Had a No yarn scare at Joann's yesterday

#1

I went to Joann’s to pick up some Lion brand suede to make some more booties for my BF’s clients soon to be born twins.

and there was almost NO YARN at Joann’s. there was like 10 skeins of Vanna’s choice, like 50 skeins total of any lion brand at all. 3 caron simply soft. 6 red heart. 7 of the crochet cotton stuff, 10 of the bernat and none of the joann stuff. I have never seen it soooooo empty.

I just about had a heart attack. So i calmly went to the front of the store and asked where all the yarn was. the lady looked at me like I had 2 heads. first she says you knit? and i said yes. then she says you look to young and i said forget that. Is there more yarn coming or is this it? she said oh well we didn’t feel like stocking today. So then i asked if lion brand suede came in bc that wasn’t in the very sparse lionbrand stock. it didn’t. I ended up getting chenille instead.

Man what a scare.

#2

Oh! How heart sinking! [B][I][U]All[/U][/I][/B] of the craft shops in my area have gone out and it is an awful feeling to walk in and see it scrapped to bare bones. Glad yours was a false alarm.

#3

Scout52, if you need any of the Berroco suede for the booties, I have some I won’t be using. PM me and we can work out a trade or whatever. :slight_smile:

#4

omg!! i never!

#5

Our JoAnn’s just keeps shrinking the yarn section and they are chronically short on help. The people who work there just don’t seem to care.

Phooney on JoAnn’s!

Bambi

#6

JoAnn’s near me has been losing its yarn section bit by bit too. They don’t even carry any sock yarn at all. Everything is worsted weight or bulky

#7

see that what was what i was afraid of. because when i first starting going to this joann’s when I moved to my house it had two aisles and now it has 1 and 1/2. granted it only made it smaller by a 1/2 aisle but when I went it and it was almost completely empty I was so taken aback.

the joann’s by my old house still has the same large selection. I just found out that today that apparently there is a yarn boutique a little farther away so I am going to have to check them out. When i moved into my house, I got so busy with work, I really still don’t know what around it.

#8

i have the same problem. i have to drive all the way to albany and then they mostly have WW arcryllic…

I had to drive to AC Moore in saratoga for any sort of selection (3-4 aisles worth!)

#9

I know we all like our convenient joannes and michaels, but I see this as just another reason to support the LYS of your choice. (apologies to people who don’t have one or it’s far away). I love supporting locally run businesses instead of big chains, so I see this as a reason to turn a cheek to the one’s that don’t want to stock for us knitters anymore. Sure, your lys is more expensive usually, but at least in my case, the customer service I get is over the top exceptional. I would rather give my money to them that a store that “doesn’t feel like stocking today”.

#10

Hey Hey there, all this talk is scaring me!!! I don’t have to many places I can shop for yarn around here other than LYS and cant afford that. And I haven’t been knitting long enough to do all my purchasing online. :help:

#11

OMG! This totally happened to me a few days ago but at “Michael’s”. The sweater I was knitting was nearly finished. I had to adjust the pattern for a man of 6’4" height so I winded up needing more yarn. For THREE WEEKS I searched for more yarn but no one had the specific color and type I needed. I kept going back to “Michael’s” and it was ALWAYS out of stock. I was about to loose my mind. I was calling all over to different yarn/craft stores for 2 weeks and NO ONE had it. Literally, THREE WEEKS went by with me driving to yarn and crafts stores all over the place trying to find this darn yarn!

Finally, I took a chance and went to a “Micheal’s” all the way across NY. I was about to scream and cry if they didn’t have it in stock and was about to scrap my near finished sweater… But happily they had it in stock, just enough, for me to finish the sweater! I did a happy dance in the parking lot on the way back to the car. :slight_smile:

#12

Joann’s keep doing that here too. When I went to JoAnn’s to use 2 gift cards I received for Christmas, I stared at the corner in shock. Some of the yarn bins had an odd single skein but the vast majority were empty. The needles are usually hung on a wall. They had I think 3 total packages. There wasn’t a single knitting notion anywhere. They had one crushed and soiled purple yarn tote on wheels.
I haven’t gone back - I don’t know if they are getting rid of their yarn too or if they had been cleared out by Christmas shoppers and still hadn’t restocked but that seemed a bit far fetched as it was January 10th when I was there.

There is almost no where to buy yarn near me anymore.

The Walmart is closing its yarn and craft department, too.

Someone who lives near me said a new AC Moore opened in a neighboring town. I haven’t managed to figure out where it is, yet. Tried a couple times with no luck. The road and shopping center it moved into aren’t familiar at all, but my neighbor said the road and center were all new since around October. I can’t even locate the road on mapquest lol.

Have they all decided to close because of the recent acrylic yarn distributor bankruptcies? For that seems kind of ridiculous.

#13

I’ve had the same kind of thing in SW VA too. I’ve had this black rainbow boucle in my stash for quite a while and decided to make a ruana (basically a wrap with a back) using 2 strands so it would be warmer. I have two skeins. I knew that wouldn’t be enough but really didn’t give it much though. Just figured I would go get 2 more skeins at some point. A few weeks ago they had it on sale so I stopped by to buy them … They used to have the rainbow boucle coming out of there ears. They only have about 7 skeins in a large cardboard box in the entire store. Of course no black boucle either. So I came home and decided to just order it online - with the price of gas it isn’t worth all this running around. Would you believe they didn’t even have the black boucle for me to order online? I checked again yesterday and all they have is the total black - not the black that fades to gray. The only other JoAnns in my area doesn’t have it either. I don’t know what’s going on with them and at this point have put my wrap on hold. I’ve only got 5-6" done on it so if I have to frog it and restart with only 1 strand I can. I’m just hoping at some point either one of the stores will get it in or they’ll put it back online so I can order it. UGH! I sure wish I had checked this before I started it - frogging a double strand project isn’t fun.

#14

My JoAnn’s doesn’t carry much yarn and/or knitting/crochet supplies. It’s biggest focus is fabric. I think the second biggest forcus is scrapbooking. My LYS just went belly up so we are without a LYS that carries quality and specialty yarns (sniff sniff). We have a Pat Catan’s - but again, it’s a major chain and it’s focus isn’t on yarn and needle crafts. I will definitely start driving to the next county for yarn. It’s a good thing that it was only a scare for you!