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Follow the clacking needles

by ashley wiehle, the southern

Sunday, March 18, 2007 7:19 AM CDT

HERRIN - Greg and Suzan Thomas can spin quite a yarn about the origins of their new shop.

Avid knitters both, the rural Williamson County couple were making frequent field trips to Nashville, Tenn., and St. Louis to buy quality yarn for their stress-relieving hobby.

"There was just no place to get good wool and good yarn," Suzan said.

A love of quality yarn - and a dislike of crossing state lines to get it - inspired the couple and became the impetus for The Yarn Shoppe, a new Herrin business that delivers precisely what the name promises.

The Yarn Shoppe is a sensory pleasure, for both knitters and the uninitiated. Skeins of rich, colorful yarn adorn every shelf, each roll softer than the one before it.

Those who don't know yarn may not know just how diverse the selection really is. The Yarn Shoppe carries cashmere, silk, Alpaca, mohair and bamboo yarns in addition to more traditional fabrics such as wool.

"It's not your grandmother's knitting anymore," Suzan said. "Everything is available now. You can do so many different things."

The shop - which carries knitting books, accessories and patterns as well - hasn't yet been open two weeks and already diverse groups of people are trickling in for the wares.

"We were surprised to see mothers and daughters coming in and getting yarn," Suzan said. "It's really become a bonding thing. Two days ago, we had three generations here on the couch knitting."

Greg said the shop took a tremendous amount of work, even stopping to take out photos of the shop's concrete floors and open space before the Yarn Shoppe moved in.

The original shop was a long way from the well-lit room filled with yarns and "felted" slippers knitted by Greg. Aesthetics of the shop are very important, both said.

"Half the reason small yarn shops make it is that you can't see the colors or feel the texture on a Web site," Greg said.

Greg and Suzan plan to offer knitting classes for interested people of all skill levels.

"We want to inspire people with what we do have here," Suzan said. "Knitting is very therapeutic. People can just sit down, unwind and knit."

ashley.wiehle@thesouthern.com

997-3356 ext. 5807