Changing Tides is located on the second floor of a downtown building (so you have to be looking for it!). Check out their Facebook page at Changing Tides! And they have cool shop bags!
Yak yarn…who knew there is such a thing?
Mini skeins from Northern Bee!
And beautiful yarn from Alaskan Yarn Company in Homer, Alaska!
From their website at www.ravenshook.com:
Hats, blankets, amigurumi, socks? We carry a variety of acrylic, cotton, wool, and silk yarn for every project. Along with hooks, needles, and all kinds of accessories. We also carry embroidery thread, latch hook, and sewing supplies.
I bought/ invested in Raven Frog Fiber yarn in yummy colors and quviut roving. Quviut comes from the fine undercoat of the muskox. Expensive? Yes, very! But it will motivate me to keep practicing with my drop spindles on less expensive roving until I get much, much better at it.
We took a Cruise along the Inside Passage of Alaska from Seattle to Sitka to Juneau to Skagway to Haines to Icy Strait Point to Ketchikan to Victoria, BC, and back to Seattle.
My spouse and friends were good sports as I obsessively sought out Local Yarn Shops!
From their website at www.three-loves.com: “Three Loves is a retail yarn store that offers a wide selection of boutique yarns, needles, notions, gift items, and classes for all sorts of stitchers from beginner to seasoned expert. Our goal is to supply, care for, encourage, and grow the community of stitchers in the Treasure Valley and maintain a hands-on shopping and teaching facility which promotes community and celebrates all things colorful and creative.”
Three Loves Yarn is fairly new on the Local Yarn Shop (LYS) scene with an up-and-coming schedule of classes and events. There’s a Wednesday morning gathering from 9am – Noon as well as a Thursday & Friday Night Knit from 5 pm – 9 pm. They will celebrate their Birthday week June 1st – June 4th with fun sales and specials all week! June 11th is National Knit in Public Day, and Three Loves is throwing a big knitting and crocheting party outside on the patio.
The Twisted Ewe in Boise, Idaho
From their website at www.twistedeweidaho.com: “The Twisted Ewe came from the idea of having a place where people felt comfortable gathering around textiles. To sit around a big table, talk about stitches, exchange big ideas, and help each other out is at the core of our yarn shop.”
Owner Carolyn Parkinson and her knowledgeable staff create a place where the presence of comfy chairs, books, coffee, and two shop dogs invite customers to sit and stay for a while. The Twisted Ewe keeps the community involved with their fiber education events throughout the year including the Spring Tangle, Sweater Weather Get Together, Knit-in-Public Day and Fiber Frolic. They also host Trunk Shows and Pop-ups from Indie Dyers across the country.
In addition to all the incredible yarn and gift items they carry, Twisted Ewe offers a great variety of classes. I’ve taken Beginning Knitting, Spinning, Felting Soap, Branch-Weaving, Mesh-Weaving, Macrame, and Tunisian Crochet classes there. Their Semi-Annual Clearance Sales are amazing (my spouse says I am not allowed in there unsupervised…), and their Shop Sample Sales are not to be missed!
From their website at www.stillyriveryarns.com:
“Stilly River Yarns is a full-service yarn and fiber arts shop on the west side of Stanwood, Washington. Whether you’re a crocheter, felter, knitter, spinner, or weaver, there’s something lovely for you to discover here!”
I found Stilly River Yarn by serendipitous accident (or fate) when visiting our adult children in the Seattle area. We were driving through town and I pulled up Google Maps to look for a place to eat in Stanwood… but when I saw “Stilly River Yarn” pop up on the map, we took a detour and found Stilly River Yarns in a charming old house. My (starving) husband was a saint and sat in the car for a good hour while I got to know Lindsey Spoor. A former French teacher turned yarn shop owner, she is an enthusiastic wealth of fiber knowledge and supporter of her community. Conscious of the ever-changing post-pandemic mask and social-distancing requirements, Stilly River has a strong web and Facebook presence offering Zoom-Baa social gatherings and virtual classes along with a great on-line shop. Check out her blog on the differences between yarn hanks, skeins, and donuts (and cakes and balls). Uh-oh… donuts… cakes… now I am hungry!
What is a Local Yarn Shop?
A Local Yarn Shop (LYS) is a small specialty shop which sells yarn and other accessories related to knitting, crocheting, weaving, and spinning. Shops may also offer classes and community events to promote the art of the craft as well as selling finished products. Yarn shops offer specialty yarn and roving (long bundles of fiber spun to make yarn) made of natural fibers such as wool, cotton, flax, and bamboo. These are higher quality (and more expensive) than the mass-produced acrylic yarns offered in the craft section of big box stores.
Next up: My favorite Local Yarn Shops