Saturday was Yarn Shop Day here in the UK. Knitters and hookers everywhere showed their love for yarn shops, whilst in return, the yarn shops showed their love for knitters and hookers. What’s not to like?
A crack team of Stylecraft Blogstars was despatched to various events around the country. In my case, I landed at Masons in Abingdon (Oxfordshire), which happens to be my favourite yarn shop. Eek, what’s this outside?!
Well it was a good thing that the sign said ‘about 2pm’ for the “”blogger””, because I was slightly late, due to forgetting – of all things – my knitting, and having to dash back home for it. This never happens. Checking that I’ve got at least one WIP with me features only one rank below checking that I am actually wearing clothes when I leave the house. But I was a bit nervous. So I forgot my knitting. But hey, at least I was wearing clothes. One out of two ain’t so bad.
Before we go inside, look! A blue plaque! I love blue plaques. The building was once a pub, run by John Alder, whose picture is here. One fine day in 1767, he sneaked off with money his wife had given him for paying bills, and he bought a lottery ticket. Oops. But the thing was, he won the lottery, although he didn’t immediately believe the messenger who arrived on horseback in the middle of the night to yell the news up at his bedroom window. And having won, he was very generous to his customers and to the town in general, hence the blue plaque. I guess he had to be generous after the messenger had woken up half the street with the news.
Anyway, let’s go inside. What looks small from the outside is actually an awesome cave of yarn, stretching w-a-a-a-y back, and packed full of everything from budget acrylic to very-best alpaca.
It’s been a yarn shop for 77 years, which got me wondering whether this puts it amongst the oldest yarn shops around. Any idea? Is your local yarn shop older than this?
Look, it sells buttons, too!
It’s everything that a yarn shop should be. And if this sounds as though I’ve been paid to write it, I can promise you that’s not the case (although they did give me a biscuit and a lovely mug of green tea whilst I was there, which might have corrupted my opinion a tiny bit). Nobody minds in the slightest if you squish the yarn, or sniff it, or ask complicated questions about its use. The staff are lovely: I mostly chatted to Ruth, who has worked there for 34 years.
And in the far back corner is something that saved my sanity on many occasions when the twinnage were tiny (because let’s face it, visits to yarn shops are rarely brief, and toddlers struggle to understand why Mummy has been staring at the same ball of sage-green cashmere for the past ten minutes whilst drooling slightly):-
Anyway, Masons has crochet classes run by a wonderful woman called Nicky, and as they were having a special meeting in honour of Yarn Shop Day, they very kindly invited me to come and join them… even though I’d only brought knitting. Nicky provides the group with chocolate and a great deal of crochet wisdom. She’s second-from-right in this picture, wearing glasses and a dark grey cardigan:-
You know when you just take to a bunch of people? Well these women were so welcoming, and their crochet was perfect and colourful. They’d all been hooking for less than a year, and yet they were creating wonders. The current hook-in-progress, that you can see there on the table, was a blanket as a gift of love to one of the managers at Masons, who has been seriously ill. It’s going to be stunning. And hopefully very comforting for the recipient.
I chatted to lots of people whilst I was there; staff, customers, the crochet group. And I got to meet a couple of other thoroughly lovely yarny bloggers: Rachel (thelittleroomofrachell.com), and her friend Anne-Marie who is just starting up a blog. (I was going to link to it but I think it’s down for maintenance right now.) Needless to say, we weren’t short of things to talk about. 🙂
So that was my Yarn Shop Day. I hope yours was good too?
Thank you so much to the staff, crocheters, and customers of Abingdon for generously tolerating me ALL AFTERNOON!
That sounds like a great day! We should get a day like that over here in the US!
Yes.. what a cool idea… wish we had such a day here in the USA
What a fantastic yarn shop! I went to The Yarn Cake in Glasgow for yarn shop day, which is also fabby, but doesn’t have buttons! They do have the very best poppy seed cake though, which made up for the lack of buttons!
Oh! My kind of yarn shop.
Lovely! So many beautiful colors that I couldn’t pick just one–or two or three.
OMG think I need to visit just for the buttons as I may have to own up to having a major ‘thing’ about buttons, oh and yarn, and fabric, and ribbon, and………..
I really enjoyed my first experience of Yarn Shop Day. I have to say GREAT idea of the shops to keep toys in the back!! I wish all shops did that!
Just reading and viewing your website makes me want to be there with you. It feeds my needs! A fellow knitter in the USA — Concord, MA.
oh my oh my…. I have been shopping in there for 3 years when i was living in Didcot,.I am from Belgium and came to live with my beloved english man in 2011 . i loved this yarn shop , for me it was like the Aladin’s Cave….magical
Oh I totally agree, and I’m sure you’d find it completely unchanged. It’s not fancy or pretentious, but it’s a real yarn-lover’s yarn shop.
I am going to save up my money for a holiday to your part of the world and visit this fascinating shop.
Long years ago, I worked in a yarn shop in Gallatin, Tennessee, but we had nowhere near that much yarn!!! That’s like showing a labrador retriever a multicolor ball-pit, and encouraging him to jump in!!! What a lovely store. I’ll bet y’all had a great time together.
Goodness, what an amazing yarn shop! I’m assuming they also have little cubibles with hammocks where you can sleep overnight because there’s no way one could only spend an hour or so in that shop. Surely you’d need an entire weekend!
My local yarn shop (local is a relative term, given it’s a forty minute drive from my house) is just over twenty years old but it’s still a lovely place to visit. The family that runs it appears to have a nice area out the back and I am frequently entertained by the interesting conversations they have with their young children. That’s probably not meant to be part of the service, but it’s quite endearing.
How fortunate to have such a well stocked and friendly shop nearby! We had no Yarn Shop Day anywhere on the Isle of Man and I felt very envious of you ladies enjoying such a special day! Shopping by mail order is just not the same somehow!!
Yarn Shop Day?what a cool idea… wish we had such a day here in Spain!! ?
In Swanage, we have The Wool and Craft Shop. . . Which opened in 1908! 109 years ago! It forms part of the town tour and is stuffed to the ceiling with all sorts of yarny scrumptiousness! Yarn fondling is welcomed and encouraged! Yes, I do work there and yes, it’s positively dangerous to the stash levels. . . I have a stash at the shop and one at home too!
Thank you Twisted Yarn. . we all love your blog! Xx
Loving your post, but have to return tomorrow to finish it. I worked for Lewiscraft, the Canadian craft chain, for over five years, until they closed down in 2006. At the time it was 93 years old and all of us had been looking forward to a 100th birthday, but sadly, it was not to be. We sold a variety of craft supplies, but yarn was our mainstay. Once I was a manager, I loved ordering the yarn. We had to order a certain set of brands and colours, but each manager chose the rest of the order themselves. I love colour, so you can imagine the joy! Eleven years later and I still miss that job.
I haven’t had time to locate the local shops here, as I only arrived last week and there has been much to do. I’m looking forward to the discovries, though.
I first heard about the UK Yarn Shop Day on Lucy;s blog (Attic24), so was pleased to see that yoyu had posted, too. Wish I couold have been in the UK and popped by to visit all of you.
Wow! That is some yarn shop!! My local shop is big enough to stand in, turn around on the spot and touch all four walls without stretching! I have never seen so many buttons in one place, my eyes are like saucers! I LOVE buttons. I seriously think i will have to arrange a day trip and I have heard Abingdon is worth a visit too.
I was rather gutted to discover yarn shop day after it had happened 🙁 oh well, there’s always next year! I am very jealous of your yarn shop, I love our local shops but they are very small…
Now that’s a yarn shop! Why isn’t there one of those near me?!! How fabulous. What a lovely way to spend the day. x
I was fascinated by this shop!! 🙂 Fabulous!! I’ve never been to the shop with as much variety as this.
I also have a blog babscreate.com And I hope someday I’ll go to a shop like that.
Babs