When on vacation, I always find it good to mix pleasure with pleasure. I may be in Columbus for another of my hobbies, but that shouldn't stop me from doing a little yarn shopping too. I was crushed when I heard that Wolfe Fiber Arts, which I had visited on my last trip to Columbus and was looking forward to patronizing again, had closed. But I heard from some helpful Columb-ians that Knitters Mercantile had bought up their inventory and was opening a new store the very week I'd be here. So first stop on the Columbus knit tour, the grand opening.

Located in a still-under-construction strip mall (the hotel employee giving me directions didn't believe that the store would even be open!), Knitters Mercantile is more store-in-a-box than Wolfe Fiber Arts was, but with comfy couches in the front and luxury yarns decorating the walls, I quickly forgot that I was in a strip mall. It actually reminded me very much of Knitting Hands in Brooklyn inside - just a bit smaller, and in Ohio. They had free cookies out on the tables to celebrate the opening, most of which my boys either ate or touched, and a little shelf of kiddie books in their huge book area that the boys dove into after I banned them from the cookies. B even fell in love with a sample felted hat and wore it for the whole hour and a half that we were there.

Despite their very impressive inventory of Jamiesons, Colinette, Peace Fleece, Maggi Knits, Rowan, Jaeger, Karabella, America's Alpaca, Reynolds, and Plymouth yarns (most still bearing the WFA price tag), I didn't find anything that I absolutely had to take home. Oh, there was so much that I could have gotten! But I did put my name in for a grand opening door prize. Fingers crossed! Sure hope this store is still around when we come back next time....

What Knitters Mercantile may be missing in atmosphere, Temptations (scroll down) in the suburb of Dublin, has in spades. This store is jaw-droppingly gorgeous, with yarns of every kind divided in different rooms of an old house. There's the baby yarn sitting room (with coloring books for the boys), Noro/Lamb's Pride/Lopi living room, several bedrooms filled with yarn upstairs and downstairs, a sock yarn closet, novelty hallway, and the needles and notions bathroom! And they also sell antiques, so the yarns aren't just in bins, but in beautful old pieces of furniture and lovely baskets and bowls. Yummy! The boys loved all the colors and textures.

True to the store's name, they tempted me. I almost carried off some Debbie Bliss alpaca/silk, some Noro I'd never seen before, Reynolds Frisky, Karabella Vintage Cotton, and South West Trading Company's optimum wool, but somehow I left here empty-handed too. After a day of yarn shopping, S was as disappointed as I was that I didn't buy anything. Back at the hotel he concluded: "They didn't have the right yarn for mommy. They only had the other yarn."

The next day, I decided to stop by the last yarn store I'd gotten a tip about, the Yarn Shop. I'd been told it was more of a crochet/acrylic store and didn't really have high hopes of finding "the right yarn for mommy", but - now, don't hate me, yarn snobs - but I think I liked this one the best. It's totally in a strip mall and is definitely crochet-y (check out that crocheted pillow on the fouton behind B in his "hat du store"!). Despite the low-end look, they've done a fabulous job of mixing an excellent selection of good, inexpensive yarns with a respectable selection of high-end, designer yarns. I've never seen so much Sirdar yarn and patterns in one place! And right between all that Sirdar and and a couple of walls of Plymouth Encore were the new Rowan cashsoft and cash/cotton yarns, beautiful Karabella yarns, lots of Jaeger yarns, even Colinette and a huge sock yarn collection. I can really see this store being a terrific LYS both for women who've been knitting forever as well as young, hip newbie knitters. And they had the best little kids playarea of all three stores. The boys actually told me that they didn't want to leave when I said that I was paying!

Yes, you heard right. Paying! I did find a little something to take home. I almost came home with a bundle (I had a hard time releasing some Cascade 220 and Touch Me in beautiful blues that I'd never seen before), but I restrained myself. Because seriously, how much more yarn do I really need? Not so much, apparently. Unfortunately for you, my one little Ohio knitlife souvenir yarn is all packed away already, so you'll have to wait until next time to see it!