Friday, June 22, 2012

A few New Mexico yarn shops

I recently took a vacation to New Mexico, visiting Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos. I had to visit a few yarn shops, of course. In Santa Fe, I checked out a couple of shops. This first one, called Moxie, is a large home accessories, apparel, and gift shop. I wandered in just to look around and stumbled upon a very large yarn section. It was near closing time so I did not browse very long, but they do have quite a selection of name brand and local yarns.

The next shop is Tutto A Mano, which is a very cute little store. They have their own line of hand dyed yarns, but what I liked best was their wall of buttons. Buttons are easy to pack, so of course I had to buy a few.

In Taos, I checked out a shop called, oddly enough, "The Yarn Shop". This is a small shop, and I was greeted by friendly people and 2 small dogs. They have a lot of locally spun and dyed yarn. I avoided buying anything because it would have been too pricey to buy enough yarn to make a sweater. The shop is a part of the John Dunn Shops complex, which has a lot of unique small shops, including a very nice fabric store.

The last fiber place I visited was the EspaƱola Valley Fiber Arts Center. This is a non-profit organization that promotes fiber arts in New Mexico and it serves a large regional area. They have a large space, with many weaving looms in the back rooms. They also have retail section that features a lot of local yarns. So, of course I had to buy a little souvenir yarn. I bought two skeins of New Mexico Merino worsted weight yarn from tattersall mills.

I brought only one project for the trip, and I made quite a bit of progress on the back side. It is the Strafford Tee pattern, and I divided it up into front and back for flat knitting.

I leave you with two classic tourist photos of New Mexico -- the plaza in Santa Fe, and the Taos Pueblo.

4 comments:

yoel said...

Looks like a lot of fun! Isn't it amazing how many yarn stores there are in NM? I have been there twice and still only overlapped one store with you!

Anonymous said...

That was a truly lovely little travelogue of New Mexico, Betty. Makes me want to go there. As well as seek out all those shops.

Chloe

knitseashore said...

Thank you for the little tour. I have never been to NM so very much enjoyed seeing your photos. It looks like a beautiful, and fiber-full place!

Anonymous said...

What a terrific run down of some of New Mexico's LYSs. I wanted to update some of the info, I'm a resident of Espanola and a compulsive knitter. The Fiber Arts Center here is thriving, lots of Brown Sheep yarns as well as locally raised and milled woolen yarns you'd have a hard time getting anywhere else, churo for weavers as well as merino, alpaca and others. Sadly, Tutto is by appointment only and out of that cute space in downtown Santa Fe, Moxie is now Yarn & COffee, same place but better than ever with an eye-popping array of hand dyed yarns like MadelineTosh as well as locally hand-dyed brands. Though pricey, it's a treat to indulge for a special project. In Taos, The Yarn Shop is good as ever, lots of hand dyed yarns, including my favorite BFL which comes in huge skeins so the cost is pretty good.

Next time you visit, try to time it with the October Taos Wool Fest. October is GORGEOUS here, and the yarns are to die for. Cheers!