Five Reasons to go to your Local Yarn Dealer (LYD)
Hey Everyone!I'm Gimliana and I'm still pretty new to this place.
Before I started up crocheting as a hobby, with the intent to make a lot of Amigurumi (I really love anime), I worked for a bookstore and had several situations there that made me appreciate the fact that brick and mortar stores are still something that is culturally needed.
1) It brings Yarn to those who can't internet.
Whether it's for your grandma, or for a neighbour that isn't as good with computers as you are.
Why is this important for something like yarn?
Like books, yarn and everything related to it, far outages any new technological marvel that we have today. Our grandparents, and countless generations before them, learned by having techniques passed on to them, or by finding them out for themselves by looking at someone else's work. In some cases even by straight out inventing what they needed. This is becoming a lost art, with more and more recent generations not wanting to invest the time in something that they can buy with money instead, because this skill has been better mastered than ever with the people that want to learn having so many tools at their disposal. Never the less, grandparents are still the most common type to visit these kind of stores, and they should not be lost sight of.
2) It lets people like us benefit from the experiences of other people
Sure, YouTube does a great job at making sure we all have access to the techniques. But don't you hate that feeling when you know you're doing something wonky with your tension, making your stitches be super uneven, but you just can't put your hand on it?
Or when you keep up ending getting a knot in your magic circle because you began all wrong.
Well, more often than not, people that have been doing this for years can tell you exactly what you're doing 'wrong' in a blink of an eye. This is why it's so important to ask for advice sometimes. And photos just don't get across the same message.
3) Socializing and Workshops
Especially after recent times, it has never been more important than now to spend time with your fellow people. We've all been starved for human contact, a necessity to any and all of us, for over a year. We need to be able to talk about our hobbies, and family and friends can only feign interest for so long before starting to beg you to make something for you, not knowing how much work it is. It feels nice to complain about how your hands ache from someone who gets it.
4) Even though it's more expensive, there's less environmental waste involved.
If everyone ordered their yarn from Amazon, you'd have a lot more boxes and delivery vans in rotation than if you just went to get it from one central place. Now, you might say that gets offset by the use of your car, and that's true. But in exchange for that, there's now also people who can walk/bike there, ultimately leaning towards a smaller ecological footprint.
5) You can taste test the yarn.
Don't get me wrong, in these times you have a hundred and one blogs that will explain to you exactly how certain yarn feels and how it is to work with. I looked up DROPS Paris yarn before I started using it, seeing it's rave reviews and how soft people said it was, and found myself a bit disappointed. I enjoy Catania yarn a lot more, personally.
You can't account for taste in blogs. It's nice to be able to see the yellows and reds and blues with your own eyes, instead of through a screen as well.
I hope that this convinced you to look a bit more into your LYD. Thanks for your attention. I always buy local when I can but most of the yarn stores have closed because they can't compete with the internet. Michael's and Hobby Lobby have yarn but it's certainly not high end like you might get at a LYS. Don't get me wrong, the yarn sold in those stores serves its purpose but it's not something I would make a fine garment from. Yarn for baby blankets, children's clothes, I'll buy at the hobby stores but if I want something really nice I try to find a LYS, if not I do turn to the internet, not necessarily Amazon but independent online sellers. My preference however, is a LYS :-)I do like to play with the yarn :-) I try to buy all my yarn from LYS, or at least small businesses. The only yarn shop in my city shut down last year :( but there's a fabric shop with a pretty good yarn selection. The actual size is smaller than the closest big chain craft store, but there is much more variety and the quality is much better. The craft store is 99% cheap acrylic and 1% cotton, while the fabric shop has pretty much any fiber.
Funnily enough, the much smaller town my grandmother lives in has at least 3 or 4 yarn shops. I suppose they sustain themselves because much more of the population knits/ crochets, which goes to show just how important it is to support small businesses. I support them as much as I can, even though my yarn stash is pretty substantial these days.I was so afraid that my closest one would close down during the pandemic. I agree with you to support local stores…
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