I've found heaven

The other day I was cruising on Ravelry and found a reference in another Melbourne knitter's profile to the Yarn Barn. It's in Coburg. It's amazing. I went on a special trip there this morning and I came away with these:

Gurgly goodness.
Just like the website says, "you won't leave the store empty-handed". It is So. True.
I got about 4 balls of pure wool, the same of wool blends, and 3 cones of special blends (3 for $10!). They had a tub full of vintage buttons in sets of 4, 6 or 8, so I got 3 lots of those. I also got a mercerised cotton and wool blend for some doilies I want to try designing in a lovely lemon yellow. They really do cater for everyone. Knitting is in the front, crocheting is in the back, felting is down the side, and machine knitting is down the end. I understood after a being there a little while why the first question that the guy asked me was, "what do you do?"

When I thought about it, the place wasn't really cheaper than what you could get at Lincraft or Spotlight on sale (though same as or cheaper than them not on sale). But they ply their own yarns themselves with a machine out the back (which you can see in motion if you peer through the last set of shelves) and are always changing their blends depending on what they have on hand. The man who helped us looked a little intimidating at first but he was so friendly and helpful. You can choose any combination of cones of yarn in the place and they'll ply it together for you on the spot. It's a tiny little shop next door to a milkbar smack-bang in middle suburbia. It was the complete and total anathema of the big chain stores. It was perfect.

I know I'm rambling on about this a lot, but I was just so excited to find a place like this. I spent a lot more than I was planning to, but I'm going to use that wool. I've been asked by a friend to make a scarf in shades of purple, and I've used up most of my purple already because it's my favourite colour. So I had a really good excuse to go there. And I'm sticking with that.