Cross-County Yarn Adventures

On Saturday, Kelly, Crystal and I set off for a cross-county yarn store adventure. We hit 6 yarn stores over the course of the day. I think 6 may have been a few too many, by the end of the day, I didn’t even care about looking at the yarn. Here’s a recap of the stores we visited.

Crystal Lake – Sunflower Samplings
We got there right as the store opened at 10am. The store sells a variety of items, including yarn – which was in the back of the store. While the selection was nice, I was not impressed by the customer service in this store. I doubt that I’ll return.

Woodstock – Quietly Wild Yarn Shoppe
This store is unfortunately closing at the end of next month. They’ve stopped restocking, so their yarn supply isn’t huge, but they did have some nice yarns.

Marengo – The Fold
This store was fabulous, and features the inspiration for the trip – Socks that Rock. The skein size of this yarn recently increased. But, after modeling my socks from the yarn, the owner brought out some bags of the smaller skein size and offered up a 25% discount on them. I was also excited to find the Spring 1997 and Fall 2001 issues of Interweave Knits for sale here (now I only need the Fall 2000 and Winter 2000/2001 issues). Her store also features lots of spinning materials, but I’ll let Kelly or Crystal comment on that. This store is definitely worth a return trip.

DeKalb – The Yarn Exchange
This store has the largest selection of Brown Sheep colors that I’ve seen in any store. There was an entire wall of Cotton Fleece, and the Lamb’s Pride was everywhere. The store also had a lot of cone yarn available. The employee (owner?) was friendly and helpful. If I’m ever out this way, I’d stop back in.

Geneva – Wool and Company
This was the busiest yarn store we visited all day. Maybe I'd heard too much about this store before I visited, but I wasn't that impressed. I'd go again if I was in the Geneva area, but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way.

St. Charles – Fine Line Creative Arts Center
The center had a nice, small shop. Be sure to check their class listing, they’ve got crochet, spinning, dyeing, knitting and much more!


So, what did I come home with after all of this shopping? I think I did ok, not spending too much. I came home with two of the smaller skeins of Socks that Rock, one in Amber Waves, one in Smoky Topaz - these will be for socks. I bought two of the larger skiens of Socks that Rock in Beryl (green), which I think will become a Flower Basket Shawl. Finally, I got some tools, an Addi Turbo 40inch US#0, Brittany cable needles, and an orange Chibi (plus the 2 magazines mentioned in comments about The Fold). Here's a shot of the haul (note, I've already wound up some of the green STR).