Top 5 Online Yarn Stores

Like most of you knitters out there, I have a favorite local yarn store (or two, or three, or a dozen) that I buy my yarn from. But what do you do when you just can't find what you're looking for at any of the local shops? If you're anything like me, you turn to the great big wonder that is the internet.

There are some fantastic places to buy yarn online, and there are some advantages to buying this way. For one, you can look at several different stores for the yarn you're looking for without driving all around town. For another, you can find some really good prices online - like really good. How does 1.50 a skein sound?

The only real downside to buying yarn online, other than not supporting your LYS, is not being able to feel before you buy. For me, the feel of yarn is something that makes me want to buy it in the first place, which makes buying yarn sight unseen (or touch unseen) can be a bit of a gamble. But if you don't mind the risk, or already know what you want to buy, here are a few of my favorite places to shop for yarn online.

5. Yarn Market/Royal Yarns 

These sites offer pretty much the same things - good overall selection at decent prices. And if you sign-up for their e-mail lists, every once in a while you'll get a free shipping or a $5 off coupon.

4. ColourMart

For all you lace knitters, this is the place to go. ColourMart is a British company that specializes in selling remainder luxury yarns - remainder yarn being the yarn left on the cone after a piece is knit or woven. Anyways, this is the place to go if you want lace weight yarn in bulk for  a really good price - anywhere from $15 to $40 (including shipping) for about 1500 yards of cashmeir, silk, marino or some combination.

3. Ravelry.com

More just a place to find wonderful patterns and chat with your fellow yarn enthusiasts, Ravelry.com can also be a great place to buy yarn, especially discontinued yarn. Under the "Yarn" Tab at the top, either search for a specific brand or type of yarn you want or go browsing. Click on a specific yarn, and then either choose the "buying options" tab or the "stashes" tab to find out which other Ravelry members have your yarn and who is willing to sell or trade it.

2. Knit Picks
   

To be honest, Knit Picks is really only a great place to buy yarn if you like KnitPicks brand yarn, which I do. They have yarns of all fiber types and colors at really good princes - 440 yards of baby alpaca lace for under $6? Yes and please.

1. Webs 

For the life of me, I will never understand why this site is called WEBS instead of Yarn.com - but whatever. All I know is that these guys have nearly every yarn under the sun. And their closeout section is one of the best places around to find some amazing deals on yarn.

So - have you ever bought yarn online? If yes, where's your favorite place and if not, would you ever consider giving it a chance?

Casting off,

Megan

After the Knitting is Done

Hello All!

Sorry for the lack of an update on Friday, but with the holidays coming up and trying to finish a handful of scarves, I've been running around like a chicken with their head cut off.

Anywho - instead of talking about what I'm currently working on, today I'm going to discuss what  happens after I finish knitting a scarf. That is the modeling, photo-taking and Photoshopping aspect of selling scarves (or anything really) online.

As I said last week when I talked about the conundrum of guy's scarves, I have two very good friends - E and her sister A - who graciously allow me to stand them out in the cold, modeling my scarves for pictures, all for the outrageous price of a dim sum dinner and a few movies (and maybe a bottle of sake…). This time around E's husband J also allowed me to take pictures of him wearing my new line of scarves for men - manly scarves! And while we poked quite a bit of fun at J's first time modeling - he took it all in stride and did a fantastic job.

After the photo-shoot - where I take about 12-15 pictures of each scarf, in various poses and  multiples to make sure I get at least one with open eyes and in focus - I spend a few hours Photoshopping. This is mostly to get the pics to the right size for Etsy and make sure the hue and color balance look alright.

That done, I work on pricing my items and writing descriptions - which is much more difficult than it sounds. How do you convince someone to buy something they can't first see or touch? Mostly I try to describe why and how my scarves would be something they want to buy - why it would make their life better. Sounds corny, but its true - you really have to convince people they need what you're selling. Furthermore, you have to accurately describe how the color of the scarf and how it feels - which is also more difficult than it sounds, as everyone sees color differently and experiences textures in distinct ways.

After I finish all this - they go live on Etsy. Be sure to look for my new items this week! And use the coupon code BLKFRI15 to get 15% off all items in my shop now through next Monday!

Casting off,

Megan

Evolution of a Neckwarmer

At some point in the last year, my grandmother found herself in a yarn store. As she is a frequent crocheter, this was not an entirely unusual circumstance. While at this store, she found a wonderful (and simple) pattern for a knitted vest. With nary a second thought, she bought the pattern and the required yarn - some very nice Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande. The problem with this, however, was that my grandmother can't knit. Which is where I come in.

Despite the fact that I was in Grad school at the time and barely had time to go grocery shopping, she asked me if I would knit it for her. I told her I would, but it might be several months before I had the time to get to it. This was fine with her, and several months and one very long road trip later, I handed over the finished project. Now, while the project called for five skeins of yarn, it really only needed 4 and about 2 yards. Thus, I decided to take this left over yarn and see if I had enough to make a quick neckwarmer. I had no idea if I had enough yardage but I made the choice to press onward.

I picked a fairly simple cable and rib pattern and started my knitting (not-really) adventure. As you can see here, with a bad picture in bad lighting, I had a pretty small amount of yarn to work with. I was almost certain I would have to start over with smaller needles or a skinnier pattern.

About halfway through I was still fairly skeptical that I would have enough yarn to finish my original design. At this point, the piece was measuring about 9 inches and I generally try to make my neckwarmers about 18-20 inches long. I was pretty sure I was going to make it to about 16 inches - which really is too short - and find I was going to have to start the whole thing over.

 

However, as I got closer and closer to the end, I realized I just may be able to pull this off! When I finally hit 17 inches and still had a few good yards of yarn left, I may or may not have preformed a small celebratory dance on the couch. Sadly, there are no pictures to document this point of the project.

 

And then the finish! Measuring in at 19 inches with about half and inch of yarn left over, I had a successfully completed neckwarmer on my hands. (And the crowds go wild!) not bad for about two hours of work. All that was left to do was block it to bring out the pattern and add a button - but that will have to wait for another post.

Have you ever had a close call in your knitting and thought you might not have enough yarn? Were you successful - or resourceful?

Casting off,

Megan