New Jersey Bound for Yarn-Silk City Fibers Adventure

Silk CIty Fibers - Paterson, NJMy friend Kathy joined me for a NJ bound yarn adventure to Silk City Fibers in Paterson for their monthly warehouse sale which is open to the public. We used the instructions on their website to drive there and found it very straightforward compared to Mapquest.

To entice winter shoppers (like die-hard knitters need to be proded to enhance their stash), there was coffee served in beautiful hand made mugs and donuts.

Since my last visit, they had rearranged the warehouse area, there were wonderful goodies to be had. This month, there was a special on merino which came in royal blue, camel and a tomato red. Each cone was roughly 2-3 pounds of a sock weight yarn. My friend Kathy and I snagged the last two cones of a light grey. I am planning to use it to make a circular shawl, perhaps one of the Marion Kinzel patterns.

There was an array of cashmere in different finer weights and an 85% silk/15% cashmere blend in a beautiful mauve, light blue and beige. I bought a pound of a fine twist of cashmere in a wine color that I plan to knit either three strands or four strand together.

As always, there are boxes of mill ends where I find interesting things. This time I got two small mill ends of a pink and a mint green cashmere. I am hoping that they match the ones in my stash that I bought on an earlier trip.

There was also wonderful wool chenille in a lavender, steel blue and beige which my friend Kathy bought. I seriously considered it but I have stayed away from chenille since it tends to worm (unravel).

There is a postage scale in one of the rooms where you can weight the cones of yarn to get an idea of quantity. We kept weighing our various selections to determine how much each contained. It’s not that I am an expert.  The manager can give you an estimate of yarns per pound and from there you need to take a swag. I have seen women test knit a bit of the yarns to see if they like the look.

I must have the air of someone who understands the fibers since  a woman kept following me to ask my advice on what to make with various materials and how much to buy.

As readers know, I am big fan of Silk City Fibers. It is not a place to go wanting to buy yarn for a specific project unless you have seen the sale announcement and know their wares. Nor should you venture to Silk City Fibers if you only like nicely pre-packaged yarns in even skeins. It is a place where you can get some fantastic buys but you have to be willing to test the materials and let it tell you what it wants to be.  It’s always an adventure and what I get is always wonderful for the price. I like to leave wanting more since I can always return the next month when there will be a different variety of yarns.

Submitted by Knitted Yarns Editor-in-Chief

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