Liscat

RIP Liscat :(

liscat is closed

Since my first review I’ve been back many times, mostly because my knitting group Long Beach Stitch N Beach meets there every other week. In that time I’ve come to know and love the store even more. A lot of it has to do with the owner, Katrina, who’s a wonderful funny lady and accommodates our group so well. She’s also given me lots of advice on what types of yarns to get for a particular project and has made some great recommendations to me. Now that I’ve become a slightly more advanced knitter, I’ve also come to appreciate what a nice yarn store Liscat is, with its large selection of high-​quality yarns and accessories. It’s one of my most favorite places to be!

Now that I’ve been knitting a bit longer and have taken classes at Liscat, I’m bumping it up to a five! As I’ve spent more time here, I’ve come to see that Liscat really is a home-​base for many knitters in the area. You can come in just to hang out and chat or to get help when you knit yourself into a corner. Cathrine’ is always friendly and helpful, and everyone seems to be welcome here. Liscat also holds special events such as classes, excursions, and even a «yarn tasting» this weekend! It is truly an integral part of the local knitting community.

PROPS TO LISCAT
what gracious, wonderful ladies — always willing to help — they are always friendly & laughing & VERY welcoming.
And, they’ve got beautiful yarns to boot.

If I’m in the area I try to visit this LYS because it’s nice. I’d love it if it had a larger sock yarn selection but they do have a rather large yarn selection over all. They also carry the Namaste bags which are hard to find. They have a couple sitting areas although I’ve never felt comfortable enough to sit and knit and they also have a flower shop inside. I always seem to find yarn here for my stash! Oh, but sock yarn doesn’t count for stash, right?!

Ok, more stars this time. I went back because I needed another size needle because I am an knitting addict. This time, while I did receive assistance, I had the feeling I was being hurried out of the store since I was there with my toddler and baby. (Both well under control, I might add). I saw more that I liked this time, so I may be back, but I still didn’t particularly care for my reception. I may be overly sensitive though– maybe she was trying to help the tired looking woman with two small kids? I don’t get much sleep, so who knows.
So, I’ll give them another chance– they are right on the way to the husband’s favorite comic book store, and I do so love to carpool when we go blow the kids’ college funds on crap. We shall see.

My knitting group meets here every other Wednesday. I LOVE being here. It has such an upbeat atmoshpere.

I love LisCat. :)
I am working on the Seascape Stole for my mother (check out Ravelry) and have needed help getting started. I for the life of me could not figure out what I was doing wrong. Turns out it was rather simple, but I wouldn’t have know it, had I not gone into LisCat.
I actually purchased the yarn months ago from Alamitos Yarn Co., which I think tends to carry more the yarns I have tended to use in the past, but I was not very impressed with the store or it’s sales people. I have no desire to go back, except it’s seaside location.
Liscat was the opposite. I walked in, asked for help, was seated at this huge table, and within a half hour was actually working on my scarf. The owner was super helpful. A another regular at the store was sitting at the table knitting with me and we had a great conversation. A few more regulars came in and they invited me to go hang out in the back knitting area with them. It was great. The ladies were a lot of fun. I didn’t want to leave and I absolutely want to go back.
There was a really cool bag there from Namaste that I want to buy and I loved the addition of the floral shop. It may sound funny, but it’s so warm and cozy that way.
This review is kind of all over the place, but LisCat is awesome. I suggest you go check it out and bring a project with you, so you can hang out and see how cool the place really is for a little while. The exact text I sent to my friend… «I found my version of knitting heaven.»

I forget how I found this place… but I know I read it randomly on Unilocal.Boy do I love Unilocal,because it helps me discover all these wonderful new places. Liscat is fantastic for knitting nerdies. I fell in love with the décor and how the place is set up. I love the oversized tables and the sitting area. Next time I will definitely bring some knitting projects to share or work on… or get help on. I’m not the best of knitters… I only make little things like scarfs, but with all the lovely unique yarn at Liscat it makes my simple scarf look very nice!
The staff was very friendly and she would let me know what how many skeins I would need for a scarf, what size needles I should use. She was very helpful! Hopefully I will have a couple of beautiful scarves soon.

The yarn (Rock Star) that I have been salivating for all year came back into stock, and I finished the scarf recently. I will post a photo, but just wanted to add that the owner of the shop is always a pleasure to do business with — she asked me to bring the scarf in when I was finished, which I plan to do. Great shop — you should go!

I LOVE LISCAT!!!
I come to this store to be inspired by the beautiful, creative knitting and crochet projects throughout LisCat. This is the most wonderful, warm and inviting knitting store I have been. LisCat’s Katrina is an extraordinary woman, who has created such a friendly and enchanting store. Katrina is very helpful and her store offers great teaching class on how to knit, crochet and sew.
LisCat sells every type of yarn imaginable, from alpaca yarn, angora, cashmere and more. It is a wonderful and eclectic knitting store that welcomes every knitter, crocheter and craft person.
I love this store.

LisCat is the supreme Yarn Store in all of Long Beach, and all of SoCal as far as I am concerned.
–The owners are very welcoming and friendly, and are always available to help you in your yarn endeavors. Katrina is especially encouraging and positive.
–The store is beautifully decorated with warm, quirky colors that inspire the artist in you.
–The new location is conveniently located a few blocks from the Lakewood Mall and LBCC.
–A Yarnie will usually bring some sort of yummy snack or beverage to share with a group of knitters.
–Any question you may have, no matter how difficult or trivial is easily answered by the wonderful owners. If you need more assistance, they will recommend a class (which is affordable!).
–The yarn is clearly marked, and arranged so that you can easily find it.
–They have a wide-​range of kits that are handsomely packaged. These make handy gifts for your knitting friends.
–Classes are affordable and centered around you. I learned some techniques that would of cost me more if I were to go elsewhere.

I love LisCat, and really couldn’t tell you enough good about it. The owner, Cat, is usually there 6 days a week and offers individualized classes as well as group project classes. If you see her sitting with someone at the large table you can bet she’s teaching, but she’ll take time out to help you with whatever you need, no problem!
I disagree with a previous poster on two points. First, I don’t feel like I’m ignored when I come into the store, just free to browse. I personally don’t like it when I go into a store and someone is crowding me with an immediate greeting and asking if I need help finding anything.
Also, there are prices posted for 99.8% of the yarns in the store, but they’re posted on a list inside a sheet protector that hangs from the cubbys. If for some reason the yarn isn’t on the list, it’s on the master list that is kept at the register, and someone has always happy to tell me what the price is.
I love meeting there with my SnB group as well as dropping in on the weekends for informal knitting. I even signed up for a on-​going class on Fridays where we’re making 20 blanket squares to form an afghan.
Please support this LYS… it’ll get better and better!
I may be biased… I but I like this store so much that I offered to help get a group going on
for Cat… I try to post updates regularly.

Beautiful store, good selection, sweet staff who lets me knitting group take over a few nights a month.
But I get a weird vibe here, like the owner really doesn’t care that I’m there. I get ignored in stores a lot but I’ve never once been greeted by a staff member until I’m 1) there for forever or 2) go up to someone and ask a question.
Plus not having the yarns (or even the bins they’re in) priced bothers me. I rarely buy here because I always have to ask how much things are!

Great yarn and good atmosphere! I much prefer this location to the 2^nd Street location as it is more spacious and has better lighting. And while Katrina may occasionally be distracted with other knitters or shoppers in the store, she is always kind, gracious and helpful. She has even allowed our LB knitting group to meet there 2 Weds a month. Please find the time to support this business and keep this yarn store around!

Liscat is a spacious store, artfully arranged. In fact, funky and «artful» are words I’d use to describe this store. It looks like «Weekend Knitting» come to life.
There are lots of fun samples like knitted lampshades, chair covers and wall hangings, plus a couple racks of items to buy. My favorite was a heart-​shaped wall hanging that hangs on the wall behind the register. Yarn artists will feel at home here.
While I didn’t spend a huge amount of time browsing the yarns, my impression is that they sell mostly upscale natural fibers – no acrylic DK here. A good number were in the $ 15 — $ 25/​skein price range. I saw several unique, hand-​painted yarns, such as Misty Mountain.
They also had shelves and shelves of books.
You won’t find a wall of knitting needles, crochet hooks, or other tools here, either. However, you will find some cute novelty knitting needles, beaded stitch markers, and knitting-​oriented jewelry.
The social knitting area is cozy – sofas, chairs, and coffee tables – for that feeling of knitting at home.
One other unique thing about Liscat: it has a small florist kiosk inside.
I have two small gripes. Gripe # 1: In some places, the lighting is really lousy. It can be difficult to see or match colors. Gripe #2: As soon as I walked in, someone offered to assist me. I told them I was just checking the store out so I wanted to look at everything. We chatted about knitting and favorite yarns, and then she went back to the social area. But, about 10 minutes later, she moved to the front of the store, kept knitting, but watched me shop. I felt like she thought I was shoplifting or something.
All in all, it’s a beautiful shop with beautiful yarns. It’s a place I’d go to treat myself to something special or get ideas for creative projects; however, it’s not the place I’d go if I just needed to knock out a baby blanket or baby sweater for a shower gift.

There is a lot of variety of luxurious and specialty yarns at Liscat. Which can be pricey, but hard to find other places. It took several trips to the store to find exactly what I needed. They don’t carry Jaeger Lurex Shimmer (& neither does Alamitos Bay Yarn.) So I needed something else to replace it with. They weren’t really getting what I was asking for until I was looking through their wide selection of books in the back and happened upon pattern that used the exact same yarn in the same color. I showed it to the owner and who got excited because she had made the pattern and replace the Jaeger with something that they did have in the store. It took a little while for her to dig around on the bottom shelves and pull it out, but there it was! It was around $ 12 a spool but I can make about three of the project with the amount so it doesn’t come out to that much per item.
Lakewood Florist has just moved into a space int he store. It’s a little weird to have flowers and yarn together. But it makes it really pretty inside with all flowers, bright yarns, and quirky IKEA furniture and decorations.
Right after I finish the toy robot that the Jaeger was for I’m going to save up to buy some Angora or Merino wool to make a really luxurious sweater with a simple pattern.

liscat’s new shop is more spacious and comfortable than the previous one on 2^nd street, but i haven’t been by as often as it is more out of the way from where i live. i’ve heard mixed opinions about people’s experiences here and can see where katrina’s attention may often be diverted to whatever group of knitters may be communing in the shop as she seems very social. even i have had to wait at times to get attention, but i’m usually not bothered by this or in a hurry. she’s been really gracious and friendly to our knitting group, which meets there almost every other week.
liscat was one of the first shops in long beach to carry rio de la plata sock yarn in some lovely hand-​dyed colors. it’s spring, and there is a nice selection of appropriate fiber.
when i first started knitting over a year ago, i found the shop to be much more accessible than alamitos bay yarn. the prices aren’t necessarily better, but they have more of the moderately priced yarn that is nicer than what you might find at joann’s or michaels, if you’re on a budget.

I don’t want to be negative, Liscat was a disappointment for me. I knew what I wanted to knit and just needed the pattern and materials to make it happen. After reading Unilocal reviews I decided it was time to venture further from home and find Liscat.
The store itself has a great feeling. Even with the warm weather, it is nice and cool inside, what with the bare floors and tall, tall ceilings. The yarn selection is pretty nice and wonderfully spread out (a rarity in a yarn store).
The problem for me was the social knitting group in the back sitting area. I LOVE the idea of knitters coming together to talk and knit. It is an activity that brings all sorts of knitters together and can be very welcoming. I find that the crowd of knitters in a store often reflects the general feeling of the place, and Liscat was no exception.
I like a hands-​off sales approach, but this was something else. I was approached once, and asked if I needed help. I said I was just looking, and she left me to browse. The problem was, she never came around again. If I hadn’t interrupted the knitting group to get her attention, I never would have had it. There were two other patrons in there with me, and we were all coping on our own, looking sheepishly at each other and at the group in back, but I think all of us wouldn’t have minded a second offer of advice/​help.
When I had stopped the group conversation with my attempt at subtly approaching, I asked about a pattern I’d seen on
. Rather than take 5 minutes with me to go online and help me find out what I needed to know (I told her I would find the pattern and just wanted the yarn), and even though I’d already seen the open laptop just feet away from us, it was suggested I go home, find what materials I need and come back. This irked me for several reasons:
1. It was neither an easy nor a short drive from my place to the store; and
2. If I was going to end up buying at least $ 95 worth of yarn-​related materials this time, and would then be much more likely to return, wouldn’t it be worth the time that she might have to take away from the knitting circle to make me a customer?
The chatting the circle was doing was the type that made me think of what men and non-​knitting women assume happens at times like those, which made me yearn for the more diverse and often more mature patrons at Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, which I thought I’d NEVER say (I am relatively young, although old at heart). In SF my favorite shops were Atelier and Greenwich Yarns, both of which are filled with young knitters. Needless to say I left disappointed and will not get the urge to try a new knitting store again any time soon.