Knitters just sit there twiddling their fingers and soon socks or shawls or opera gloves magically fall off the ends of their needles. But a knitter without yarn is a witch without a spell. Cast on your next project with yarn from Knitorious in St. Louis Hills, the best LYS around. Owner Sandy Kulash's two-part secret to success? 1) Scads of fiber: The rooms are festooned with wool, silk, alpaca, mohair, cashmere, linen, cotton and more from top brands like Kauni, Noro, Regia, Rowan, Malabrigo, even St. Louis' own hand-dipped indie fave, Dyeabolical. All in vast arrays of color, from variegated mud to the rainbow itself. 2) Good people: The cheerful fanatics who work here love yarn and are happy to talk about it all day. They can also teach you what to do with it; lessons are offered on your schedule. Extra bonus points: This spacious, airy place rarely smells like secondhand lunch, even at lunchtime. Take note, smaller, less well-ventilated yarn stores: The vaporizing tallow from all those garlicky gyros your staff is wolfing down around the knitting table (instead of helping us find the perfect lace-weight merino) seeps into fiber like smoke from a pack of Pall Malls. (What, you ask, is an LYS? That'd be a Local Yarn Shop.)