Shop locally
I don’t think I need to tell you, my knitterly friends, how very important it is to support your LYS (after all, who else is going to open the doors 30 minutes early when you are having a Noro Emergency?).
Accordingly, the recent trend towards small, owner-run brick and mortar stores of other types — such as my store, Magpie in Boston (which is co-owned by Leah from Craftster and several of the Bazaar Bizarre Boston organizers), Parts & Labour in Austin, etc — is really encouraging to me. That they open at all is great, but that so many are thriving is even better. So I wanted to point out another cool new shop I just read about in Boston: Oak. Because I lived there, I have a better handle on what’s happening in the Boston metro, but it seems there’s a lot of this going on elsewhere in the country as well.
What’s your favorite offline handmade store? And out of curiosity, are many of them offering handknits? If so, is the pricing fair? And I say this in a fair-to-the-knitter, not “as cheap as at Target” way. Incidentally, if you haven’t seen it, Kellee & Matt from My Favorite Mirror are working on a directory of stores like this, too!
Oh, I wish I had a LYS. I would most definitely support it! As it is, the closest one is right at 100 miles away. I don’t get there very often.
Stylus (http://www.stylushonolulu.com/) sells pre-owned music, clothing, and some handmade items (mostly clothing). The pricing has been something one of the owners has been wrestling with – finding price points that are low enough to fit the budget of their customer base, yet enough to be fair compensation for the maker, is, unsurprisingly, a challenge for a shop that advertises 90% of the clothing being under $10.
I’m totally biased, since I work there now, but my favorite has always been Haus of Yarn (www.hausofyarn.com) in Nashville, TN. I’ve been to many shops, but they still have the best selection! We don’t have handknits for sale very often, unless we’re having a shop model sale, but they’re not Target cheap by any means!!