Black Friday

Aaron & I may have our disagreements (he just doesn't seem to see that fish are cute!), but we seem to agree on most of the important things - including that there is no bargain in the world, no way, no how, that would justify going out at 4:00 in the morning to fight retail-store crowds on the day after Thanksgiving. I wouldn't go out if they were giving away MacBooks. I might go out if a store were giving away liver transplants - if I needed one - but only then, and I'd expect the crowds to be smaller for that deal. And it might still be a toss-up.

So we didn't go to any big-box stores. We didn't wake up hours before dawn. We didn't fight for parking places, or get into a car accident. No, we enjoyed a quiet morning, replete with the delicious Thanksgiving dinner cooked by Aaron's parents (three kinds of turkey!), and then - and this is one of the many reasons why I love him - we went to a yarn store.

I thought a city the size of Lexington would have to have a few yarn stores, but I'd never been able to find them. Then along came Ravelry. A group of Kentucky knitters helpfully pointed me in the direction of several Lexington-area stores, including one that's just down the street. So we made a quick Black Friday trip to Stone's Throw Artisans, in downtown Georgetown.


This shop may be very friendly towards non-knitting spouses/partners, since the nearest parking discourages lingering. At least I think it's the nearest parking, and that my own non-knitting partner wasn't just trying to discourage lingering! I would've hurried, anyway, since I'm still trying to cut back on my yarn-buying.


Stone's Throw isn't just a yarn store - it's an artists' cooperative where one can buy all sorts of locally-crafted items. The friendly proprietor told us she'd been in business for about six years - so it's definitely a testament to the power of Ravelry that we finally found out about it. As a tourist, I'd call it a good yarn store. If I were a local, it would probably be a great yarn store. There were lots of big-ticket items (looms and spinning wheels), and a lot of basic supplies (dyes, fibers, the standard yarns, and a nice selection of books) - all good things to see in your everyday yarn store, but spinning wheels are not an impulse buy for me. I'd be all over the place for Secret Pal exchanges, since there are so many non-yarn gifts (and, in fact, the only thing I bought is for my Secret Pal). The yarn selection was pretty basic - no piles of Lucy Neatby sock yarn for me to dive into; no exquisite hand-dyed laceweight silks by local Kentucky artists - but she'll order what you need - once again a good feature in one's everyday yarn store. The store is very festive and friendly - I don't know if there are classes or knit nights, but it looks like a lovely place to visit.

So my Black Friday was a very colorful one. I didn't come home with any more yarn - perhaps that's Aaron's reward for putting up with the yarn-store trip - but now I'm reassured that the next time we come down to Kentucky I won't have to bring four knitting projects along. No, I haven't finished any of them. I was busy. Three kinds of turkey, remember?