Last weekend my husband and I took off through the Ohio countryside for a bucolic day of driving and yarn shop hopping around the Dayton area. I was on a mission to find some specific things for project ideas I am working on.
En route we stopped to enjoy a typically pastoral scene.
Although Dayton is one of Ohio's smaller cities, the surrounding communities do offer a few shops, and our first stop was at Arlene Graham's Fiberworks, specializing in spinning fiber and supplies. I chose a small amount of a lustrous silk/ alpaca blend to experiment spinning with.
After meeting up with my cousin for lunch at a favorite BBQ place (City Barbecue), we headed south to the town of Springboro for a visit to the Wooly Bully Yarn Company.
The shop's proprietor greeted us with a friendly smile and an open door.
Although tiny compared to the shops in my area, it still held a nice assortment of yarn, and I found a bargain - fingering weight wool from Jojoland in a mouth-watering red the color of ripe cherries - 3 balls for less than $10. I have a terrible time trying to photograph reds, but this yarn is a much deeper, blue-er color than this photo shows. More on the wine side of red.
Our final destination before heading for home was the Yarn & Needle shop in quaint Centerville, an old village full of beautifully restored homes and shops. I'd love to go back sometime to see more of the town.
Yarn & Needle was the smallest store we visited, but had a beautiful selection of yarn, arranged by color, lots of knitted samples and vintage knitting memorabilia on display.
I found some exceptionally soft fingering-weight beige Suri alpaca, by Frog Tree (shown in the first photo of this post), to swatch for a pattern I'm working on. I considered a silk/ mohair yarn (one of my most favorite fiber blends!) but wanted to try something new, and I was drawn to the physical and visual texture of this yarn.
All in all, a fun day in which I heroically stuck with my project-related shopping list and still managed to find some lovely things to work with my ideas.
And knitting update: I'm nearly finished with my Misti alpaca shawlette (on temporary hold), also nearly finished with my lace project in the pink fingering weight cotton (which I'll show more of soon), and have made some progress on my textured cardi-shrug pattern.
I'm also working on a new little handspun project which I will write more about in another post. I really love to knit lace, but I'm balancing that out with other styles too.
This coming weekend I'll be teaching a Brandywine Falls wrap class at A Tangled Tale in Powell, so please join us if you are local!
What a nich trip you had, Robin! I like the rustic, cozy view of the alpaca yarns in the picture. Waiting to see your FOs!
ReplyDeleteThanks Anna - It was good to get away for the day, my husband has a hard job so it's nice for him to relax. And it's always fun to hunt yarn in a new place, like during your trip to Lithuania! My FO's... LOL... working on that.
ReplyDeleteYour trip sounds like so much fun! We're planning a trip to Nashville again this fall, and I'm already scouting out yarn shops on the way.
ReplyDeleteWish I had known about your workshop at Tangled Tale sooner...already made plans with friends for Sunday. :-(
Hey Laurie, maybe we'll catch you up at TT another time! Nashville sounds fun, I love to search out new yarn sources everywhere I go too. Sure beats a T-shirt!
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