Love.Yarn.Shop.

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

I always say to customers who order a gift certificate, “Thank you, you have made two people happy:  me and the recipient.”  Gift certificates to small local businesses are a great way to  give during the holiday season.  Sometimes I think, “That business may go out of business before this person uses it, or loses it.”  A is they lost it, B is they can’t find it = C I helped that business stay in business.  The nice thing about buying a gift certificate to a local business is that, no matter what, you contributed to a business you like and want to support.  Whether the recipient used it is really unimportant, because you made the contribution to that business.   You told that business—you are important.  You didn’t buy a gift certificate to a box store, or a chain coffee house or restaurant, you put your money into a small shop on a Main Street that is the life of a town, in a town that you love.  So as you are wondering what to get for this person or that, consider buying a gift certificate to a local, small business…and this season, make two people happy.  Happy holidays.

I’m on a mission…for a phone box.  I’ve been moving yarn and needles along at the shop.  People donate from inherited stashes to abandoned library and school clubs, and I put a cardboard box outside the shop with “free yarn and needles.”  The problem is that the cardboard box is only out when my shop is open and the weather is good, so the access is limited to those days and hours, and I wonder if people might be too shy to poke around in the free box while the shop is open.  I’ve been inspired by the little free libraries that are popping up all over the world.  Then my friend sent me a picture of a jigsaw puzzle exchange, and I got to thinking, “Why not have a yarn exchange?”  Not just yarn, but needles, accessories, patterns, books—all things fiber related.  I came across a phone box little library in England and thought what a perfect structure! Made for the elements, water-tight and mouse-proof, with glass for viewing, the phone box is the ticket.  So I’m putting the request out there, requesting that you move it along, just like the yarn and needles.