No Place Like a New-Found Home.
I have been on a long quest for the following:
1. A reason to leave the Batcave other then DogFood and Tinfoil for my stylish hats.
B. Non-pretentious "Yarnies" that don't give me crap for crocheting with RedHeart.
iii. A physical location to shop where I can find anything fiber related and the help I need to pursue all my possible Fiber Arts goals.
I am an online shopper. The lack of competitive pricing, weirdos & jerks, constant road construction in my area, and just the overall experience of shopping or attending events regarding specific interests (not just fiber related) tend to make me stay at home. When I find something that doesn't trigger the anxiety of aforementioned annoyances, I tend to get very excited about it. Enough to give praise, right now.
Near Yorktown is a cozy, friendly store you will literally drive by and never know about. I know this because my GPS wanted to take me to Egypt before it would tell me the secret location of "Hamptons Roads Largest Yarn Shoppe". The Coordinated Colors Yarn Shoppe, off of George Washington Hwy, is not as bad a drive as I thought it was going to be. Pull into the quaint shopping center and you will see a brick and mortar Bag Of Holding. The place has a small storefront, yet opens up to an enormous inventory, that seams to expand into every crook, cranie, and ceiling space. If Doctor Evil took up knitting, this is what the Evil Volcanic Lair would be. But 3x awesomer.
Lately, when I go to a nearby LYS, I stick to my guns and minimum checking account balance. I walk straight to the back, or the left corner of the LYS, heading straight for the Sale Bin and pattern's that should have hit the Clearance bin in 2003 (Why? Because there aren't many patterns, magazines, or yarn worth the common +$7.99 price). Not this store. Sale Items, Clearance items, popular and not so popular books are right near the front. A clever person knows that in order to draw a new knitter or crocheter in, you should put the stuff they can afford at an easily accessible area, rather than make the do the "Walk of Shame and Inexperience" toward the counter or the belly of the Expensive LYS Beast. Affordable, alluring, and current Must-Have products are intermingled throughout the store. I walked by a new Eco-cotton twice before I realized it was in my favorite shade of red. Of course, when I walked by it, I was diving straight to a whole shelf of Fingering and Thread Cottons. Yep, a store where you can secretly pursue your Doily and traditional Lace making desires, while also purchasing sock yarn. Brown Sheep, on Cones! In a Local Store, without having to drive to Richmond. Just be careful. In a store where every yarn you can dream if is sitting on a shelf, it is very easy to lose yourself (or your flip-flop shoes)...I have yet to immerse myself into the art of handspinning, but beautiful, gradual-dye rovings are bundled in 4 ounces packages, dye your own yarn awaits your kettle, and your dream Yarn as well as the economical, yet beautiful substitution sit right next to each other, if not on the shelf above.
The LYS owner is friendly, chatty, lacks the snobbieness that drove me into the yarn closet, and doesn't make you pay to sit and knit. Help is freely provided, and I actually managed to get some help with knitting (remember, I just started learning to knit), without having to pay for assistance. It is completely okay to drop in and sit and chat, even if you sit and knit with supplies that didn't exactly come from the shop. This is one of the few places where I feel as though group crafting is meant as a sharing experience for women that keeps them from turning into Sylvia Plaths or worse, Beehive Hairdo trainwrecks. It is much more rewarding to learn seemingly obscure knitting abbreviations and hyper-active Irish Setters than it is to be in the prescence of a Queen Knitter or Hyper-Knit-Turned-Crochet-Poncho junkie trying to charge me $75 to learn to make a shawl I could make in my sleep.
I sat, wandered, and talked for quite a few hours. Somewhere in there, I might have crocheted for twenty minutes, but I think the positive therapy was just going, and learning. This is one of the few places I am actually going to considered taking a class when offered. Classes, get togethers are only restricted by parking space (plenty), and making sure you have the right tools (like many people, the owner does have strong opinions in the Susan Bates/Boyle/Clover debate, rofl).
The staff are quirky, but not frightening. I certainly did not pick up the air of flaky not-all-there that seems to permeate local opinion, which is annoying. I've run into older yarnies in the area that I honestly think you could swap out their knitting needles for a lobotomy and methamphetamines and they wouldn't know the difference. It is a family run and family owned business, and during the summer, it is family run. I do not have a problem with that, and love it to death. The one thing that does get me is that this place needs people, not just customer's. In this day and age, smaller businesses are either disappearing, or getting absorbed into mainstream commonplace, losing the small business touch. I like A. C. Moore and all, but I also like being able to ask an employee a question about the product and getting a knowledgeable answer. I would rather get a decent answer and recommendations about my yarn concerns and also learn about the regular day-to-day, or if the owner's son and daughter are getting along, than get treated like I'm just another Sales Receipt and have to stand in a yarn aisle for ten minutes because the only person that can remotely answer my question is on break or helping someone in the Paint Aisle.
Many new knitters and crocheters are intimidated by two things when trying to expand their horizons beyond the "Crafts" section of Wallyworld: Price, and Skill Level. I don't feel that way here. Yes, the owner is very knowledgeable about fiber related crafts, but I did not get answers shrouded in mystery that only experience or signing up for an expensive sweater class would reveal. If I wanted obfuscated elitism, I would drive a Ferrari F430 and buy a fruity computer. The staff and people that joined for the small knitting group were amazing and very kind. I like the fact I can sit down and crochet, or mash in numbers to a calculator figuring out how much I'm about to blow on my next project. Even if I didn't show off anything I made, I only got one increase done on my market bag, and ended up pre-ordering some beautiful Blue Heron Laceweight cotton. Which is why I am probably waxing on so positively. Laceweight hand-dyed cotton. Yum...
If you would like to make a stop, feel free to drop in, or call 757-874-3939 10am to 5pm M-F. Extended hours are up to 7pm on crafting nights, and you can also check their Ravelry home page at:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/coordinated-colors-yarn-shoppe
The Coordinated Colors Shoppe does have a basic information page and a storefront at:
http://www.coordinatedcolors.com/
(Be sure to click on Events & Attractions for current info)
I dig this place, alot. And if I weren't such a terrible driver, I'd be in every day. Craft nights are free, and there is no membership fee to "Bring your Projects, have some tea, and Relax!"
1. A reason to leave the Batcave other then DogFood and Tinfoil for my stylish hats.
B. Non-pretentious "Yarnies" that don't give me crap for crocheting with RedHeart.
iii. A physical location to shop where I can find anything fiber related and the help I need to pursue all my possible Fiber Arts goals.
I am an online shopper. The lack of competitive pricing, weirdos & jerks, constant road construction in my area, and just the overall experience of shopping or attending events regarding specific interests (not just fiber related) tend to make me stay at home. When I find something that doesn't trigger the anxiety of aforementioned annoyances, I tend to get very excited about it. Enough to give praise, right now.
Near Yorktown is a cozy, friendly store you will literally drive by and never know about. I know this because my GPS wanted to take me to Egypt before it would tell me the secret location of "Hamptons Roads Largest Yarn Shoppe". The Coordinated Colors Yarn Shoppe, off of George Washington Hwy, is not as bad a drive as I thought it was going to be. Pull into the quaint shopping center and you will see a brick and mortar Bag Of Holding. The place has a small storefront, yet opens up to an enormous inventory, that seams to expand into every crook, cranie, and ceiling space. If Doctor Evil took up knitting, this is what the Evil Volcanic Lair would be. But 3x awesomer.
Lately, when I go to a nearby LYS, I stick to my guns and minimum checking account balance. I walk straight to the back, or the left corner of the LYS, heading straight for the Sale Bin and pattern's that should have hit the Clearance bin in 2003 (Why? Because there aren't many patterns, magazines, or yarn worth the common +$7.99 price). Not this store. Sale Items, Clearance items, popular and not so popular books are right near the front. A clever person knows that in order to draw a new knitter or crocheter in, you should put the stuff they can afford at an easily accessible area, rather than make the do the "Walk of Shame and Inexperience" toward the counter or the belly of the Expensive LYS Beast. Affordable, alluring, and current Must-Have products are intermingled throughout the store. I walked by a new Eco-cotton twice before I realized it was in my favorite shade of red. Of course, when I walked by it, I was diving straight to a whole shelf of Fingering and Thread Cottons. Yep, a store where you can secretly pursue your Doily and traditional Lace making desires, while also purchasing sock yarn. Brown Sheep, on Cones! In a Local Store, without having to drive to Richmond. Just be careful. In a store where every yarn you can dream if is sitting on a shelf, it is very easy to lose yourself (or your flip-flop shoes)...I have yet to immerse myself into the art of handspinning, but beautiful, gradual-dye rovings are bundled in 4 ounces packages, dye your own yarn awaits your kettle, and your dream Yarn as well as the economical, yet beautiful substitution sit right next to each other, if not on the shelf above.
The LYS owner is friendly, chatty, lacks the snobbieness that drove me into the yarn closet, and doesn't make you pay to sit and knit. Help is freely provided, and I actually managed to get some help with knitting (remember, I just started learning to knit), without having to pay for assistance. It is completely okay to drop in and sit and chat, even if you sit and knit with supplies that didn't exactly come from the shop. This is one of the few places where I feel as though group crafting is meant as a sharing experience for women that keeps them from turning into Sylvia Plaths or worse, Beehive Hairdo trainwrecks. It is much more rewarding to learn seemingly obscure knitting abbreviations and hyper-active Irish Setters than it is to be in the prescence of a Queen Knitter or Hyper-Knit-Turned-Crochet-Poncho junkie trying to charge me $75 to learn to make a shawl I could make in my sleep.
I sat, wandered, and talked for quite a few hours. Somewhere in there, I might have crocheted for twenty minutes, but I think the positive therapy was just going, and learning. This is one of the few places I am actually going to considered taking a class when offered. Classes, get togethers are only restricted by parking space (plenty), and making sure you have the right tools (like many people, the owner does have strong opinions in the Susan Bates/Boyle/Clover debate, rofl).
The staff are quirky, but not frightening. I certainly did not pick up the air of flaky not-all-there that seems to permeate local opinion, which is annoying. I've run into older yarnies in the area that I honestly think you could swap out their knitting needles for a lobotomy and methamphetamines and they wouldn't know the difference. It is a family run and family owned business, and during the summer, it is family run. I do not have a problem with that, and love it to death. The one thing that does get me is that this place needs people, not just customer's. In this day and age, smaller businesses are either disappearing, or getting absorbed into mainstream commonplace, losing the small business touch. I like A. C. Moore and all, but I also like being able to ask an employee a question about the product and getting a knowledgeable answer. I would rather get a decent answer and recommendations about my yarn concerns and also learn about the regular day-to-day, or if the owner's son and daughter are getting along, than get treated like I'm just another Sales Receipt and have to stand in a yarn aisle for ten minutes because the only person that can remotely answer my question is on break or helping someone in the Paint Aisle.
Many new knitters and crocheters are intimidated by two things when trying to expand their horizons beyond the "Crafts" section of Wallyworld: Price, and Skill Level. I don't feel that way here. Yes, the owner is very knowledgeable about fiber related crafts, but I did not get answers shrouded in mystery that only experience or signing up for an expensive sweater class would reveal. If I wanted obfuscated elitism, I would drive a Ferrari F430 and buy a fruity computer. The staff and people that joined for the small knitting group were amazing and very kind. I like the fact I can sit down and crochet, or mash in numbers to a calculator figuring out how much I'm about to blow on my next project. Even if I didn't show off anything I made, I only got one increase done on my market bag, and ended up pre-ordering some beautiful Blue Heron Laceweight cotton. Which is why I am probably waxing on so positively. Laceweight hand-dyed cotton. Yum...
If you would like to make a stop, feel free to drop in, or call 757-874-3939 10am to 5pm M-F. Extended hours are up to 7pm on crafting nights, and you can also check their Ravelry home page at:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/coordinated-colors-yarn-shoppe
The Coordinated Colors Shoppe does have a basic information page and a storefront at:
http://www.coordinatedcolors.com/
(Be sure to click on Events & Attractions for current info)
I dig this place, alot. And if I weren't such a terrible driver, I'd be in every day. Craft nights are free, and there is no membership fee to "Bring your Projects, have some tea, and Relax!"
Comments