A good surprise

So, I got the backing put together and ironed for the "Birds and Chairs" quilt, and I took it down to the local quilt shop to drop it off to have it quilted.

When I walked in the door, I had a moment of "What is this I don't even" but it was the best possible kind of "What is this I don't even."

The shop now has YARN in addition to the fabric. Mostly Berroco yarn, but some Misti Alpaca and a few "specialty" dyers like Pagewood Farm. The front eighth or so of the shop (it's a fairly deep shop) is now given over to yarn.

I just stood there disbelieving for a few minutes. The woman came out to take my quilt and I was like "You...have....yarn...now...." And she kind of laughed, and said people had been asking for it for a while. (I think I once made a somewhat-rash comment to her that "if you start carrying yarn, I will never have to leave town again.")

Those of you who live in more urbanized areas, or who live in parts of the country where the driving-distance between shopping areas is small may not fully appreciate my sense of wonder. The last time I actually lived in the same town (as opposed to just visiting) as a "real" yarn shop was Ann Arbor. Which was more than 20 years ago. And I wasn't really a knitter at that time. (I crocheted, and did buy some of my yarn from the little shop there...but I wasn't as yarn-obsessed as I am now). Before this, if I wanted yarn, my options were to mail-order it and wait (though I will say places like Simply Sock Yarn seem to ship super-fast), drive the hour's round trip to see what Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's has, or make do with either 100% acrylic or that dishcloth cotton from the Walmart. Or wait for one of my infrequent trips to Longview.

Obviously, the person who did the buying for the shop planned carefully: Berroco is a nice yarn but it's not totally "It costs WHAT?!?!" nice, so hopefully people will be willing to pay a little bit more for it. (I don't know. I've seen people look at the price on a ball of wool that I thought was fairly reasonable, and snort over how much it cost, and say they were going back to Red Heart.)

So I bought a little bit - a skein of turquoise and black Pagewood farms that I will either use for fingerless mitts for me, or perhaps I'll break out one of my cool sock patterns and make socks for my mom for her birthday (she wears turquoise and black a lot). And a skein of one of the washable Berroco blends (Vintage, maybe?) for a blanket square for a "get well soon" blanket for one of my Ravelry friends.

And I bought some fabric - I needed two yards of a grey to go with some pink and grey fabrics I'm planning a quilt from, and a half-yard of a piece that was just pretty (purples and greens and brown in sort of a stained-glass pattern) that I'll figure some use for later on.

The woman who checked my purchases out for me told me they're starting a Tuesday night knit night in February - the first week of the month will be beginner classes (Excellent, I can direct the women from church there if they want a more regular class that you pay for and that has a more professional teacher) and then the other weeks will just be sit and knit. It starts right as my piano lesson lets out, so some weeks I could just bring my knitting bag to piano with me, and then go down the street and sit and knit.

I really hope their yarn sells well and that the shop in general continues to do well (They seem to be; there are usually other people in there shopping when I'm in there. And I think for a lot of women who knit or quilt - I know I am this way - we will economize in other areas of our lives in order to be able to continue to buy high-quality supplies).

But yeah, this goes beyond a "yay," beyond an "Awwww, yeah!" and even beyond a "that's 20% cooler...."