We drove down to Texas on a Tuesday, stayed until Wednesday, and planned to visit three local yarn shops each day (along with some other activities sprinkled in). We ended up doing two the first day and 4 the second. I wanted to throw in an extra one on our way back to Oklahoma, but we didn't have time. 😞 Our first stop was in Denison; the GPS on my phone directed us to drive through Madill, OK. We drove over Lake Texoma, which was really pretty. We took random state highways all the way from whatever town comes before Madill on I-35 South all the way to Denison, TX. It was a lot more scenic than I expected. 🌳 Lacey & I both agreed that it looked like Arkansas.
The first yarn shop we visited was Quixotic Fibers. It is a small shop inside of an old train depot. The entire depot has been converted into a boutique artisan mall. The other shops looked cute, and I would have loved to walk around to browse but we were on a strict timetable. We decided to use all of the yarn we bought on this trip to make a capelet (Ravelry: Crocodile Stitch Capelet pattern by Bonita Patterns) so the first skein we buy determined the color pallet for the rest of the project. So much pressure!! 😬 LOL Even though Quixotic was small, they still had at ton of beautiful yarn. And the owner and her employee were super nice. Best customer service I received on our entire trip! I saved up all of the gift cards I got for my birthday & Christmas to use on this trip. Her point-of-sale system was having a hard time accepting my Visa gift card. I think any other manager would have tried two, maybe three times, and then told me that their system doesn't accept Visa gift cards and asked me to pay with another card, but she tried several times using multiple techniques until it worked. Her employee chatted with us and made us feel comfortable while we waited. 10/10 ⭐top notch!!
Our original plan was to head to Farmersville, TX to go to the two shops there but all the shops closed at 5pm and we were cutting it close. Our hotel was in Dallas so I thought we could make it to the shop there. Google showed Knit Dallas closing at 6pm but Lacey saw on the shop's website that they close at 5pm. We wouldn't make it after all. 😩 The only shop that was open late was McKinney Knittery. We went here the last time (Pictures of neat stuff and some accompanying thoughts...: Lacey and Erica's vacation photo album // McKinney - Dallas - Norman // September 2022 (ragsreborn.blogspot.com)) we were in Texas but decided to go again since we liked it so much (plus it meant an extra stamp on our passport). The store was still amazing with a big selection of nice yarn, but the excitement was gone for me. I guess you can't recreate a first impression.
I was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to go to all of our planned shops because I underestimated how far we'd have to drive between each one and how awful Texas traffic is. Lacey reminded me that there is nothing we can do about it, so stressing is futile. To unwind, we worked on our current crochet project. Didn't make too much progress on our socks but they're coming along. 😊
We got up early the next morning and tried our hardest to get to the first shop as it opened at 10am. We go there closer to 11am 😑 Knit Dallas was Lacey's favorite shop that we visited. I liked it well enough, but it was insanely overpriced. I expected to pay a premium for hand-dyed yarn from indie shops, but their prices were out of control. Their only saving grace was that they gave me a ton of postcards that they get for free from one of their yarn brands. 📬 There was a regular shopper there when we came in. He must have known the owners because he was telling them all the hot gossip about the yarn crawl. He already visited a lot of the shops, so I asked him for intel. Richard reviewed our list and agreed that we picked some good shops, but he said Fiber Circle was a gigantic mess (we went anyway... and it was) and that Cynthia's Corner wasn't worth our time (we ended up skipping that one). We hung out with Richard a bit more, chatted with the owners some and then headed to the next one.
I really liked On the Lamb. It was the first shop we visited where I awwwwed as I walked in. 😮 It was quiet, smelled nice (not that the other shops smelled bad, but I think this one had a distinctly pleasant air freshener), and it was arranged/decorated in a way that appealed to my aesthetic. The owner must be a Nightmare Before Christmas fan because she had spooky themed decorations placed all over. Either the owner or her husband is from Oklahoma (the other is from Indiana; I can't remember which is which), so we talked about the yarn shops here. They had Yeti-type tumblers with their logo printed on and the phrase, "I came, I crawled, I got the cup." I wanted one but already have entirely too many cups. In hindsight, I should have taken a picture of it.
We drove about an hour to Farmersville for our last two shops. We passed Blue Ridge, TX, where Lacey got her two Italian Greyhounds. I joked that we should stop in for another, and surprise them with a sibling when she got home. 🐕 Yarn and You is my absolute favorite shop that we visited!!! 😍 It was probably one of the biggest stores, too. It was sooooo spacious. A couple of the other stores that had a lot of yarn variety felt cramped, but not this one! It ticked all of the boxes for me: cute store decor, easy to navigate layout, fantastic yarn selection, and lots of other merch. I wanted a sewing basket because the fabric was adorable but didn't buy it because I can probably find that fabric and make it myself, but I did buy a ton of other non-yarn merch from the shop. The best part is that all of the shelves were labeled. We needed DK weight for our capelet project. I had the hardest time finding a DK section in the other stores. We had to check each individual skein for details on their label. Yarn and You had stickers on each of their shelves specifying yarn type, brand and weight. 10/10 ⭐ genius idea! The shop had a giant clearance section, which I also appreciated. The owner was also super nice and friendly.
The last shop was across the street on the other side of the parking lot. There must be some drama between Yarn and You and Fiber Circle, like they used to work together but something happened (the two stores are complete opposites of each other in every aspect, from yarn quality to the owners' personalities to the general vibe of the store). Fiber Circle is a humungous discount outlet store. It is a two-story building with yarn haphazardly placed everywhere with zero organization whatsoever. 😵The owner and her friend were badmouthing one of the mayoral candidates when we walked in. They let us roam the store without greeting us or asking if we needed help. I would have enjoyed perusing through their million shelves, but it was the end of the day, and I was pretty drained from all of the driving. Lacey also seemed over it. We walked around the entire place but didn't buy much. I saw some new types of yarn that I've never seen before--like weird textured yarn and "yarn" made from tinsel and ribbon. I wanted to buy some but didn't have a project in mind for it, so I passed. The only good thing about Fiber Circle is that they are inexpensive. Like super cheap! This was the last stop on our crawl so we asked if we could turn in our passports. The owner vaguely gestured to a desk and told us to put them there. I'm hoping they actually get to where they need to go for our prize entries. Cross your fingers for us that we win the grand prize! 💰
And thus concludes our first yarn crawl. 🧶We both had fun but agreed this should probably be a once in a lifetime thing instead of an annual thing. LOL My top three shops are Yarn and You, Quixotic Fibers, and On the Lamb. 🏪 I got a skein from each shop we visited to use on our capelet project, and I bought enough yarn for another project I have in mind, as well as lots of other goodies. We explored around the hotel, ate at some awesome restaurants, and visited an interactive art exhibit/scavenger hunt while we weren't yarn shopping. Pictures and details of that here (Pictures of neat stuff and some accompanying thoughts...: Erica & Lacey's vacation photo album // Dallas, TX // April 2024 (ragsreborn.blogspot.com)!
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