North Puget Sound LYS Tour 2013, Day 2

Hello:

Today was the 2nd day of the 2013 LYS Tour for North Puget Sound.  Eight Eastside Stitchers got together to visit the shops today.  The plan was to meet at my house by 4:15 pm and drive to downtown Seattle by 5:00 pm for the first shop where we would meet the 8th member of the day's group, Tara1682, who was busing downtown from her job.

So Much Yarn

2107 Elliott Avenue #204
Seattle, WA 98121
206-443-0727

So Much Yarn is upstairs in the Cost Plus World Market building.  There is street parking (if you are lucky), or you can park in the Cost Plus World Market Parking lot inside.  We did that last year, and if you buy something (small and cheap) at the Market, they will validate your parking, so it is relatively free.

The yarn shop is down a cute open hallway.

And, at first you might think it is going to be small.  It is small, but not the smallest shop I have been in, and they make good use of their space.  This shop has a very wide selection of yarns.  They also pride themselves on their excellent service.

I was amazed at the amount of different yarn companies represented.

The shop has been in business for over 4 years at this address.  They serve the downtown clientele, with an excellent selection of  yarn from all purpose to art.

 

Seattle Yarn

5633 California Avenue SW
Seattle, WA 98136

Seattle Yarn is located in West Seattle.  They have a nice size parking lot in front of the store.  

This in not a small store, and the size is reflected in the amount and variety of yarns on display.

The aim of the owners is to enable you to do what you want.  They want fully functional customers.  To that end, they try to carry a huge variety of yarn.  As the owner described it to me, "The good, the bad, and the ugly."

They don't always publicize their sales because they like to surprise their customers.  They want shopping for yarn to be an adventure, a surprise every time you come to the store.  Just like they want the yarn to be a surprise.  Yes they carry many beautiful "regular" work horse yarns,

but they also carry the unexpected, and that can include an unexpected Trunk Show.

Seattle Yarn has been in business for 15 years, and in September, will have a month long celebration of their 15th Anniversary with sales and activities.

Makers’Merchantile

18437 East Valley Highway, #102
Kent, WA 98032
425-251-1239

Maker's Mercantile is the home of Skacel.  It is full of their yarn

and of course the wonderful Addi knitting needles.

They shop sells more than yarn and needles, however.  they have fiber for felting,

as well as fabric for sewing,

and crafting ideas of all kinds.

In their classroom, today, they had the designs from their reality knitting competition, The Fiber Factor. on display.  I couldn't take any photos, but, yarn crawlers could see the finished items from round 1 of the competition up close.

One interesting yarn they had in the store was their TeeCakes yarn, which is made from recycled T-shirts.

 

TheKnittery

601 S. Grady Way
Renton, WA 98057

Last year, when I visited the Knittery for the first time on the 2012 LYS Crawl, I thought it had a great selection of low to mid-priced yarns.  This was the shop for projects where you wanted something better than what you could find at Jo-Ann's or Michaels, but didn't want a high end yarn that was going to be difficult to wash and would break the bank.

My estimation of this store has changed quite a bit.  I still think it is a great place to buy your regular work-horse yarns, especially if you are knitting for kids or babies and want stuff that is reasonably priced, easy to care, and still much much lovelier than anything you could find at a craft store.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of what I would call higher end yarns there, too.  They had a decent selection of Madelintosh, and quite a bit of Rowan.

In fact, when I asked the owner what her favorite yarn is, although, like any good mother, she was reluctant to choose, she said right now she is really into the Rowan Fine Art Sock they have just begun to carry.  There is also a really nice book of patterns by Rowan to support the yarn line.

The Knittery has been in business for more than 45 years in the city of Renton.  They have watched knitting cycle up and down throughout those years.

How have they lasted so long in such a crazy field?

You have to work hard at it, but enjoy it, the owner told me.  The most important thing is to have fun and don't take yourself too seriously.

Perhaps the best endorsement came from a customer who was sitting at their generous knitting table, knitting.  "This is a great shop for helping knitters, for trouble shooting."  She went on to explain that at the Knittery, the staff helps everyone who comes in.  If you are stuck in your knitting, you can be sure someone will help you, not tell you to take a class, but actually sit down and help you right there with your knitting.

This doesn't mean that their classes are neglected.  In fact, classes are so popular at this yarn store, that they are completely booked up through September.

Tomorrow is the giant crunch day of yarn crawling where we will head up north and try to get quite a few shops visited.  I am not sure if I will have any energy when I get home to post, but I will try.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet on a Yarn Craw.

Super Quick Makers' Mercantile Grand Opening Offer

Really quick post to say that I just received an email about the Grand Opening at Makers' Mercantile this weekend.  Attached to my email were two pdf's about the Knit Red Charity Night which is this Friday, Feb 28th, and the Grand Opening with 2 nice coupons - one for a free coffee, and the other for 10% off the merchandise during the Opening.

I can't figure out how to post them, so if you want a copy of them, leave me a comment, and I think I will then be able to email the flyers to you.

Hope this works.

f1bercat

Makers' Mercantile Grand Opening March 1 - 3

Hello:


Yesterday, I visited Makers' Mercantile, the new Skacel Retail Shop and Gluten Free Bakery, in Kent, WA.

View Larger Map Get Directions View Bird's Eye

 Redbird1 picked me up at my house, and we had a little fiber fieldtrip together.

First, Redbird1 was amazed at how quick and easy it was to get there.  Of course, there was no working traffic as we went on a Sunday afternoon, but it is just a quick bop down the 405 to the 167 S and off on the first exit.

The store is very spacious.  They have much more than yarn and Addi needles (though they have those!).  My main reason for wanting to go was that I want to try the new Addi sock needles, the Addi Sock Rockets.  I bought one, size 2.0 (US 0) with a 40 in cable.  I almost always knit my socks 2-at-a-time with the Magic Loop method, so I need a long cable.  I will report back on what I think about the needles after Sock Madness is over and I have had a really good chance to try them out.

Back to the store.

It is light and airy.  They focus on their own needles, yarns, felting materials, and fibers.  This means that you can get a really good color selection of specific yarns.

Right off the bat (so to say) we saw beautiful fiber.

Most of it was for needle felting, and came in all colors and shades.

They had a wall of buttons from classic to quirky and fun.

They even had fabric for sale (Redbird1 got some for a new project bag.)  Organic fabric!

I wandered past the counter displaying the gluten free cookies (rather quickly as gluten free does not mean fat free), to a wall of mugs and cups for sale.

They also had super cute aprons and napkins.

Then, I turned around to the yarn.  The whole right side of the store holds their yarns.

As you can see, because they focus on their own yarns, they have the room to have lots of color choices for each specific label.  I was very tempted by the Trekking XXL sock yarns, but, held fast to my yarn diet.

They also have some very nice spaces.  They have a teaching/ crafting room:

And another room full of cozy couches and chairs where you can sip one of their coffees, nibble on a cookie, and just relax and craft:

This coming Friday, March 1, they are having a very special event, a Red Light Night, from 7 pm to 10 pm.  This is a benefit event for the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) in support of The Heart Truth, a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease.

There will be drinks and of course yummy food from the bakery, as well as "Red Light Specials."  The honored guest will be Laura Zander, of the books, Knit Red: Stitching for Women's Health and Sew Red:  Sewing and Quilting for Women's Heart Health.

15% of all sales from this evening of fun will be donated to FNIH.

There will also be Crafty Goody Bags for people who reserve in advance by calling 425.251.1239 and donate $20 to FNIH.

Also!  If you come dressed in RED, you will be entered in a drawing for a craft class of your choice.

Wow, it will be a really fun evening.

In addition to all the fun coming up this Friday, they have a calendar full of classes and happenings.  The store stays open late on Tuesdays and Thursdays for Sit & Stitch Nights.

Check it out this Friday, and support Women's Heart Health, a cause very close to home for me.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with  new circular sock rockets.

News About Skacel

Hello!

Last night I attended the October meeting of the Eastside Knitters Guild.  I have a lot of notes from the meeting, and I was writing furiously, so I hope I didn't get anything down wrong. If I did, I will be sure to correct and update this post.

The first things we talked about at the meeting were the many charities the guild is knitting for.  One of the interesting things that I learned, is that the members who work for Microsoft keep track of their hours of charity knitting, because Microsoft will match the hours with money for that charity, just as they match cash donations.  Isn't that generous?

The guild is busy with many many charities, but one that we discussed a lot was making scarves for the Special Olympics.  Last year, every participant in the Special Olympics received a Red and Blue scarf.  There were  1000 made just for Washington.  There was a special appeal for scarves for Alaska, so when we had finished our Washington quota, the guild got  busy and made scarves to send up to Alaska.  This year, however, instead of having all of the states use the same color scheme, each state is choosing it's own scarf colors.

The colors for Washington (which needs 1000 scarves) are
 Red Heart Soft    Really Red #9925, and Light Grey Heather #9440.

The colors for Alaska (which needs 750 scarves) are
Caron one-pound:
Midnight blue #456 and Sunflower  #549

There are no patterns you need to follow, just use both colors in your scarf.  They should be 6 in. wide and between 54 - 60 in long including fringe.

If you make a scarf, you can mail it (or drive it over if you are local) to:
Special Olympics Washington
Attn: Scarf Project
1809 75h Avenue, Suite 1509
Seattle, WA 98101

Contact:  Ginger Cutler-Campbell

After we had finished the business portion, we had a presentation by Karin Skacel (pronounced CAR -in ske - SELL), President of Skacel Collection, Inc.  They are a local company, with their facility just south of Seattle.  They are the sole North American distributors of my favorite knitting needles, Addi Turbos, as well as a bunch of really cool yarns.  All of this, and, they are a family company.  Local and family owned.

Anyway, Karin talked to us about their newest venture, a retail store coupled with a bakery that specializes in Gluten Free baked goods.  She wanted the "crafting community center,"  her daughter dreamed of running her own bakery, they are putting them together in "Makers' Mercantile."  They will have over 6000 sq ft of space.  There will be the bakery, a large space with a counter at the back and lots of room for tables, chairs, couches, etc. where people can sit and craft while enjoying the goodies.  Remember, Karin told us, "Gluten free does not mean calorie free."  She brought us some of her daughter's cookies to sample, peanut butter (honestly - to die for), and chocolate chip (equally yummy).  The food part will include espresso, local sodas, and teas.  There will also be plenty of room for classes.  Karin sees the store as way more than yarn and needles.  Of course there will be yarn and needles.  It is Skacel, after all.  But they will offer a variety of other crafting projects. 

One of Karin's big dreams is for the classroom space.  She wants to offer lots of classes and gave us a sampling of the projects they will be starting with.  The most amazing ones to me were the felting.  This is not fulling, as when you knit/crochet something and throw it in the washer to "full."  This is full on artistic needle felting. 

front of felted blanket

back of felted blanket

Check out the felted scarf:

It was amazingly light and soft.  The roving used to make it was cashmere.

Karin also talked about this hooking craft.  It's not the same as the latch hooking that was so popular in the 1970s.  She showed us some sample purse projects.

One of the things I liked about the projects is that they will be offered in a variety of price points, so you can do them relatively cheaply, or luxuriously. 

As for yarns, they will only sell their own brands.  There are many yarn shops in the Seattle area.  And these shops do a great job selling all kinds of yarn from Cascade to specialty local dyers.  They don't want to replicate that but rather compliment our local offerings with their own.  Makes great sense to me.

In addition to all of the cool crafting and felting classes, they will hold regular skill building classes for knitting and crochet, as well as offer classes with visiting instructors/designers such as Franklin Habit. 

Then the best part of the evening started.  Karin had brought a special set of Addi Needles size 15 filled with .....

Swarovsky Crystals.

I kid you not.  She raffled them off.  I did not win.


However, she also brought goody bags for all the Guild members who attended, so I did score one of those:

Not only did I get a new reusable bag, but inside there was a catalog with free patterns, a ball of their XXL Treking sock yarn, and a pattern for a project bag to be knit with the yarn.  Awesome goodies!

Thanks so much to the Skacel Collection for the great program, and especially to Karin Skacel for coming out to talk to the group.

Stay safe and well.
Yours,

f1bercat
shaping the planet with new sock yarn!