Fast, Easy, Portable and Cheap?

I dropped by Americo recently after a friend new to knitting went there on my recommendation and came away with her first sweater's worth of charcoal thick and thin yarn and gushing good things about the shop. I've been before but don't visit often - I just haven't been into Americo's singular style.

Anyway on this trip the very engaging owner showed me yarn/pattern combinations saying things like

 "this would be a really portable project - you could just tuck it in your purse and go!"

 "this is an easy one"

"only one skein and you're done"

I said I was okay with something tricky and was happy to undertake difficult/expansive projects. 

Her sales pitch remained unchanged - Fast, Easy, Portable and Cheap.

I found this to be so interesting.

First because "Cheap" of course was only in the "pitch" via single-skein projects. For anything demanding more yarn,  I bet most projects from there would come in on the pricey side.

Second in that Americo has been savvy side stepping the challenge of getting good fit without defaulting to socks and shawls. Instead their sweaters feature drop shoulders and boxy shapes, their cardigans are flowing and button-free, arm warmers outnumber mitts and cowls are ribbed, seed or moss stitched in bulky yarns. Fast, easy rectangles all.

So it dawned on me Americo does offer the avid knitter luxurious and on-trend neutral yarns but the shop isn't so much about the knitting, or how beautiful the yarn is in the skein or how lovely it will feel to slip through your hands as you work with it (all thoughts I generally have when cruising through an LYS) but rather how great it will be to soon wear something you're proud of and be able to tell people you made it! For the new or occasional knitter those are compelling prospects are they not? 

How clever you are Americo! I'm glad I went by there to look around. How fun to consider things from a fresh perspective!

I should maybe also add, "considering" aside, I didn't buy anything!