of whom is (gasp!) a male. If you want to read it, here it is. So, by now I knew I had to make one of those cabled scarves. (Did I mention that we had found it in one of my sister's TWO knitting books, the one I sent her earlier this year, One Skein (Leigh Radford, Interweave Press).) It's the two-cabled scarf on page 32, and I knew I had to make one. So, two skeins of alpaca, forest green to remind me of the gorgeous trees in northern Arizona. And a Knitter's magazine for Deirdre, so she could get hooked on knitting mags like I am. And a pattern. She bought yarn for the world's cutest baby hat, out of some yarn called Farfalla. And more DPNs. (Can you tell she's hooked?)
Oh, my! And we never even got to Tucson or Mesa or Phoenix. Imagine the trouble we could have gotten into if we'd gone south. Next time. When my yarn gets back to Georgia (more later on that!), I'll post pictures. The Koigu (which did go home with me) has finally decided it's going to be Jaywalker socks. I've got about 3-1/2" knit and they're going to be wonderful, although I think I could have used 0s instead of 1s. But I am NOT taking it out again!
Hi,
I am glad you liked our shop! The Interlaken hat IS the cutest hat ever!
David @ Unravel.
Posted by: david | June 01, 2006 at 02:17 PM