In Southern Illinois, what we call Metro East in St. Louis, two yarn shops participated in the Yarn Crawl. The first one we visited was Knit One, Weave Too at 303 North Main Street, Edwardsville, Illinois, just a mile or so from the University of Southern Illinois campus (SIU-E). Driving through the beautiful residential area, reminiscent of a town farther south than Edwardsville, we came upon the business district. The yarn shop was easy to find with plentiful street parking (no meters). This shop is lovely. Our ‘treat’ here was a tiny brooch that resembled a tiny skein of yarn, made by the shop owner. The shop is one large room with a large table at its center where several women were happily knitting and crocheting away. In the sale bin, I found the perfect superwash fingering yarn to crochet a scarf for my daughter’s best friend, a red-headed beauty. The shop has a nice inventory and friendly staff. While I am not likely to make the 40 minute drive to Edwardsville very often, I will certainly visit this shop again when I’m in the area.
Bridget’s Original Peyote Stitch Zebra Necklace
The other Metro East yarn shop is in Fairview Heights, Illinois. It’s a storefront in a very crowded part of the ‘main drag’ about a mile south of St. Clair Square (at the intersection of I-64 and Illinois Route 159). I had no idea this shop existed, located just a few blocks from a Hobby Lobby that was once the only HL anywhere near St. Louis. The Crochet Club ‘road-tripped’ to the vicinity a couple times a year just to visit HL and have lunch together. We missed out on this wonderful shop! Two of my favorite things – yarn and beads – fill The Bead Place at 5200 North Illinois (Route 159). We were running really late after the Edwardsville shop and had called ahead to get directions to The Bead Place. We arrived less than 10 minutes before closing time. But, we were not rushed by the staff. Instead, our Passports were stamped, we were shown a wonderful shop sample that combined a linen yarn with tiny pearl beads, were given our free pattern (a crochet pattern!!!), and invited to watch a brief demonstration of hairpin crochet. We petted many yarns while I forced myself to stay away from the half of the shop that is jammed with containers of beads. Finally, I was drawn to a Fair Trade display of beaded rings. I tried on every one of them, settling on a pretty red ring for the grand price of $3. Hanna, one of the owners, and I struck up a conversation and pretty soon I was introduced to Bridgette, their Bead Teacher (we had just missed the Crochet Teacher). Bridgette was wearing a stunning example of her Peyote stitch, an original design that resembles zebra hide. Hanna started pulling out other samples of Bridgette’s original designs. I was inspired!
The Bead Shop Original Bead Designs
More of The Bead Shop Original Bead Designs
But, the best inspiration was the friendly, welcoming staff here who really WANTED us to try out new techniques and enjoy ourselves. This shop has become one of my favorites. I will definitely make the 30 minute drive here to take a beading class or pet yarn. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s just across the street from one of my favorite ice cream shops (Russell Stover with Blue Bell ice cream). We ended our nine hour yarn shop marathon on a hot, steamy day with a couple scoops of great ice cream!
Kirkwood Knittery
Finally, at noon on Sunday, the last day of the Crawl, Ronnie and I met at the Kirkwood Knittery. We’d have been there on Saturday, but we just ran out of time. Too much yarn, too little time. The Knittery is another tiny gem. It’s tucked into a nondescript storefront very near a major intersection. It has plenty of off street parking. I was enamored of a knit shrug being worn by the owner who took it off to weigh it to determine how much yarn she had used. The yarn was pricey but lovely. This tiny shop always has some great yarns on the Clearance Shelf.
Berroco Latitude Yarn
I found an orphan skein to make a scarf for my daughter and three skeins of Berroco Latitude to make – well, something pretty. Maybe I’ll make one of the two free patterns this shop gave us, both original designs of their employee Robin. BOTH are crochet, one a traditional cap perfect for a beginner project and one a spiral Tunisian cap which has me very interested in digging out my Tunisian hooks and getting to work.
PLEASE CHECK OUT MY FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE YARN CRAWL TO APPEAR AUGUST 15, 2011.
Looking for more Shrug patterns to crochet? Check out these Crochet patterns for Shrugs we found on Etsy as well as these books on Amazon. 
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