Knitting in the News: New Shops and Judging Bamboo's Eco Reputation

You might not think that a time of economic uncertainty would be a good time to open a gigantic yarn store, but the folks at Lion Brand Yarn aren't worried. They just opened their first-ever store, on West 15th Street in New York, and the company's president, David Blumenthal, says it's a great time because the yarn industry has always been relatively recession proof. Because people tend to cocoon in hard times, they're willing to pay for yarn that will give them hours of entertainment more so than, say, a movie that only lasts a couple of hours.

In news of smaller new yarn shops, knitting fiction author Debbie Macomber has fulfilled a lifelong dream of opening a yarn shop. Appropriately named A Good Yarn Shop, it's located in Port Orchard, Washington. There's not much to the website yet, but hooray for living a dream!

And speaking of yarn, though this story doesn't specifically talk about yarn, a New York Times blog recently ran an interesting piece about bamboo products and whether they are actually that eco-friendly. While we've been told that bamboo is fast-growing, strong and durable (and, good for knitting yarn, naturally antibacterial), bamboo isn't always produced without chemicals, and there's plenty of potential environmental impact when it comes to expanding bamboo plantations and shipping the fiber or other products from China. As always, it pays to do your homework and be a savvy consumer.