The Knitting Fiend

I was driving along Chicago Avenue in Naperville and saw this sign behind a white picket fence:

Of course I stopped. It’s just a big white house just east of North Central College and not in the general business center. I wasn’t expecting much.

Well, imagine my surprise when the first thing I saw was the “Wall of Noro”! Zora’s has more Noro. Then I turned and saw shelves of eyelash, ribbon and all sorts of novelty yarns. Racks of bamboo needles, stitch markers, magazines and almost anything you could want.

This is a good sized store. There is not one, but two rooms chock full of yarn. It also seemed to me Zora’s Yarn prices are better than those at Kool Knits further west on Chicago Avenue, near the Barne’s and Noble’s. Of course, I may be wrong, and all true knitters will check out both stores. After all, they are less than 6 blocks apart.

If I understood correctly, Zora’s owner bought out Ehrina yarn boutique, which used to be in downtown Naperville. She moved the shop to a larger location and restocked. Suzanne, Zora’s owner, started out with all new stock. Zora’s Yarn now has plenty of yarn! Even better, since she moved to the East, this store is less than 3 miles from my house in Lisle.

So, what else do they have? Turning to my left, I found Plymouth Galway in plenty of beautiful colors. You can see some of them in the two far right columns of bins in the photo at the right. I don’t remember what those are in the far left bins.

I fell in love with the Araucania “Nature Wool Chunky” just to the left of the Galway. See the Navy Blue yarn circled in the picture? I bought it. In real life, the Araucania is has slight color variations, and it’s very, very soft. I think it will look good in seed stitch with cables, and Jim will like the color. I’ll start swatching today.

But, so far, I’ve only shown the yarn in one room. Notice the camel colored yarn in the picture to the left? There between the scarf and the burgundy yarn? That’s the softest chunky baby Alpaca in the world. Even further to the left is a beautiful cabled cotton. I might have bought that, but I promised Jim the next sweater is for him. The cotton was in mostly bright or light colors and Jim prefers more somber things for the office. So, that wasn’t the yarn to buy today.

But, I’ve got my mind working on ideas for that cotton, especially because the price was attractive. I can’t remember exactly how much, but it was less than $5 /100 grams and it’s a beautiful mercerized cabled cotton. I’d expect to see it sell for more.

Ohh, and I noticed that on Saturday, May 7, Zora’s Yarn is having a 20% off everything sale. If it’s still there on Saturday, I’m going to have to buy that Alpaca! (Although, I’ll admit, I’m hankering for some of the angora I saw in the store.)

I bet you want to get to the sale too. Store hours are noon-4 on Saturday, and address is 724 E. Chicago, Naperville. I’m not affiliated with the store, so if you need more information phone 630-355-YARN.

I hope I’ll run into some West Suburban Chicago Area Knitters there!