Cool Place Alert: Yarnia

I've been hearing it around town lately: "Have you been to that new store where you can make your own yarn?" You bet I have! And, like its famous namesake, Yarnia is something of a magical land.

The first thing you see upon entering is color. There are shelves lined with cones and cones of gorgeous, saturated color. Look more closely, and you'll see that these colors are also fibers - wool, cotton, rayon, silk, bamboo, acrylic, novelty . . . .

But see how thin the strands are? That's because they're meant to be combined. That's where you come in. You get to choose a series of strands in just the colors and fibers you want. Wool for warmth, rayon for strength, silk for softness - you can make the perfect yarn for the new project you have in mind.

Once you've selected your yarns, then Lindsey Ross, Yarnia's proprietress, will thread all those cones onto this amazing machine and wind you up a cone of beautiful custom yarn while you watch. It's pretty much the coolest thing ever.

If you get stumped by the prospect of assembling your colors and fibers together, Lindey can help you. She also has lots of sample cones on display, wound from various combinations of fibers. Each one has a helpful swatch pinned to it, so you can see how it knits up.

It bears mentioning that this is stranded yarn rather than spun yarn. So the strands will lie flat together as they wind along the cone. At first, I was worried that this configuration might be tricky to work with, but it hasn't felt any different after all than a spun yarn. In fact, it's lovely.

You may be asking at this point, "Yeah, but how am I supposed to figure out how much yarn I'll need?" Not to worry - Lindsey is a wizard at this question, and will help you determine how many yards your project will require, and how much yarn to wind.

. . . And here's the best part: Yarnia sells yarn by the pound rather than the skein. The price of your yarn will vary according to what kinds of fibers you put into it, but when you buy in bulk like this, you can save a lot of money. When Lindsey quoted me the price of my newly-wound wool and rayon yarn, I blurted out, "Are you sure?"

I'd highly recommend a visit to the Yarnia website, where you can read Lindsey's story of how she first discovered this wondrous yarn-store concept. You can also get info there about upcoming classes at the store.

And when you visit, here's a helpful hint for locating the store. Look for this building. See the gent on the stairs? There's a downward staircase below him on your left. That's the entrance to Yarnia. Sorry, there is no wardrobe, but you'll definitely feel like you journeyed into a storybook.