I have managed to create a pretty decent yarn stash, nothing extreme but enough to get me through what I usually want to make; however, baby yarn is something I did not stock up on during some recent on-line sales I found because there are no human babies around here lately. Of course, I’m now making baby hats and booties for a few charities and have found the need for the one type of yarn I don’t have in my stash.

I had been thinking for some time of making a voyage to Walmart to check out the yarn scene there. I used to buy my yarn there when I did more crochet dabbling in the past. This normally meant a token afghan that I would spend a year or two making and pick up when I felt the crochet urge strike. Walmart was the only place in the entire county that had yarn. Otherwise, I would have had to make a 20 mile trip (40 miles if you count coming back home) north or south of me.

Years ago, most local Walmarts around here had a back wall full of yarn, an isle with odd silk flower thingys, a smattering of other crafts like jewelry supplies and paper-crafts, and a fairly large sewing and fabric section. It was enough for me to buy the occasional skein of yarn, piece of hemp, or hooks for earrings but not much more than that. Very often, though, I would just wait for my crafting needs to be fulfilled and load up at the Michael’s over in the next county.

Then about a year or so the closest Walmart’s fabric area downsized as did the yarn, which then only took up one side of an isle versus a large wall. Scrapbooking seemed to grow a little, and still the jewelry area was pretty sad.

Now fast forward a year later. Yesterday I discovered that scrapbooking and jewelry are now blooming in the Walmart craft section, which is no longer hidden in the back corner of the store but is set more in the middle area. They had a pretty decent sized isle of beads and findings. The fabric is all gone except for precut pieces, and the yarn is now pathetically small, only filling maybe a 6 foot area of an isle. Though there was very little selection, I did manage to pick up a few skeins of baby yarn, and I found that it cost considerably less than Michael’s (which today is only 5 minutes from my house).

I had heard on one of the Raverly forums that some Walmarts were have close-out sales of yarn, and while mine didn’t, I could see why so many may be if they too are shrinking down to almost nothing. I’m not a big fan of Walmart. In fact, I’d almost rather have a root canal than to go shopping there. It’s too big, and I usually leave there annoyed for whatever reason. For example, yesterday I went in around 10:30 in the morning and found no small baskets available, only the large shopping carts. When I asked Mr. Goof-Ball at the door about them, he said they were out. That was obviously a bunch of crap because there were about 3 people in the store! Finally, I find a disappointing display of yarn, make my limited selection, and head up to pay for it. There is one register open, ONE! The woman in front of me is buying a bunch of food, so now that means I have to worry about her coleslaw drippings touching my precious yarn. Then to top it off, when I finally get up there the cashier has to make some crack about me being pregnant! Can this place get any worse? Can I hate it any more?!

So, rant over…It’s nice to see that jewelry and paper crafting are finally getting some attention from Walmart, but it is sad to see that it is at the expense of other crafts that I also enjoy.