So I didn't give up, exactly...

I started the England recap and then the economy fell apart and all sorts of other real-life drama and I just felt weird blogging about my trip to the UK. But there is some good information you all need....like where I bought yarn. This is important.

On the L.A. Stitch & Bitch board there are posts weekly asking advice about where to find good yarn shops when visiting (fill in the city here). As we're all L.A. based knitters, I felt a little odd doing this. I asked the google instead.

Now, the google had lots to say and many suggestions, but the best site belonged, oddly enough, to the London Stitch & Bitch. Not only does it have a list of the shops, but the address, hours, websites and most importantly, maps.

Oh maps, how I do love you, especially in London. If you want the best map of London, you want an A to Z (pronounced "A to Zed"). I found mine at a used bookstore in Pittsburgh but you can get them EVERYWHERE in London (drug stores, book stores, newsstands) and they're 5.50 pounds, so not expensive. You can find anything in London with this, even random yarn shops.

First stop was All the Fun of the Fair. I chatted about this shop in my previous London post but since this is a knit shop round-up, it still deserves a mention. It is the size of the closet with the merchandise of an entire craft fair. You have yarn, needles, notions, gifts...this is seriously one stop shopping. Its a great little shop with fantastic staff.

As you can tell, we're not on ground level. There's this fantastic open-air mall just off Carnaby Street. Though, don't even try to find this place without a map. As with all of the charming yarn shops of London, they are not jumping out in front of you.

Next up, I Knit. We went there after we hit the Tower. I'll admit, I was a little freaked out that we were going underwater to get there. (The shop is super close to the Waterloo Tube Station and to take the tube to that station, you guessed it; you go underwater.) But, once I got over that, super cool.

The people who work at this shop know and love their merchandise. And, they know and love their knits. They were stocking the shop and showing each other stuff on Ravelry when we walked in. I felt so comfortable. After Todd started working on his Blackberry while I looked at the yarn and they told him he HAD to sit down and relax while I shopped, I absolutely knew these were my people.

At this shop I picked up some lovely natural locally grown, sheered, spun, loved, tended to yarn in a gorgeous dark natural brow. The most difficult thing about shopping here was trying to limit myself on what to buy. As I did on every yarn stop, I asked the staff what could I not find in the U.S. Since these guys are proud to carry tons of locally grown, spun, dyed, etc... types of yarn, there was a ton to choose from. They could even tell me the exact part of the UK the sheep my yarn came from live.

Third and final stop was the most famous of the bunch, say it with me now, Loop.

Ok, for a shop this famous, it was tiny! Not, All the Fun of the Fair tiny, but considering everything I had heard about it, I was surprised. Now, that isn't to say that they didn't have a ton of stuff, knowledgeable staff and a class full of people downstairs...it was just smaller than I expected. But, as evidenced by my bag, size did not stop me. There was lovely fair-trade African bamboo yarn not available in the states as well as a skein of orange cashmere spun on an island that I needed.

One thing I will say about Loop is that it resides in my new favorite area of London. We got off the tube to walk over to the shop and we never wanted to leave. For lack of a better word, it was just lovely....shops and restaurants and people walking dogs. When I win the lottery, I'm renting a place here for a month.

I had a great experience at all three shops. The staff was friendly, the merchandise was well-priced (you can't blame a shop for the exchange rate!) and the shops were just so fantastically charming. And, with all three, when you think you've walked too far, you're almost there. (See map notes above.)