The Chronic(what?)cles of Yarnia

So how many times have you walked into a yarn shop and been all, "Dude... if this orange alpaca had a shot of silvery thread through it it would be the BOMB"? All the time, right? Well today I discovered a veritable haven for fiber-philes that solves this very problem: Yarnia.

The walls of this smallish shop are lined with cone upon cone of single strands of cotton, alpaca, wool, acrylic, silk and blend yarns in every color you can imagine. The idea is that you combine multiple strands to achieve your desired color and thickness. The proprietor takes your chosen cones and hooks them individually into her windy machine, like so:







The machine combines all your threads together and winds them onto a new cone to create your custom yarn. To be 100 percent honest, the yarn I made is probably the best that shop has seen. The owner even told me I was "good at color." I always knew I should have gotten my degree in Color Studies...

I promise to post more pictures of the yarn and the finished product after it's presented to its intended owner (who will no doubt faint with delight).

By the way, the only other known shop of this kind is in Montreal. I'm not going to say it's another reason to come to Portland to visit me, but you know it is.