What a Life!

I’m knitting a Baby Bobbi Bear for Joey for Christmas. I cast on this morning [I decided it was about time, you know] and after two or three rows using the Magic Loop [yes, technical knitting term], I realized that (a) for the first time ever, when knitting in the round, I had managed to twist the stitches when I joined [Ugh!] and (b) I really, really prefer knitting with dpns, thank you very much.

Small problem, however. I do not own a pair of size US 9 dpns. Which leads to the title of this post…I could go to my local yarn store (LYS) and buy some. Yeah, I could.

Except that I really don’t want to.

You see, there are local yarn stores and online stores, and in the knitting world, even though most of the online stores are just other people’s local yarn stores, there’s this thing about supporting your local yarn store. [Same deal in the photography world, I hear, and I’m sure in other worlds as well.]

While I have bought lots of yarn online – mostly because my LYS did not carry it (either not at all or not in the color or quantity that I wanted) or because I could get it for a better price – I have not bought needles online. My LYS has the sizes I need (generally) and there aren’t really any good deals online that I’ve found are worth paying shipping and waiting for them to arrive. And quite honestly, if my LYS has something I want at a similar price, I wait until I can visit my LYS rather than ordering it online. You know, the support your LYS thing.

There is one LYS in Lincoln and two in Omaha. I love one of the stores in Omaha, the other two annoy me. One of them has their yarn arranged in color order rather than by brand/line so if you want to knit a sweater in Mission Falls 1824 wool, you have to hunt all over the store to see what colors are available in order to decide which one you want. Does. not. work. for. me.

The other store had an elderly owner that seemed to drive everyone else (at least in my knitting guild) crazy, but she didn’t bother me so much. Granted, her style of doing business was a bit archaic. She never had enough yarn in any color to knit an entire sweater – basically, it was a multi-color sweater or you had to stick with scarves and hats. Then she’d grumble if you used a credit card. [Yes, I’m a merchant too. I know that customers using credit cards costs you money. I also know that people spend more if they can use their credit card. So you decide – do you want a $20 cash purchase or a $100 credit purchase less a 4% fee? Think it over.]

Now there is a new owner who previously owned a LYS somewhere else. While she has improved the inventory and continues to add new lines, I must say, I do not enjoy visiting her shop. She doesn’t know who I am (the previous owner and her employees did), and she doesn’t seem to want to get to know me either. I really don’t care if she remembers my name – even the employees that know me always have to ask my last name when they go to ring up my order. I just wish she would get to know and remember my level of experience.

She’s very helpful. I’ll mention what problem I came to her store to solve. She’ll give me a bunch of solutions, which is good. Except the way in which she does it. She says things as though they are news to me. They are not news to me. I am not a new knitter who doesn’t know a dpn from a circular needle, thank you very much.

When I go to my LYS – any LYS – I do two things. First I browse just to see what they have so I can take note in case they carry something I may want in the future or in case something might catch my eye that might spark a future design. Then I look for what I came to get. If I want The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmerman, Knitting Around may be a nice book, but it is not The Opinionated Knitter. If I had endless funds to support my knitting habit, I might buy Knitting Around and happily knit something from there. But I don’t, so I don’t.

All of those things, I could forgive. But last weekend when I was in that store, I wanted a book that she didn’t have. It was on backorder. Somehow I mentioned that it was also on backorder in a couple of the stores where I had looked online. And I got the little lecture about how you should support your LYS and not buy online because people buying online instead of their LYS makes it hard for the LYS’s to survive. [Double Ugh!]

This is all I have to say:

• I would not be a knitter if it was not for the internet. I would sew just like my mother and her mother because that would be all I would know.
• Knitting is hugely popular today – way more so than even 5 years ago – because people can go online, see what other people are doing, and discover a new hobby, just as I did.
• Knitting being far more popular now than it was a few years ago means more business for all the yarn stores, including my LYSs.
• While I may not be one of her top ten customers, if it was not for the internet, I would not buy any yarn…or needles…or books…from her at all. Nor would any of my friends who I’ve helped teach how to knit and referred to her store.
• So yes, I shop online, and no, I have absolutely not guilt about it nor do I have any qualms about admitting that I do it.
• And really, shopping from an online store is just buying from someone else’s LYS. Not every LYS is going to carry every yarn every knitter wants. The online world makes it even more possible for LYSs to specialize in certain yarns rather than trying to carry a little of everything. A yarn store in Huntsville, AL may not be able to thrive just selling sock yarn locally, but if they sell online too and carry most (if not all) of colors in certain lines of sock yarn, they can do very well. Just saying is all.

So this thing with yarn store owners getting their feathers ruffled when someone mentions an online store…I’ll just say, they need to get over it. And next time, I’m going to say so, too.

I think my desire to knit with dpns rather than the Magic Loop may override my disdain for my LYS at the moment. I certainly don’t want to drive to Omaha just for needles, though I may end up doing that. This LYS doesn’t always have the best selection of dpns in the larger size range, which is what I need, and I know one of the stores in Omaha stocks exactly what I want.

We shall see.

I need to get working on this little bear soon or I’m not going to get it done. Whether I like my LYS or not.

Just saying is all…