So, speaking with Karen about a recent yarn sale I attended, I realized, I never BLOGGED about it! What was I thinking? So, today I am going to review 2 yarn experiences I have had in the last month:

1. HUB MILLS
rating: B+
what i bought: 20 skeins of a 55%alpaca/23%silk.22%wool blend in a coral/orange color.
20 balls of an unknown wool, a tweed-y tan for an aran
1 skein of CHerry Tree Hill Supersock
Pricing: very good! each skein was $2.5o and produced about 109yds each; the unknown wool is about 100 yds, also at $2.00 each. CTH was 20% off.
knowledge: only one person working, but she was knitting at the checkout and very helpful.
Organization: overall,ok. You have to be very careful when shopping here, it's easy to find the wrong yarn in the wrongly marked box- ask lots of questions!
Range of products: pretty good, it was fairly picked-over when I was there, but they had recently had a sale... a LOT of patterns were available as well as pattern books, but they were poorly organized and I didn't have the patience that particular day. My mom, a new knitter, was a little overwhelmed, but she picked up some interesting scarf kits. They were $4 each, she bought 4 thinking Christmas gifts next year.

Wild and Woolly (Lexington, MA)
the semi-annual sale.... time of arrival: 7:05 a.m.
Rating: B-
overall thoughts: I love the sales at W&W, but I was a little disappointed with the prices this year, although I got some great discounts on Debbie Bliss, I saw some yarns that were a better bargain on eBay. I was very tempted by some Rowan Handspun in a warm chocolate brown, but even at $81 for 8 skeins (~1600yds), Iknew I would be able to find REAL handspun for a comparable price at one of the festivals this year. What did I buy? Oh, it's listed a little bit further down. :)
Knowledge: W&W ladies are great! When I was looking at the DB Cashmerino, I must have looked obviously disappointed. I had been drooling over a particular color, but it wasn't in the sale bags. "oh well, i thought... I have the DB in this wine-berry color for my mom". Then, one of the women who works there yelled for me from the door of the back room. I walked over and saw her holding up a bag of the color I loved! It was 11 balls of it, for $60. :)
Not only do they know their yarn, they know their customers!
Stock: oh, it's two floors of everything from DB and Rowana nd Malabrigio to Encore and Dale for babies. They have scarf yarn and felting kits. They host trunk shows and will wade through piles of patterns with you for hours.
Pricing: normally, average retail, sometimes higher. They do have a "high rent" area that they live in.
Rating: one of my favorite LYS, but sale was slightly disappointing.

Here's the goods:
Dale Falk, 4 balls of pink, 4 balls of orange... these are for hats and mittens for little ones in the family (the girls, of course) for next winter.
Topacio cotton/acrylic blend (60-40) for tanks this summer: 10 balls of pink, 10 balls of blue


DB Cashmerino Aran: 10 the wine and 11 of the gold tone


I might be able to knit from all my stash this year!
:) Mini