We have a new yarn shop. By we I mean the world at large, central Texas in general, Dripping Springs Texas in specific, and me quite specifically. I have a new yarn shop to go to. Get ready to be envious! Or, if you live within driving distance, get ready to go to your new yarn shop.

The Sated Sheep in Dripping Springs, Texas is about 20 miles from me. That’s close enough to qualify as one of my LYS’ (local yarn stores). In my weekly knit&crochet group we have been talking about The Stated Sheep for a while. We have been patiently waiting for it to hurry up and open. A member of our little weekly group had agreed to teach classes there (more on that later) and she fed us a steady diet of tantalizing details so when the Grand Opening finally came we planned a road trip and went to get us some yarn.

The Stated Sheep offers fine yarns, wine by the glass (*cough* just making sure you notice this little nicety), art, education, and love. Its a shop that wants you to be happy, to be sated, and to stay for as long as you like. If you check out their website you’ll see that there are events, and classes, and drop-ins, and knit-a-longs. There will be an on-line shopping feature in the future. There will be everything you need.

The Grand Opening seemed to go very well. The shop was full the whole time I was there. People were petting and smooshing and sniffing yarn in every isle and I think the owners have a hit. Here is one very carefully taken picture that only shows people who know me (and therefore have to put up with having their picture splashed around on the internet) and the owner, Allison, in the back left.

Ready for the tour?

For the Grand Opening the shop had lots of freebeis. Free project bags, free drop-in classes, free wine, and free coffee. These people gave me free coffee while I was a high on yarn fumes. Which is why when I got home I found that I had taken 96 pictures in that shop. After some work, some weeding out, and some collage-ing images together, I had 19 pictures I wanted to show you. No sane blogger puts 19 pictures in a post.

Fortunately for you I never claimed sanity was one of my virtues. I think I know my readers and I think they like yarn and yarn-related eye candy. I think they would feel slighted and peeved if I withheld the yarn and yarn-related eye candy from them. So I’m not doing that. But I did break this post into three pages so that it wouldn’t take half an hour to load into your browser. If you want to see it all, be sure to click “next page” down there at the bottom.

The Amenities

As I mentioned this is a shop that wants you to come and stay. There is lots of seating. There is a sofa, two soft chairs, four small work tables, and then a separate bigger table for people taking classes. And the lighting is great, which I think you can tell from the pictures. You can get some progress made on your project at The Sated Sheep.

While you’re here, have some refreshments. They offer coffee, soda, wine by the glass, and beer. There is a pizza place right next door. Seriously why would you ever leave and go back home to your loving family at all?

If you happen to need a pattern they got you covered. There is the beginnings of a nice browsing/lending library in the shop already. There is also an inviting little computer station for when you just have to spend the next hour finding that perfect pattern on ravelry.

Now I don’t know why I missed taking a picture of it (I should have had more coffee I guess), but there is a massage chair in the shop. Oh yes. Mondays the shop is closed… except for chair massage parties. Oh yes.

A word about the atmosphere. Allison and her husband (who from here on really should be known as Mr. Sated Sheep) are clinical psychologists. They understand support and love and that crafting is therapy. Which might be why when I went to the little girls room to get rid of all that free coffee I found this on the wall:

Shamelessly Promoting My Friend And the Other Teachers

The Sated Sheep has a line up of teachers and classes ready to go. I don’t think everything has quite made it onto the website events calendar so call the shop at (512-829-4607) to find out what’s going on. I personally recommend Carrie’s classes. She teaches on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is her grandson flirting with my camera doing a fitting for the coat Carrie is making for him to wear this winter.

Carrie can teach you how to make that. She can teach you how to make pretty much anything. She is a master crocheter and master knitter*.

*I don’t care much for official certifications or organizations that want to determine who can be called “master” and who can’t. I know a master crafter when I see one and Carrie is one.

Keep going. You haven’t seen the yarn that’s waiting for you to come buy it or the yarn that you didn’t get to buy because me and my friends got their first and bought it before you could.