One of my goals while traveling this next year is to visit as many yarn shops as I can.  I mean the fun little locally-owned ones, out of the way, where you'll see the owner helping a customer figure out a pattern and rewriting it to make more sense.  I was able to stop at such a shop before we left Santa Fe, New Mexico a couple of days ago. 

Oodles Yarn & Bead Gallery was smaller than I expected, but still worth dealing with a tiny downtown area and scarce parking.  (One reason I'm glad we are bringing my little car on this trip - some places are just not meant for a 31ft motor home!)  The owner was super friendly - the right mix of 'can I help you?' and letting you browse and drool over the yarns.  (While the name does say Bead Gallery, there isn't much of a selection of beads - go for the yarn!) 

She had some hand-painted yarns that were beautiful - I've a soft spot for OOAK yarns like those.  And bamboo blend yarns - if you haven't had the pleasure of working with one you owe it to yourself to go out right now and buy a skein.  So wonderfully soft and bamboo has a sheen unlike any other.

Even though my shop space is currently limited to the trunk of my little car, I did buy one skein of yarn.  One of those purchases where I have no idea what I'm going to make with it, but couldn't resist.