SLCitizen

So I'm pretty stoked, I'm not gonna lie. I went on Monday to sell my animals and hats to SLCitizen and Matt (the guy running the show) loved the animals. He wants to sell them for $18 a pop and he thinks they're going to do great. He also told me he was going to try and get them put into a magazine article on the co-op that was being written when I walked in! Woo!

Anyway, I think that SLCitizen is a great thing, and its not just because I have stuff in their store. They do the leg work for artists and in a town the size of Salt Lake, that's a tough job. Its a rough business going around with a bag full of stuffed chickens and cows asking people to sell them, and then to get a fair price and to be treated well through the whole process is pretty impossible. Matt and the folks at SLCitizen make it easy for artists to do what they love and get the recognition that makes continuing to create worth the effort.

Also, in exciting news, I have the internet once again, so I will be updating a good deal more and hopefully my wretched spelling mistakes will go away. That last post was almost unreadable and I blame the library in the Avenues for it.

Anyway, Happy Turkey Day! Hope you stuff your faces!

I went explorin'

So I went out into my Salt Lake City fiber world and explored a couple more yarn shops.

The first one I went to was Pipers in Sugarhouse. Don't let the sign out front fool you. Piper's is a quilting, sewing, and yarn shop so when you poke your nose inside you'll see racks of fabric with basics of beautiful yarn. As you would expect with a yarn shop that caters to other fiber arts, their selection isn't stellar but the prices are fair and they have a good number of yarns that are great to work with. What made me happy though, was the girls who work at Pipers crochet. They know their stuff. I saw some Clover cushioned hooks and asked how they liked them and the woman running the show pointed me toward some better hooks she herself had tried. Nothing makes the heart of a crocheter warm more that knowing they're well taken care of. Plus the shop if very unique, very cute, and in a very artsy neighborhood in Sugarhouse.

Next I went to a shop who's name you can't help but love. Blazing Needles, on 1100 E. in Salt Lake City. This shop is on the expensive side, with most of their yarn above the $12 mark. But they make up for the cost with the environment they stitch in. You walk into the remodeled house to find shelves of yarn. They sell Cascade, Manos, Noro, Sleeping Dragon and a gazillion others. They have Caffe Ibis coffee brewing in the corner, big windows that open up to the back yard and a huge table for working around. Perhaps best of all though, is the fireplace right next to the work table. It crackles along as you stitch lending a warm light and just the right feeling to the room.

I would put a pup tent in this shop and live there forever. There are some drawbacks. While it is crochet friendly (they won't tease us) they don't do much in the way of teaching and they sell 0 crochet hooks. It is very expensive so you'll have to save your paychecks for this place. But they have a couple days a week dedicated to open knitting a bunch of ladies come in to talk about their stitches which is great and I really respect. They're website it amazing too, check it out.

Anywho, no yarn buying for me for awhile yet. My mom just sent me 12 balls of yarn so I'm set for now. Can't blame a girl for lookin' though right?

Keep on stitchin'!

Two Buck Chuck

www.endlesssimmer.com

So when I think of Vanna White, I don't instantly think "yarn that is soft and light and oh so nice!" I think of a bad game show with a bad host and a woman in gowns turning glowing letters.

Well, since I sold 12 chickens and 8 hats to SL Citizen, I needed a ton of yarn fast and I knew where to go. Vanna's Choice Yarn. Its soft, its durable, its actually quite nice to work with and best of all? Its super cheap!! 2 bucks a skein. You know, Trader Joes has a wine selection that's cheap called two buck chuck, well that's Lion Brand to me baby!

I think we all need to take a big deep breath and get over our issues with cheap yarn. The whole world can't afford $25, 50 gram, skeins of silk yarn people. And I think yarn shops should reflect the growing change in Lion Brand and other discount yarn producers. They make high quality, beautiful yarns that even the poorest crocheter can use. Hike up your knitted britches kniting world, and get over yourselves when it comes to the cheap stuff (my mom did, and you should see the gorgeous stuff she puts out with... gasp... Sugar and Cream!).

Exciting news!

SL Citizen just sent me an email. I'm going to meet them on Monday to set up... selling hats! Yippee!

A Love Story in Berocco.

So I went to the Black Sheep Wool Co. for my birthday and Pete was oh so kind enough to buy me yarn. It took me a really really long time to choose but when I finally did I discovered Berroco Lustra.

This yarn is ridiculously soft and has a beautiful shine to it that is

amazing. While crocheting this yarn (named montmartre) I just want to dive into and swim around in it. Like a big ol' sea of yarn! Lovely.

Using this yarn, I think I'm going to cable a hat. I'm going to try and write a pattern for it. More pictures to be posted.

Also, here's some good news. I have a job! Yes! So now I am free to invest more freely in my yarn addiction. There's some really cool yarn stores in SLC so be ready for some updates on that.

photos from berocco

Yesterday

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday. Oh what a birthday it was. But I did get to go to a Yarn Shop in SLC. I think I shall make it my home yarn shop now that I am a citizen of Salt Lake (I even got a Library card yesterday!).

Its called the Black Sheep Wool Co. Now I will warn you crocheting fools that its not a crochet yarn shop. Its for knitters. They don't have any crochet classes and the ladies in there flat out told me that they can't much help me but... they have a huge supply of gorgeous yarn. They have Berocco, Manos del Uruguay, Cascade, Lambs Pride, Noro and about a thousand other brands. And all the skeins come in around the $9.00 mark so while that's not a Lion Brand Price, its nothing to shake a hook at either.

This being said, I shall rant. Why are there no Crochet yarn shops? Why does every shop I go into have a bazillion knitting books and 2 crochet magazines from 1980? They'll have a wall, a freakin' wall dedicated to knitting needles and 4 crochet hooks with no rhyme or reason made of *shudder* plastic. I would like to open up a shop that caters to both, instead of splitting the mark in half. Not all crocheters shop at Michael's in bulk. Many of us like pretty soft yarn, and nice environment to stitch and bitch in!

Sigh. I still really like Black Sheep though. Its a great space, in my neighborhood, with nice women to help me find my yarn of choice.

Best of luck on your hooks!