The Promised Land

I was in Toronto last week (no wait, it was two weeks ago...whatever) for a trade show/conference and decided to take the opportunity on the Thursday evening to walk around downtown to suss out some yarn stores.  See, I don't have an LYS - my LYS is the Mills.  There aren't really any other great options (ok, yes, there's Michaels...blech) available to me.  I can get Noro at a local toy/hobby store and they occasionally have some nice wool, but the selection tends to run more towards acrylic and sock yarn, neither of which really light my fire.

But I digress.  I was telling you about Toronto, wasn't I?  Well, Toronto does NOT have an LYS shortage, let me assure you.  I Googled "yarn stores Toronto" and holy wow.  My hotel was located on Queen St West and lo and behold, there were three (three!) yarn stores within 4 kms (that's like, not very many miles, maybe 1-1/2 of something...totally walkable) of my hotel.

OH YEAH.  THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN'BOUT!

I didn't have a very big suitcase with me, seeing as this was a 2-day trip, and I didn't have much money to spend, but I walked in to The Knit Café, had a delicious cup of tea and fell pretty hard for some Madelinetosh Merino Light.  Well, ok.  I fell pretty hard for ALL the Madelinetosh everything, but this one hit me especially hard.  I had to buy it - the pull was just too strong.

The smoosh factor is extremely high, with this one.  It's called "Opaline".  I know, dudes.  I know.

After that, I kept on walking and saw some pretty interesting stuff (egads, there's a lot going on in Toronto... I live a very quiet and sheltered life, in comparison).

Here are some highlights taken with my iPod:

A back-to-school window display...

...made from pencils!!!

A beautiful design/décor store - I LOVE that door

An art gallery window display... love.

Cakes that I would never be able to bring myself to eat

Would it be weird for me to do this on my living room wall?

Yes.

Ok.

And then.  And.  Then.

I was walking along and I knew that there was another LYS nearby, so I kept my eyes peeled, but I was getting tired (not from the walking, but from an imminent sinus cold, I later learned).  Then, like a beacon in a storm, there it was:

Romni Wools

Ok, I'm never going to be able to do this place justice, so I'm just going to say this:  I stood at the back corner of the first level (there's a full basement, too) and took a photo across the width of the store...

...and then I turned 90 degrees and took a photo towards the front door:

...and then I walked across the store, taking photos down each aisle:

second aisle

third aisle - there's the front door, way down in the distance

fourth aisle

 and then, I stood in the fifth aisle and took a photo over my shoulder:

I'm sorry if the photos are blurry - I was getting a little high on the yarn fumes

My friends.  I would venture a guess that this store has, at some time or other, stocked at least one ball of every single yarn commercially available for retailers in the world.  I am also fairly confident that most of those yarns are still in stock here.

I have never seen anything like it.  I'm still a little shell shocked.

More shocking still: I only bought two balls of a cotton/acrylic yarn (on sale for $6/ball) to make DH a hat (he is a delicate flower when it comes to wool).