Labadie Looms

The SO’s been wanting to stop here for some time; you don’t see a loom store very often!
Finally got here today. The proprietor is very knowledgable and takes the time to explain technique. The roving and yarn selection is fairly small but of high quality. Local alpaca is featured. She has a wide selection of looms and wheels available. Classes are two day affairs.
Surely worth a visit if one is interested in fiber arts!

this is a really incredible place. it’s a very small store but somehow is also the most comprehensive spinning, weaving, and dyeing store i have seen. the entry is stuffed full of beautiful roving and the front half of the store has a spattering of gorgeous looms and wheels. when i walked in, the owner was giving a spinning lesson to a novice who really seemed to be enjoying herself.
one wing of the house is full of yarn– some large-​mill stuff but lots of hand-​dyed and independent stuff too. the needle selection is very small and limited but the yarn selection is utterly beautiful and makes up for it.
the other wing stocks two brands of dyes. it has piles of hand-​dyed wool fabric and small skeins of wool yarn that i suppose are for rug-​hooking.
there is a corner of artisan crafts– mostly ceramics– along a table that looks like it would make a good spot for a knitting (or spinning) circle.
overall, not the largest yarn store but the selection is really beautiful. next to the front desk, i saw (and almost impulse-​purchased) a vintage hardwood yarn swift. where else do you see stuff like that? i spoke to the owner for a few minutes and she said that, although the store had been at that location for over a decade, the family itself had been in the fiber business for 9 generations. i’ll just trust her on that even though i’ve never heard of something going back that far.