Visiting Quarter Stitch in New Orleans

I was in New Orleans one weekend in mid-September and when I travel I love to check out local yarn shops. My friend and I were walking around the French Quarter when we spotted Quarter Stitch on Chartres Street. Unfortunately it was already closed.

So the next day we made sure we got there earlier to check it out. Quarter Stitch is a yarn/needlepoint shop. The lady working in the shop was talking to some other customers and she mentioned how she’s been going to this shop for 30+ years – so it’s been there a long time. The walls of the shop were covered in needlepoint canvases (?) and there were tables and shelves with yarn. Behind the counter was this amazing wall of yarn. I’m not sure exactly what it was but I’m guessing Cascade 220 by all the colors. As for yarn brands I spotted Noro, Koigu, Colinette, and I forget what else.

Sadly this shop had one of my big pet peeves – yarn organized by color. Although some of the yarn was grouped by type too. Anyway I figured a shop in the South wouldn’t be to deep into wool and so I asked about silk blend yarns. I didn’t catch her name but there was only one woman working. She told me they had Noro, which I didn’t want, and some other yarn that was like $60 a skein. So I asked if they just had any silk yarns but was told no. So I continued looking and discovered a skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino.

I showed this to the shop worker and she said I had asked for 100% silk. Err… Anyway, they only had one skein of smoke grey besides the pale yellow that I had found. She said they’ve been waiting for a month for a Malabrigo shipping and their whole stock was low. I ended up buying both skeins of Silky Merino and a double skein of Colinette Jitterbug. Then the wrapping began! She wrapped the yarn in tissue paper – malabrigo in one color and collinette in another. Then they went into a clear bag and were tied with bright colored ribbons. I felt like I got a present!