Purple Passions

I'm Back. In Grand Blanc (it is interesting I say it as if it were French everyone else says it as if they were country, I guess that's me trying to make it sound all siddity.). I started my lovely job yesterday and I am truly enjoying myself. I am excited about the possibilities and the work that I will be doing :). But on to other exciting things. While in San Francisco I got the opportunity to visit a couple of stores. This was really exciting because if you know me, you know I have a basis attitude toward Stitch DC. I would like to start by saying that I believe a knitter needs to have a great relationship with their LYS in order for them to continue to go back to that store. So I guess that is why I feel so strongly about my knitting store. Well on to my reviews. I visited three places, having there own unique personalities and I came back with something from each. The three places were Imagineknits, Alterfibers, and Noe Knits. The First place Imagineknits which is located in the Castro district. I thought that this was a great place to start my adventure. I had gotten a chance to go there before but didn't have the time to fully enjoy it. So this time I made sure to go early and leave myself plenty of time. The place is nice. There is yarn literally to the ceiling. Everything was done by weight and fiber. There were two different rooms separating the natural and synthetic. My mind literally went crazy trying to think of different projects that I needed yarn for. I picked up some mohair and koigu. My overall grade for this store was a B. I thought that it was a great store but it seemed not as friendly as I would have liked. I was really asked if I was looking for anything specific but I had to make the first move and like the dating scene I might make the first move but I prefer not to. The next store that I visited was Alterfibers which is located in Downtown SF. I love being in downtown because I love shopping so when you put great shopping and a knit store in the same place I am in 7th heaven. One previous occasions that I went downtown I had gone by the place but never thought to go in. It is on the second floor of this building that they share with a couple of other businesses. Let me tell you I fell in love with these yarns. They are hand dyed yarns with great colors. They have many different yarns everything from mohair to chenille. I thought it was a great store. It was just my self there so I was able to get a lot of my questions answered. The lady there was nice was more then willing to help. And although I didn't do a swatch with the yarn she was more then willing to let me swatch it up before I left. I ended up with a yarn to do a stole out of Scarf Style. It is a great place. they have swatches for each kind of fiber and even have the remnants for sale by the ounce. I gave them an A. The last place I went was Noe knits which is your classic LYS. It has a great layout and plenty of places to sit down and knit. It was cute. I didn't think that they had as large of a selection as the others. I got this funky Crystal Palace yarn from there. I gave it a B, there wasn't anything really stand outish about it but I thought it was a cool place. (oh and the scone place down the street is really good go there after you pick up something to knit.) So those are my reviews. Again that is my personal opinion, take them for what they are.