Road Trip!
Hello my yarnie loves!
You may have noticed that we have been on the road a lot lately. Since last October we decided to spend time each month in our yarn shops. This gives us an opportunity to get to know you better. Right now we are focusing on our shops in the continental United States.
Our model to do this is the three hour trunk show. We come to your yarn shop with all of our vintage suitcases filled to the brim with yarn, our knits and patterns from a bunch of the amazing designers we work with. We help you find the perfect color, help size you for your projects and even discuss the pros and cons of our yarns for specific projects. One of my favorite things is helping knitters and crocheters figure out how to size themselves and their patterns to make something they will love and enjoy wearing.
Traveling is a great joy of mine, and I have been very fortunate to find some pretty cool people to travel with. Lacie Vasquez traveled with me last month; we just got back from our tour of New York, Ohio, Connecticut, and New Jersey yarn shops. This was my first time in each of these shops and my first time in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. My Dad was stationed in West Virginia when I was a kid and I have been to Massachusetts and Rhode Island a couple of times, but the rest of the East Coast is pretty much a mystery to me.
There isn't much time to explore when we are on the road. If you have ever been on any kind of tour, you might know what I mean. But we have to eat, and we try to build a little bit of down time into our schedules. This last trip we were actually able to spend the majority of a day exploring New York. We stopped in a yarn shop that was new to me. Lacie suggested we go to Brooklyn General Store. I couldn't imagine why she wanted to go there, but it ended up being a super cute shop full of notions, fabric and of course, yarn. Then we hopped on the subway to SoHo. I had to go to Purl Soho.
They were one of our very first shops and we have a great relationship. I know everyone in their California shop pretty well, but I had only ever met Joelle from their New York shop. We spend so much time emailing and talking on the phone, that I feel like I know everyone there. But I still felt like a shy school girl as I walked up and introduced myself. After a moment or two, we all fell into an easy rapport. They picked my brain about yarnie questions they had always wanted to ask, we asked about the best places to eat. And of course they recommended a great book store. I hated saying goodbye, but we only had so many hours to explore the city. By the end of the day, my pedometer said we walked 6 miles.
Each yarn store is so unique, I have been in dozens of yarn shops over the years and I can't say I have a favorite. Once I have been to a shop a couple times, it becomes like visiting a favorite relative. The first time or two in a new shop, it is like finding a long lost family member. You both want to be on your best behavior, but then you find you both speak the same secret language and fall into step as if you had always known each other. That is my favorite thing about knitters and crocheters, we come together for a common love and little else matters.
If you have been following us on social media, you might have noticed we drove to the East Coast, and flew home. The Beast, our truck, is currently parked at a friend's house. When we fly back to New Jersey, we will pick it up and continue our tour of the East Coast. Over the next few months we will be continuing south then westward. By December we will be in Texas and then it is just a hop and a skip back home. I hope we get to see you along the way!
