Woolcott's Last Day Is Today

Today, October 27, is the last day that Woolcott & Co. will be open for business. They're offering:

50% off of all yarn
75% off of all novelty yarns, book and bags.

Also, if you're interested in any of the fixtures, furniture, storage bins, etc., you can stop by. Sean, the owner, says in his latest e-mail blast: "No reasonable offer will be refused. ... And if you want a momento of the shop, we're selling the logo boxes...make me an offer!"

Woolcott & Co. Sale: 50% Off Totes, Patterns $1, Samples

At the Woolcott & Co. closing sale, books and tote bags are now 50% off and single patterns are now $1.00 each. They're also putting knitted samples on sale.

Woolcott & Co. to Close; Clearance Sale Starts Today

Harvard Square is losing its yarn store. After decades in the square, Woolcott & Co. will be closing its doors.

The exact date that the store will close hasn't been settled yet; it will depend partly on how fast the owner can sell off the inventory.

Woolcott's going-out-of-business sale starts today. Everything in the shop is at least 25% off; novelty yarns will be 50% off.

Sean, the owner, is planning to start a new venture, PersonalKnitter.com. [Note: I'm including a link, but it's not up and running as of this writing.] He describes it as a service sort of like a personal trainer for knitters.

Details on the Woolcott store closing and the new venture from Sean's blog post.

40% Off Book Sale at Knitpicks

KnitPicks is having its annual fall book sale. The deal is 40% off all books in stock (so no discount on the books in their Upcoming Releases section). They don't have every knitting book under the sun, but they have a decent selection. And if you are spending more than $50, shipping is free. Here's the KnitPicks book section.

Oct. 3, 2009 edited to add: Another good reason to shop for books on KnitPicks: in many cases, they have many more photos of projects from the books than other web sites, including Amazon and the publishers' own web sites.

Porter Square Shopping

Several members of my regular Sunday knitting group in Somerville have noted that Porter Square Books (in the Porter Square Shopping Center, right next to Tag's Hardware) has a good selection of knitting books. It's not a giant store, and the knitting-book section takes up only a shelf or two, but it's a nice assortment. Just a few of the titles I've seen there are

• Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman,
• Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti,
• the Knitting Experience Books (The Knit Stitch and The Purl Stitch) by Sally Melville,
• Knitting on the Edge by Nicky Epstein,
• Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick,
• The Big Book of Knitting by Katharina Buss,
• Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush,
• Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson,
• Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley,
• the Knit Lit books of short knitting-themed fiction, and of course
• the ubiquitous Stitch 'n Bitch books by Debbie Stoller.

Recently I found out why the selection is so good: Lucy, the owner of Mind's Eye Yarns, which is right across the street, helped them choose their knitting books.

I like the bookstore for a lot of other reasons, too. It's roomy, laid back, provides chairs and tables, and the staff is helpful and friendly. They'll order anything they don't have, and usually get it in within a few days. I also like their selection of magazines. It’s not huge, and while they carry many of the mainstream titles, others weren't represented. (Example: they carry Vogue, Cosmo, Allure, and Marie Claire, but not Glamour). Nevertheless, I thought they offered a nice choice, including some less-common titles like the fashion magazine Nylon and the feminist magazine Bitch.

The store offers a monthly selection of Staff Picks, has frequent author readings, and offers a story hour for children on the first and third Wednesdays of every month.

There's also a 20% discount on current top 20 adult Book Sense Picks and a 10% discount for teachers on classroom purchases, if they show a teacher I.D. Plus, Porter Square Books offers a customer appreciation program whereby, for every $150 you spend, you get a coupon good for $7.50 worth of store merchandise. (There's no time limit in which you have to spend the $150 in order to get the coupon, either.) Even if you're pinching pennies, it's definitely a nice place to buy some of those books that Amazon doesn't discount anyway, or where the discount is so slight/shipping is so much (read: your order doesn't qualify for Super Saver Shipping) that you wouldn't save much, if anything, online.

If you go on a day when Mind's Eye Yarns is open (Wednesday through Sunday most of the year; closed Sundays in the summer), you can shop for yarn or spinning fleece and then troll both stores for books and magazines, knitting and otherwise. Mind's Eye will have spinning books and magazines as well as knitting.

June 1-5, when Mind's Eye Yarns is having its anniversary sale would be a good time to go. There'll be 25% off all yarn and spinning fibers, with some items 35% off.

Mind's Eye Yarns
22 White Street
Cambridge, MA 02140
(617) 354-7253
lucy@mindseyeyarns.com

Porter Square Books
Porter Square Shopping Center
25 White Street
Cambridge, MA 02140
(617) 491-2220
info@portersquarebooks.com