Knit 'n Knibble

Jester stole her boyfriend's car while I was in Florida, and took me into a Tampa yarn shop...Knit 'n Knibble. (Isn't that a great name?) It was raining so hard that we could only see a few feet in front of the car, and were driving 20 MPH down the interstate. The roads in town were flooded. We passed some smaller cars that were stalling out in the deep water...luckily we were in an SUV. It was pretty scary. (I bought Jester a Krispy Kreme to make up for the terror that I put her through!)

We eventually found the yarn shop...it had moved, and google hadn't updated the address for it. It was on the same street, just a few blocks further south than we thought.

The shop had two major drawbacks:

The staff were obnoxiously intrusive. When we walked in, Jester and I were greeted by a chorus of hellos. That was fine. An employee asked if they could help us find anything, which was also fine, and actually nice. But then I said no...I was from out of town and just wanting to browse. This means, to those of you unfamiliar with the English language, that I just wanted to look around and see what they had. I wanted to squeeze the skeins and meander about. However, rather than letting us be, two other employees, essentially back to back, came up and asked us the same questions. Now, had this been a large store, like a Michael's or JoAnn's, I would have understood. But it wasn't. I could hear all of their conversations, and knew that they could hear Jester and I turn down help. They went from being friendly and helpful, to being annoying and obnoxious. (Jester actually asked me why they wouldn't leave us alone, and if they thought we were going to steal something. I don't see why they would think we were non-knitters...I was wearing a handknit beret, scarf, and socks...I even told them which book the beret pattern was out of...ugh.)

There were no snacks. The shop is called Knit 'n Knibble. It actually says on it's webpage :“Knit” in a comfortable place where you can enjoy a latte or cappucino while you “Knibble” on cookies and biscotti. This led me to believe that it was a combination coffee shop/yarn shop...also known as heaven on earth. But when we arrived, though we saw lots of tables to work at...there was no "coffee shop" area. Jester finally saw a coffee pot/espresso machine in a corner, but it was a standard home use one. And we never saw any food. (Another reason for the Krispy Kreme run on the way home.) False advertising? Definitely.

Despite this, it was a nice yarn shop with a great selection. Their exotic fiber collection was especially impressive, as was the wall of sock yarn. I bought some Cascade 220 for felted purse samples since they had it priced way below anywhere out here in CA. I also bought two skeins of black fingering weight that is 100% sugar cane. (Blondie licked it when I got back to the dorm. She said it didn't taste like sugar...) They also had some gorgeous samples. Jester fell in love with a sample beanie that was just beyond her ability...it was essentially an adult version of the Envy beanie, so I am going to make it for her. (Well, I am going to make a version of it, since the sample was made from an alpaca, camel, silk blend that was $60/skein...)

To sum up: nice selection, annoying staff, no food...but an afternoon well spent with a wonderful friend!

I didn't take any pictures in the shop...the staff made me too uncomfortable...but I found the one's here on another blogger's site.