Knitting Travels: Philadelphia

I was in Philadelphia earlier this week for the MLA conference—a huge gathering of scholars who specialize in literature, rhetoric, and modern languages. If you read our other Knitting Travels posts, you’ll see that Katie and I both love to scout out yarn shops as a way to get to know a new city. (I guess other people use similar tactics—a guy on the panel I chaired mentioned that he looks for anarchist book stores when he travels). I had some extra time on Tuesday morning, so I walked in the blistering wind to two different stores.

First, I found Rosie’s Yarn Cellar, located in a basement on Locust St.

It was great to step out of the wind and into this cozy store, which stocks all kinds of great yarns, such as Alchemy, tons of Manos del Uruguay, the Fibre Company, Road to China, and many more. It was a little hard to figure out how the yarns were organized, but it was fun to browze through them—I almost left with a single skein of Dream in Color Classy (marked down to $12), but talked myself out of it… I have too many single skeins as it is, and would rather save up for enough to make a sweater.

Next, I walked down to South St. to Loop, where I ran into another escapee from the MLA conference (who happens to be from another university in my state).

Loop also carries a fabulous selection of yarns, especially Blue Sky Alpacas, Spud & Chloe, and Imperial Stock Ranch. I bought a book here (many of their hardcover books were on sale), but left without the Jade Sapphire (marked down to $28.99!) that I was petting longingly.

Of course, I’m regretting both of the purchases that I so self-righteously talked myself out of. (You can see the Jade Sapphire in the foreground, above). However, the Loop does have a full online shop. Hmm……..