Desert Thread, Moab, Utah - a yarn store review

Last week for the Spring Break holiday my family made the mammoth road trip to gorgeous Moab, Utah (19 hours each way!) Over the five years of living in Texas our driving distance has lengthed as we seek out more fantastic places to visit. While packing my current crochet projects and extra yarn I checked on Ravelry for a local yarn store. (I become extremely anxious about the thought of running out of yarn when on holiday. I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. I've written about it here How to locate a yarn store while away) I discovered Desert Thread had recently stashed yarn from customers (i.e. it's open), stocks brands that I liked and even had a Knit Night Wednesday 7-9pm. Result!

I managed three visits to Desert Thread while in Moab including the Knit Night. Yay! The owner Cathy and her sister Rosie are delightful, very knowledgeable and I could have talked to them all day about yarny goodness (if it wasn't for their other customers and my family waiting patiently to go hiking).

The store has been open ten years and is located in the center of town right opposite visitor information at 29 E. Center Street. I was made very welcome and Cathy told me that some Knit Night attendees are once a year regular returnees. I love to sit with others crafty folk, see what projects they are working on and have a bit of a chat. Yarn gatherings have the power to bring complete strangers together in a wonderful way.

 

Of course I had to buy local yarn because that's just what one does - support local producers and small businesses. And then I had to find the farm where the sheep who produced my yarn lived... But I'll write about that in next week's blog post. Sign up for my email (once a week reminder, no spam) if you'd like to see my sheep photos! I just love sheep, don't you?

 

If you're heading to Moab you must visit Desert Thread and please say hello to Cathy and Rosie for me. They have a website Desert Thread and Facebook page too. And I'd love to know if, like me, you seek out local yarn stores when on holiday.

Discovering Rare Breeds

I'm writing this post from the UK on our annual summer jaunt to visit friends and family. Even on our holidays I still can't help looking out for all things yarn related. We visited Gressenhall Farm in Norfolk this week and I was delighted to find that they had rare breed animals including Norfolk Blackfaced Horn and Leicester Longwool sheep. Lovely! 

 

 

It's always hard not to splurge in the museum gift shop and I bought a book Rare Breeds by Lawrence Alderson and have been educating myself further. The author writes that Great Britain has been known as the "stud farm of the world" and last month I was talking to two vendors at the Houston Fiber Fest about their British sheep exports.

The owner of Lazy Cat Yarns showed me her wonderful Infinity yarn, a blue faced Leicester blend yarn from the UK, telling me that it had more shine and drape than Merino. Lynda the farmer from Foggy Hollow Ranch spoke to me at length about her cherished fine Shetland sheep while I looked and felt fantastic raw fleece from her flock.

My dreams of living on a farm someday continue..... We are traveling around the UK by train partly  because I love looking up from my crochet at the fields of fluffy sheep. 

There is so much to learn about sheep breeds. Here are further resources if you're interested in reading more:

A comparison of merino vs blue face Leicester  on the Can't talk, I'm dying blog.

Photos and descriptions of Rare and Native Breed Sheep on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust website.

A marvelous list of places to buy British Yarn on the Woolsack website.

Apologies for posting initially without embedding my links.The blogger app doesn't give me that feature - I'm traveling light(ish) and left my laptop back in Texas. Update - I now have access to a laptop so all sorted. Until next week, craft on!