LYS Envy

So green really isn't my best color but today I'm wearing it anyway. I am envious. . . jealous, even. Jealous of all those knitters who speak lovingly of their local yarn stores. Envious of knitters who have a favorite yarn and can just bop across town or down the street to a friendly, quaint little store and buy a skein or two. Jealous of knitters who actually know other knitters who live in close proximity and get together sometimes and knit. Where no one thinks they are rude for delaying a conversational response until the end of a row or a pattern repeat.

Last night, I visited a quilting and cross stitch store here in town that also carries yarn and knitting needles. I just want some cotton, people. Really, is that so hard? They have lovely $18 a skein mohair and some of the beautiful $45 and $50 a skein handpainted wool silk blend, blah blah. All I really want, though, is some Classic Elite Provence, of which I have only ever had 3 skeins and they were a gift. And also, as many skeins of this Clip as I can get my hands on. I want to touch it and smell it and, you know, embrace it a little, maybe, before I pay for it and take it home with me. This store, the one I visited last night, they don't have any cotton. Not one single skein of yarn in the whole place that is either 100% cotton or even greater than 50% cotton. Seriously. And it is one of only two (non-chain) stores within reasonable driving distance of me that carries yarn.

Professional athletes and men in public restrooms, I'm told, have envy issues. Somehow, though, I don't think it really compares to this terrible case of LYS Envy I have recently.

In the spirit of the season, however, I would also like to note that I am thankful for the internet. Late at night, when the house is finally quiet and no one is asking me what I'm doing and no phones are ringing and no one needs anything, I fix myself a cup of coffee or (well, yes sometimes) a glass of wine, and I make my way over to the WWW, my very own LYS.

It is located at the corner of Living Room & Kitchen. It isn't the fanciest establishment or the tidiest and sometimes the service is a little slow, but it is a great place. Pretty much, if there is a knitting magazine or a pattern or a yarn you want, you can find it there. If it isn't in the first place you look, just keep looking. If you can get it, you can get it at the WWW.

And all my knitting friends hang out there. Kay & Ann, who reminded me way back why I fell in love with knitting in the first place. Polly, who with the help of her French Market Bag gave me the desire and the courage to try the dreaded dpns; and Laurie, who loves the wine, too, and makes us all laugh a lot and cry a little sometimes, too . Then there's Laura with the new baby and Rhett with the thank you notes and Stephanie with the patient husband who poses in his partially knit sweaters. Oh, and Meaghan, who I've only just met but who knits beautiful things and has a real jones for felting, apparently. And all sorts of other knitters who I barely know or haven't even met, but they are there, too.

Really, I wouldn't trade it for a bricks and mortar LYS on Main Street.

Yesterday, I said something about a package I had sent to one of my knitting friends. My husband said, "Oh that was nice. Now which one is she?" and he didn't even pause to remind me that we wouldn't know each other if we met on the street somewhere. Such a dear, that one. Of course, ever since I hooked up with the the Stitch & Bitch group at the WWW, he doesn't have to listen to me talk about knitting as much. Really, it is a win-win situation.

Oh, and also, they don't mind the drinking of the wine while I shop.