Love.Yarn.Shop.

Love.Yarn.Shop. has undergone a change recently.  My two sons both had two children in four years and I was called to be a grandmother.  Both my husband and I benefited from our parents being supportive with time and finances when our children were young.  We wanted to pay it forward with our children.  I reached out to the people who knew the shop and had worked the shop.  Did they want to be partners? 

No.  

However, they wanted to help and after having conversations, we came up with a model.  I called it membership, and I thought about different memberships:  health clubs, golf clubs, CSA’s, Co-ops.  The one which made the most sense was membership to a church or synagogue.  You join a place of worship and you work to keep it open:  you tithe, you help with the services as needed—you fix things when they need fixing.  You join because you share a belief system with others, and you want to take it into the next decade.  As knitters, crocheters, crafters, we have a belief system—a belief that making something with your hands is both important and satisfying, a belief in the community of knitters and crocheters where we sit together and enjoy our craft, a belief in the small yarn shop where we can touch the yarns, ask questions, get advice and instruction, and most importantly, a fundamental belief in small downtown America, where we can walk, shop, talk, and enjoy.  In short, we believe in community.

Why am I sharing this?  Recently a shop owner from Quebec, who opened her shop the same year I did, came in to say she had closed her doors.  I was heart-broken.  She had a lovely shop with space to sit and knit, with loose teas for sale, and, of course, lovely yarns.  If my story can become the story for other small yarn shops, if my story can help them stay open when they are facing financial unsustainability, this is a practice worth spreading. 

Customers visiting Love.Yarn.Shop. while on vacation regularly report that their local yarn shop has closed.  It is always with sadness.  Yet, we have 26 yarn shops across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine participating in the Great Northern Yarn Haul this year—several of them just a few years old.  Between July 7th and July 30th, knitters and crocheters will travel around the three states having their passports stamped, signing up for prize drawings, getting little goodies, and, in general, supporting small yarn shops and other local businesses.  We will have our kick-off party on July 7th from 5-7.  I have a limited supply of bags, so email me if you would like to reserve one.  You can purchase one for $10 or get one free with a $20 purchase from the shop.  Participants must visit 8 shops to be eligible for prizes.  

It’s the most stressful time of the year

With the needles a clicking

And everyone telling you the time’s getting near.

It’s the most stressful time of the year.

It’s the bus-busiest season of all

With those patterns-the neediest-and projects so tedious

And the diminishing ball.

It’s the bus-busiest season of all.

There’ll be hats to be casting

And sweaters’ll be lasting

With still many rows to go.

There’ll be mittens galore

And complex ornaments from 

Christmases long, long ago.

It’s the most stressful time of the year.

There’ll be much last-minute stitching

With ends that need weaving

When loved ones aren’t near.

It’s the most stressful time of the year.

There’ll be hats to be casting

And sweaters’ll be lasting

With still many rows to go.

There’ll be mittens galore

And sweet ornaments from 

Christmases long, long ago.

It’s the most stressful time of the year

There’ll be much last-minute stitching

With ends that need weaving

When loved ones aren’t near.

It’s the most stressful time,

Yes, the most stressful time,

Oh, the most stressful time,

Of the year!

Whilst hand spinners have always enjoyed spinning yarn from just one breed of sheep, larger spinneries have been developing Breed specific yarns. My first encounter was in England at the Yarntopia event in London. There I met Blacker Yarns, who have their standby’s—Blue Faced Leicester, Gotland, Jacob, and Shetland—but also have limited edition rare breeds, like Hill Radnor and Oxford Down. Cultivating breed specific yarns has been a growing interest in the United States. Right now I carry American Shetland from Montana and Colorado, Navajo Ramouillet, Cormo from Wyoming, Merino from Virginia, and Jacob from Vermont, so I was happy with Katie Sullivan of Bobolink Yarns in Vermont contacted me to carry the Breed specific yarns she is producing from local, mainly meat farms who do not use their wool: Cheviot, Coopworth, Clun Forest, and Romney. Katie is also interested in capturing wool which is going in the dump. She has upcycled mill ends from Darn Tough Socks that she has spun and dyed into beautiful and vibrant lace weight yarn. In addition, she is interested in figuring out how to put to use wool that is not appropriate for spinning but can be used for other purposes: mulching, soaking up spills, heat-resistant fabrics, etc. She will be speaking at the shop on Friday, March 11th, at 5:00 when we’ll be able to knit with some of her yarns. Join us!

The 6th Annual Great Northern Yarn Haul begins July 9th and goes to August 1st, with the most ever participating yarn shops–28–spanning from the coast of Maine to Lake Champlain! Love.Yarn.Shop. has their kick-off event on Friday, the 9th at 5:00. With a $20 purchase, participants get a free shopper tote (while supplies last). All the shops are contributing $25 gift certificates, which will be awarded to randomly drawn eligible contenders. Plus, many will have give-aways and door prizes!

At the beginning of every year, I make a list of 20 goals:  short-term, mid-term, and long-term.  The top of my short-term goals this year were my UFO’s (unfinished objects).  Finish, rip, or re-envision.  I may have more UFO’s than many because when I teach a class, I’ll start the project, but not always finish it.  So far, I bound off a lace-work shawl to make a doll’s shawl.  I finished a skirt—it only needed 1/2 row of knitting, binding off, and an i-cord!  I finished two half-completed second socks.  I took a two-color brioche scarf, bound it off, made a cowl and put two great buttons on it.  This is a partial list of UFO’s to finish:  second mitten, fair isle vest (back finished), summer top (back finished), baby sweater (up to arms), baby blanket in DK weight (into middle of second skein), cable throw blanket bulky (into third skein), lace weight cowl (3/4’s done), mitred-square baby blanket (into second row of squares), multiple single socks…you get the picture.  I know I am not alone in having multiple unfinished projects, and that I am not the only one picking away at projects and stashes.  I just received an email from a customer with this line, “I’ve been doing some “stash busting”- making a shifty cowl.”  This slip-stitch cowl uses three colors, so it is a great stash buster to use three single fingering weight skeins