Our Trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee

One of the things I was looking forward to doing while we were in Gatlinburg was visiting a yarn shop located there, called the Smokey Mountain Spinnery.



Due to a lack of planning on my part, Patrick and I walked for what seemed like a mile uphill to the yarn shop. It really didn't look all that far on the map. As we were walking up the hill, we stopped in the shade to look at the misleading map, a really nice lady told us she was a local and asked where were trying to go. We told her and she said she really didn't think the Spinnery was still open. At this point, I felt sort of dumb for not calling the place to make sure it was still in business. Then she said that the shopping center where the Spinnery was suposed to be has free parking. I said, this is silly, we should just turn back, we don't even know if the place will be there when we get there. But Patrick insisted that we keep walking. I kept slathering on the sunblock, and we traveled on. When we finally made it to the shopping center called the Winery, I saw the sign. The Spinnery was just ahead, on the second story of a nearby building.

The store was open! We went up and took a look around. There were lots of different beautiful yarns, and I wanted all of them, but narrowed it down to three skeins. I bought two sock yarns and one yarn that was spun by the owner. I really like the one that she spun; I’d say it’s a worsted weight yarn. I bought the really big hank of it, and I’m sort of wondering how I will put it into balls so I can use it. It’s a really pretty light brown Alpaca yarn.



One thing I really liked about this store is that there are actually two stores. The yarn shop is on one side of the store and the Smoky Mountain angler shop is on the other. This made it easier for me to shop without feeling bad that Patrick was bored. Another feature of the store that I liked were the llama and alpaca dolls around the store holding knitting needles. Selma said that they are made by a friend of hers. They were adorable, and I really wanted to get one, but I decided to buy the yarn instead.
While we were checking out, she told us she was headed to downtown Gatlinburg to demonstrate spinning. She is part of Smoky Mountain Tunes & Tales™, which is a program where musicians, artisans, and storytellers entertain visitors while teaching them something about Gatlinburg’s culture and history.