My take on yarn stores around Boston and knitting in my age box
Now that I have graduated and I'm relaxing while recovering from the horrors of the first 21 years of my life, including but not limited to 17 years of schooling (not including preschool), I have taken up knitting for its meditative powers and ability to fill up whole days with nothingness. The best part is at the end of the day you can measure your "productivity" by how much more you've knitted.
Anyways, I've been checking out the area yarn stores since I didn't really know yarn stores existed until that one fateful day I was coming out of my favorite store on Newbury Street (Stil) and came across Newbury Yarns. I was pleasantly surprised since I do a lot of shopping on Newbury Street and didn't realize there were still stores there I hadn't found. I went in and found a cozy little store in the back of the building with a beautiful round table. The walls were lined with so many beautiful yarns. I found a beautiful striped scarf made of camel hair and the store's owner, Aldrich, retaught me how to knit (my Popo had taught me when I was little and I had since forgotten) when I mentioned how beautiful the scarf was but I don't really know how to knit. So, complimentary service I guess, although my friend pointed out that once she had taught me to knit then I could come back and buy lots of yarn. Anyways, Aldrich was a very good, patient teacher. After finishing my scarf, I went back and got mission falls cotton yarn at Newbury Yarns and made the yoga mat bag from the KnitWit book. Aldrich was very helpful in choosing some beautiful colors for the stripes. Oh, and Newbury Yarns has cute little club cards by the door - just like Avalon.
OK, so I confess I can be a huge snob. Like there are so many things I wouldn't knit because they look like "old people". Sorry Popo, but it's true! And, once I've knit something ugly, then what do I do with it? So I figure if I wouldn't buy it, like seriously buy it not only if it were on sale, then I shouldn't make it.
Well, since I discovered this whole genre of shopping in yarn stores as opposed to like Michael's or something, I thought I'd poke around online and see if there are other yarn stores in the Boston area. And anyways, I don't have anything better (that I want) to do. I found that there was a store in Brookline Village, very close to my house, and a couple in Cambridge and one in Needham. Well, I don't know what I have against Cambridge, but I always seem to get lost whenever I go there. So I decided to check out the one in Brookline Village and the one in Needham.
A Good Yarn, in Brookline Village is another cute little yarn store right off the T on the D line. It's also right outside of where we go to yoga class which is convenient. I've also seen people bring their cute dogs into the store, always good. I've only talked to the younger chica that works there and she uses that fake nice voice that people use when they talk to kids. But besides that, she's always been helpful with any direct questions I have (where is this yarn where is that yarn). Definitely she is not as experienced (duh she's not as old) or helpful as Aldrich at Newbury Yarns. It seems like the people who shop at both Newbury Yarns and A Good Yarn are both "old people" and people in my age group.
The yarn store in Needham, whose name I can't remember, is definitely not for my age box. It was so hard to look at any of the patterns because they were so disorganized. The woman there was really nice, but I guess once you get further out of the city the more older people get. God forbid the day when I get old and move out of a real city and into endless surburban sprawl.
What would be really cool would be if someone would open a store on Newbury Street that has a martini+juice bar mixed with cute cafe setting that also sold yarn and already-made, expensive handknit things for chic shoppers that aren't about to spend a week making a super cute yoga mat bag. I really hate how articles and stuff call trendy stuff "fashion forward" because if you're using the phrase "fashion forward," then it definitely was - in like the 80's. I also really hate how many of the "chic" knitted things out there use "funky" furry yarns (I think they call them novelty) but they're still ugly and tacky. Like maybe you might see a furry scarf at the Brass Plum (preteen section of Nordstroms). Maybe.
Anyways, I've been checking out the area yarn stores since I didn't really know yarn stores existed until that one fateful day I was coming out of my favorite store on Newbury Street (Stil) and came across Newbury Yarns. I was pleasantly surprised since I do a lot of shopping on Newbury Street and didn't realize there were still stores there I hadn't found. I went in and found a cozy little store in the back of the building with a beautiful round table. The walls were lined with so many beautiful yarns. I found a beautiful striped scarf made of camel hair and the store's owner, Aldrich, retaught me how to knit (my Popo had taught me when I was little and I had since forgotten) when I mentioned how beautiful the scarf was but I don't really know how to knit. So, complimentary service I guess, although my friend pointed out that once she had taught me to knit then I could come back and buy lots of yarn. Anyways, Aldrich was a very good, patient teacher. After finishing my scarf, I went back and got mission falls cotton yarn at Newbury Yarns and made the yoga mat bag from the KnitWit book. Aldrich was very helpful in choosing some beautiful colors for the stripes. Oh, and Newbury Yarns has cute little club cards by the door - just like Avalon.
OK, so I confess I can be a huge snob. Like there are so many things I wouldn't knit because they look like "old people". Sorry Popo, but it's true! And, once I've knit something ugly, then what do I do with it? So I figure if I wouldn't buy it, like seriously buy it not only if it were on sale, then I shouldn't make it.
Well, since I discovered this whole genre of shopping in yarn stores as opposed to like Michael's or something, I thought I'd poke around online and see if there are other yarn stores in the Boston area. And anyways, I don't have anything better (that I want) to do. I found that there was a store in Brookline Village, very close to my house, and a couple in Cambridge and one in Needham. Well, I don't know what I have against Cambridge, but I always seem to get lost whenever I go there. So I decided to check out the one in Brookline Village and the one in Needham.
A Good Yarn, in Brookline Village is another cute little yarn store right off the T on the D line. It's also right outside of where we go to yoga class which is convenient. I've also seen people bring their cute dogs into the store, always good. I've only talked to the younger chica that works there and she uses that fake nice voice that people use when they talk to kids. But besides that, she's always been helpful with any direct questions I have (where is this yarn where is that yarn). Definitely she is not as experienced (duh she's not as old) or helpful as Aldrich at Newbury Yarns. It seems like the people who shop at both Newbury Yarns and A Good Yarn are both "old people" and people in my age group.
The yarn store in Needham, whose name I can't remember, is definitely not for my age box. It was so hard to look at any of the patterns because they were so disorganized. The woman there was really nice, but I guess once you get further out of the city the more older people get. God forbid the day when I get old and move out of a real city and into endless surburban sprawl.
What would be really cool would be if someone would open a store on Newbury Street that has a martini+juice bar mixed with cute cafe setting that also sold yarn and already-made, expensive handknit things for chic shoppers that aren't about to spend a week making a super cute yoga mat bag. I really hate how articles and stuff call trendy stuff "fashion forward" because if you're using the phrase "fashion forward," then it definitely was - in like the 80's. I also really hate how many of the "chic" knitted things out there use "funky" furry yarns (I think they call them novelty) but they're still ugly and tacky. Like maybe you might see a furry scarf at the Brass Plum (preteen section of Nordstroms). Maybe.
posted by Jess at 3:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home