Jeez Leweez & Weekend Photos Too!

Jeez Leweez ... no, not exasperated, it's a yarn store review . Actually, 3 reviews in one. I'v made the rounds and seen the shops. This weekend, on my weekly sojourn to Captiva, I visited Jeez Leweez, a lovely little shop on Sanibel Island. It's primarily a needlepoint shop so I was a bit disappointed. The owner couldn't be nicer, as friendly as they come the moment I walked in. Unfortunately, they don't do finishing or really have much of a yarn selection but if you're in need of a canvas or other stitchery, Jeez Leweez is the Miss Congeniality of knitting shops in southwest Florida.

I also visited Idle Hours. This shop is practically around the corner from home and has a nice selection of yarns - a lot of cotton blends but it is Florida after all! Again, the owner was really friendly but I definitely got that "why is this man in my store vibe". Once we started chatting though, she told me about their special events, best times to come and their secret knitting night when the locals gather after hours! I'm sure this will become my shop of choice based just on its geography. If you live in the area, I'm sure this is a great place to learn to knit.

The last shop was in Naples, Knitting with Nancy and definitely had the widest array of yarn. This place was jam packed with stash options. One of the owners, who never really seemed to get over the "why is this man in my store vibe" was extremely knowledgeable about knitting. This was not someone who jumped on the bandwagon as knitting got popular but someone whose been knitting a lifetime. She will be my finisher for sure but her shop is just too far away for weekly/everyday "drop in" knitting. I'd also highly recommend this shop to anyone looking to learn to knit or advance their skills.

It's funny, Knitting with Nancy is run by two or three women and reminded me of a knitting shop in Chatsworth, CA run by two elderly sisters who fought like cats and dogs and spoke to each other like Liz and Dick in Who's afraid of Virginia Wolfe? It was always a hoot stopping there. I heard through the grapevine they recently closed (and had a huge sale). I'm sad they closed and even more sad that I missed the sale!

Otherwise, the rest of the weekend was spent in the sun and working on my photography skills. I'm appreciating foliage, those that know me in L.A., are roaring!

P.S. Saw the new Viggo Mortenson film, could have been great but missed its mark. In one scene, Viggo's naked in a Haman and gets into a "to the death" kind of fight with 2 other thugs and all I can say is they edited it very carefully cause I was looking and I didn't see a thing. What's that about?