One of my very favorite things to do, is go to a yarn shop. That’s why I started America’s Knitting. I wanted all the yarn shops to be in one place, where the database of shops could be updated in real time, be correct and complete. I wanted knitters to know who the yarn shops are, and where they are located. I can always remember traveling (before cell phones) and being in a hotel room, and turning to the back of the local phone book yellow pages, so I could look under ‘yarn’ for a local yarn shop. I always remember being so excited if I found one, and of course, we had to make time to track it down. It was challenging, in an unfamiliar town with possibly, just a map. I love GPS.
So, I finally got to visit Paradise Fibers in Spokane, Washington. I had heard of Paradise Fibers (who am I kidding, I hear of all the yarn shops), but hadn’t made it by yet. Actually, I have property in Spokane and this was the reason for our trip east. It was my husbands birthday that actually fell on the weekend, so we took a drive across the mountains, looked in on the property, visited Paradise Fibers and went out for a really nice dinner and stayed over in a hotel. All of it was delightful, and all was good with the property!
I’m not all that familiar with Spokane…my husband more so than me, but even he didn’t know where it was. So, I pulled out my phone and went onto America’s Knitting and looked it up. All shops are connected to Google Maps, so away we went and we were there in 15 minutes. When we “arrived at our destination”, we see this sizable brick building, that looked OLD! I didn’t really know what to expect; but my husband took the dog on a stroll around the neighborhood, and I went inside.
Old hardwood floors, and brick walls everywhere. It was an old building for sure, but it didn’t smell old, and a lovely young lady greeted me. I introduced myself and asked it I could snoop around and take some pictures. She said that would be fine. She was working, and helping some customers, and then she joined me, and gave me a tour. I told her how surprised I was by the size of the building and the range of inventory that they had. It was then, that she told me of their online presence. Then it all made more sense. They do occasionally have a knit night or a class, and they are thinking of expanding on those ideas. They also had a few specialty dyes from Ancient Arts, out of Canada, created just for them. That excited me because I had heard of Ancient Arts, but had never knit with it, so I did purchase a skein of sock yarn as a treat. I wanted both, but it was expensive yarn, and I’ll have an opportunity next time to pick up the other one.
I saw lots of yarn that I would have loved to purchase. It’s really too bad that my stash is so extensive. You really do feel like a kid in a candy store. Makes me wish I were one of those fast knitters! Thank you Hannah for showing me around and being so nice to me, and letting me take pictures. It was fun!!
** remember you can always click on any of these photos to see their larger form **
