Friday, July 24, 2015

Vancouver yarn crawl


One of the things I was excited to do while in Vancouver this summer was to visit some of the great yarn stores I'd been hearing about in the area. I've mentioned this before, but I don't have a lot of friends in Germany who knit, which makes it doubly special to be able to spend time knitting with my mom while I'm home. We've been visiting yarn stores together, taking time to select what we want to buy, and discovering so many new to us yarns! 

Today I thought I'd share about a few of the places we've been to so far. These are all yarn shops in the Vancouver and Fraser Valley area. We enjoyed all these places and made purchases at every location- they're all worth a visit if you're in the area.



 88 Stitches- Walnut Grove

This is the shop that started out our little yarn crawl. I'd somehow stumbled across their Instagram feed and was intrigued by their selection. The store is beautifully laid out, well lit, friendly and welcoming. And they really do have a great selection. They had a lot of gorgeous yarns from Cascade, Rowan, Sweet Fiber and Shepherd's Wool. They also had goods from Fringe Supply Co and a great selection of patterns from local designers. This shop is pretty much a sock knitter's paradise and I was happy to see the German yarns (like Opal and Regia) well represented.

What we walked away with: really, there was so much I wanted to buy but I started with a ball of Regia yarn in the new Arne & Carlos colorway (ironic I know, as I live in Germany...but we don't get that colorway, believe me, I've searched) and Hannah Fettig's book Home and Away. My mom bought a copy of Carrie Hoge's Anthology 2



Baad Anna's- East Vancouver

I had already visited this shop on numerous occasions as it's pretty close to my old neighbourhood in East Van. They have a really colourful selection (as you can see from the above photo) as well as a lot of locally dyed yarn- mostly Sweet Georgia and Rain City Knits. If you're into spinning this yarn shop had by far the most roving and tools for spinners of the places we've visited so far. They also had (in my opinion) the best selection of tools and notions. 

What I walked away with: I ended up with a skein of YOTH's Little Brother in the Honeydew Melon colorway, and a beautiful KNIT mug from Just Potters. Mom got some DPN's from Chiaogoo. 



Three Bags Full- Main Street

We spent ages in this little shop, pouring over the yarns and books they had there. I was really impressed with their extensive selection of pattern books and magazines, as you can see (sort of) in the photo above. They also had some locally dyed yarns as well as the Cascade yarns in what must be every colorway. The staff were really helpful but also left us alone to brouse for as long as we needed. 

what I walked away with: a cone of 100% cotton yarn from Habu Textiles which I don't have any plans for besides displaying in my studio corner for inspiration. My mom bought a sweater quantity's worth of Cascade 220 sport weight for the Lucinda pullover and two balls of Noro wool to make tea cozies.
note: before flying back to Germany, I returned to this shop and picked up some Cascade yarn for my Tamborine Cardigan.




special mention: Granville Island

I wanted to also include a footnote about the yarn and fiber related shops and studios on Granville Island. Though these aren't yarn stores per se, they are totally worth a visit and include some real gems. There's Maiwa Textile Imporium which has everything- yarn, roving, fabric, dye materials. Then there are also several weaving studios, both carrying yarn. If you visit at the right time of day, you can usually observe the artists as they sit at their looms. Granville Island is one of my favourite Vancouver treasures and if you're there make sure to search out the fiber spots! 

what I walked away with: I picked up a Bookhou project bag which I plan to use for carrying around my socks in progress and the spring edition of Pom Pom Quarterly.

there will be a part two to this post, as we did make it to Seattle and there was yarn involved. I'll share more about that next week. 

1 comment:

  1. What a lovely yarn crawl. Your pictures makes me want to go there immediately. Looks like you have excellent taste as your purchases are perfection!

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