Yarn Shops I visited in New York City…

As you may know from a previous blog post, I was very lucky to visit New York City with my family back in October. And being a self confessed yarn addict, of course no trip to New York for me would be complete without a visit to a local yarn store…

I did my research before we went and I found this blog post from fellow blogger Marie of ‘Underground Crafter’ absolutely invaluable!

Visitor’s Guide to New York City Yarn Shops

With Marie being a local New Yorker I was very happy to be guided by her recommendations.

So I made a list in advance and marked the locations on my map with a view to popping in if we were anywhere close by.

Well first up was Knitty City …

…and I loved it! It was in a lovely location to the West of Central Park and there was a group of knitters in the shop giving off a lot of creative energy. 🙂

Plus there was somewhere for my family to rest their weary legs whilst I had a browse.

Thanks to the blog post by Marie I was prepared for the high prices of yarns in the city so I was very restrained and came away with just 4 little mini skeins…

I also loved the large map they had up on a wall for visitors to add a pin and say where they were from…

It’s such a lovely idea and do you see I added ‘Coastal Crochet’?

My purchased yarns were put in a lovely bag too…

My family are used to little detours we make for me to be able to visit yarn related places. It does mean we go places and see things we may otherwise have missed. On this occasion we literally stumbled upon a Banksy…

We have some street art by Banksy in our own local city of Brighton and Hove. One of my sons did a school project about this a little while back so they were all pretty impressed that we had followed in Banksy’s footsteps… 🙂

The shop I really wanted to visit was the Lionbrand Studio … we came close many times but we were seeing and doing so many other things in New York that it kept getting put back and I decided to pop in on our last day.

In the meantime I did get to visit Purl Soho …

And after seeing the stunning autumn colours outside of New York City earlier in the week…

…I was drawn to some yarn in autumnal colours…

 

I loved that they had samples of yarn made up from exactly one skein which was so useful to think about how far one skein would go and how it knits or crochets up. However, there weren’t many crocheted examples and it definitely felt that knitting was the main focus. We had the Staten Island Ferry to catch in time for a sunset sail across the harbour so I left Purl Soho in a hurry and empty handed but glad I had visited!

As for the Lionbrand Studio, well it got to our last day, a Saturday, and off we went to visit….

…. but it was closed!!!! 🙁

I felt very silly for not having checked the opening times properly and assuming they would be open. I have since learned that the shop is owned by a Jewish family and the rest day in Judaism is a Saturday. I am happy to have learned a little more about the Jewish faith but am still disappointed that I never set foot inside what looked liked an amazing place…

So there you have it…a little tour of the yarn stores I visited (and nearly) visited in New York City… 🙂 🙂

Have any of you visited these places too?

Happy Crocheting Everyone… 🙂 🙂