If you participated in the first first annual North Shore Yarn Crawl, you know just how much fun it was.  Everyone who walked in the door was having an absolute blast exploring all the North Shore fiber goodness.  As you know, it poured rain the entire time but it didn’t slow folks down or spoil their fun.

Each shop had something different to offer and I think the shop owners had as much fun as the Crawlers.  And boy did we have Crawlers! Just about 600 of you joined us over the four days.  A few who completed all 12 shops looked like they might actually be crawling by the time they were done, but they still had a smile on their face and some fabulous fiber finds in their hands.

So many folks have been asking for a wrap up and info about the winners.  It’s been so hectic this month and we’ve all been working hard to notify winners so apologies for the slow update.  The crawl had at least 50 winners and probably more than I even know about because each shop offered different prizes and promotions of their choosing.  I know that someone won something in our shop every hour!

So congrats to:

Nancy, Rachel, Sally, Kelly, Aaron, Nancy, Karen, Deb, Nancy, Lisa, Cindy, Elaine, Diane, Linda, Christina, Jess, Carol, Teresa, Tricia, Lauren, Karen, Mary, Abby, Mary Jo, Louise, Gail, Allison, Jean, Kelly, Kelly, Sheila, Janette, and sooo many more!

Many have also asked if there will be a repeat next year and never fear we’re all working on plans for Yarn Crawl 2011!  If you’re interested in staying up to date as we get closer to a 2nd annual event, sign up at www.ayarncrawl.com for updates specifically about a crawl next year.

We had an amazing time last Friday night, March 5th, with Jane and Ken from Jade Sapphire for our Cashmere and Cocktails event.  If you haven’t squished Jade Sapphire yarn yet, you simply must.  It’s amazingly beautiful.

Jane and Ken only embarked on this expedition with Jade Sapphire seven years ago because of a lack of access to cashmere yarns for knitting and now are the leading distributor of cashmere yarns for hand knitting in the U.S.

This is Jane, talking to some of our customers about yummy cashmere

We asked Jane why the yarns are labeled by the ply of the yarn, e.g. 2ply, 4ply, 8 ply, etc., rather than by gauge.  she explained to us that she didn’t want to limit knitters and “knit them into a box” so speak by dictating the needle size.  Above she was showing off a long swatch where she knit with the 4 ply from a size 3 needle all the way up to a 10 and the fabric performed beautifully on all.

This is Ken, talking to us about where the cashmere comes from.

Ken and Jade recently visited the region where the cashmere yarn comes from and visited the facilities where it’s process to understand not only the process and quality, but to make sure the goats were happy and healthy as well as the workers in the plants.  What a great company huh?  Squishly yarns that are also socially conscious.

Just a glimps of garments on display during the event

Can you imagine having this many cashmere scarves?

It was a full house that night.  Thanks to everyone who attended the event.  You walked away with some fabulous cashmere, some new info, and hopefully it a great time.

Thanks everyone!

Two updates: We were so excited about squishing cashmere and talking to folks we forgot about door prizes!  So I’ll be drawing from the list of folks who attended and will call you if you win a prize!  Seriously isn’t that awesome!

Also, many customers have since asked where I purchased those AMAZING cupcakes. They were from Kiss Ass cupcakes in Somverville and were all gluten free because I’m a Celiac!

We’ve had such a great class line up this winter. Not just because of the large number of classes we’ve been able to offer but because of our amazing line up of teacher and the energy and excitement of the students who’ve signed up.

This Sunday was no different. I caught the tale end of our Dorset button class, taught by a new addition to our teaching staff, Jules Means. I walked in to a bunch of smiling faces and lots of jubilation!

See don't they look excited?

Jules really got the ladies’ creative juices flowing.  The table was heaped with yarn in all colors and weights as well as some finished buttons to showcase what can be done.

A seriously inspirational table

The students ended up with some fantastic finished projects.  Also make sure to check out a blog post from fellow SSFY teacher and (on Sunday) student, Rhonda Culbert, about her experience in the class.

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Isn't this beautiful

We hope to run this class again in the coming weeks.  If you’re interested in joining the next session.  Give the shop a call and ask to be put on the list.  Once we have the date secured we’ll give you a call and try to get you registered.  As a reminder, check out our class policy and pre-payment is required to secure your spot in any class as the demand for them is so high.

I’m so excited to announce that we are organizing a yarn crawl this spring to some of Boston’s North Shore’s amazing yarn shops.

As many of you already know, Boston’s North Shore is an amazing place and we have a wealth of awesome fiber shops, each with their own personality and something special to offer. As the new kid on the block, I decided it would be fun to get us all together and organize a crawl just when we are fighting the last doldrums of winter and need something to really look forward to.

Enter A Yarn Crawl 2010!

Sign up for more info on the website

We have nine amazing stores participating. Stay tuned for more info in the coming days.

See participating stores

Before I left for vacation, we were so lucky to host Sharon Brant from Rowan for an amazing workshop on how to “Suit a Garment to You”. It was a fabulous experience for all who were able to attend.

Sharon started us off with a discussion about how we should approach a pattern and think about how it might fit around areas of “focus” for each one of us.

Sharon then helped each one of us create our own custom template to use to modify any pattern to our own individual shape.  We figured out how to look at the width of our shoulders, length of our torso, etc and tweak the pattern measurements to best fit each frame.  It was fantastic!

Seed Stitch was a busy place that Tuesday night.  We not only hosted Sharon, but we had two of our regular session classes running, beginning knit with Cindy and My First Sweater with Sumner.  So we were all a bit squeezed but it made for a fun, festive, and inspiring night.

After a fantastic workshop, but one filled with quite a bit of math as we measured and modified, we ended the night with a celebratory sip of champagne!

Also check out Sharon’s project journal from her trip to Seed Stitch on KnitRowan.com

The Common Cod Fiber Guild is hosting a fab event tonight for their monthly meeting.  It’s a fashion show celebrating local talent called Make Mine Local.

Guido Stein has done a great job rallying the troops to pull this event off.  It will be held tonight, November 13th, starting at 7:00 PM at 50 Vassar St. Cambridge in Room 34-101 at MIT.

I unfortunately won’t be able to attend as my fabulous and talented niece is coming to visit  from PITT where she goes to college.  So I need you all to attend for me.  Take lots of pictures.  Get inspired. And of course don’t forget to tell everyone how fab Seed Stitch is.  No just kidding, but please attend.  Have a great time!  I suspect this will be the first of many great events like this from the Guild and think those lucky enough to attend will be blessed.

We are blessed in so many ways at Seed Stitch and are always looking for ways to give back whether it’s plans for our holiday giving project for this year, our participation in the 3/50 project where we committed to support other locally owned businesses wherever possible, or in this latest endeavor.  A customer recently brought in a new publication out of the UK called The Knitter Magazine.  It’s an amazing magazine geared toward the more experienced knitter, with phenomenal patterns, great articles, and nifty product spotlights.  Seed Stitch will be carrying this magazine as of the next issue due out and we’re working to get back issues (especially issue & with that fab Zauberball sock pattern).  So stay tuned for that.

I was super excited to read about a how The Knitter Magazine has teamed up with Rowan and Macmillan Cancer Support for this event called the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning to be held on September 25th.  The event is designed to help improve the lives of patients suffering from cancer.  Not only is this a great cause because we all have someone in our lives affected by cancer, but they’ve also given us an excuse to knit!

Rowan and The Knitter have asked some of the amazing designers that we know and love to design afghan squares, which are so beautiful. So here’s the deal. We thought that at Seed Stitch we could knit a square or two. We’d also like you to join us on Friday morning September 25th if you’re available. Stop by our fantastic neighbor’s Front Street Cafe to pick up your cup of coffee (or tea, I’m a tea drinker), thus supporting a great local business along the way, bring your knitting and we’ll work on a square or two together — a very informal gathering. We all know how our knitting projects can linger, so best to put a deadline on ourselves and shoot for getting our collective squares done by October 25th. We should be able to do that right? A square each in a month. Download square patterns here.

For those of you that are not local to Salem, we encourage you to pick up your needles as well and feel free to send us your square and we’ll add it in, or start up your own group, share a cup of coffee together, and find a local cancer charity to which you could donate your lovely work.

Just some of the beautiful afghan squares are shown below.

Jennie Atkinson

Debbie Bliss

Mason Dixon

Also as a reminder, later that evening on the 25th, Seed Stitch will be hosting a free lecture with Leslie Scanlon of Mac & Me. Pre-registration is required so please give us a ring or let us know on your next visit.

As you may know one of the things I wanted to focus on when we purchased the store was a celebration of the amazing local talent, designers, and products we have right in our back yard.  We’ve started with a showcase of our very own Andrea Osbon’s work and working to get more locally produced yarns in the store.  In the midst of day one sale craziness, I met with Guido Stein who is one of the members spearheading the Common Cod Fiber Guild to talk about an event they have coming up in the Fall.

The event called “Make Mind Local Fiber Arts/Crafts Showcase 2009” will be held November 13th at the MIT Stat Center in Cambridge and is designed to celebrate local fiber arts in our area.  One of the key facets to this event will be a local design contest which starts now.  I know we have some amazingly talented customers at Seed Stitch so I wanted to let everyone know.

The submission deadline is September 1st. 2009 and the finished projects are due November 1st. 2009.  Here’s what you need to know about design requirements:

* home/studio within 2 hours of Massachusetts State House (using Google Maps)
* designs must be able to be worn down a runway
* designs must be current to the last year or new
* designs must comply with theme below

Master of ceremonies for the event and juror of design submissions will be Shannon Okey of Yarn Forward Magazine. They are looking for both yarn and design submissions, as well as people who would like to participate as models on stage.

I think this is a fantastic idea and hope lots of folks will come out to support both the design submission process and the event itself.

Happy designing to all local yarners.

We’ll be celebrating this weekend with a big sale.  The majority of the sale items will be discounted 50% off and some gems even more deeply discounted.  We’ll also have lots of books and back issues of magazines on sale.  The sale will begin when doors open on Saturday August 1st at 10:00 AM and run through Friday August 7th.  Be sure to get there early so you get your pick of these awesome sale goodies.

It would be a great weekend to venture into Salem for the day.  This weekend is also the Salem Maritime Festival, which has lots of fun activities.  If you’re not from the North Shore make a day of it, come up to enjoy all that Salem has to offer, and pick up some great deals at Seed Stitch while you’re at it.

I’ll be there and I hope to see you there too!

We took Mazie to the new Trash Menagerie exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum this weekend.  I have to say it might be one of my the favorite I’ve seen there, which is saying a lot since I LOVE the PEM!  It’s an amazing exhibit showcasing art pieces made entirely out of recycled trash.  It’s also an eye opening statement about just how much trash we produce in this world.

Open June 2009 to May 2010

You’ll have to go see it for yourself, but I thought all of you fiber enthusiasts would be interested to see this really neat piece done with scraps from old sweaters.

Small pieces of sweater patch work sewn on a wire frame

A close up look at how amazing this is

Then they had a great interactive exhibit where you could sew on your own recycled sweater patch to make a cow.

That's my white patch on the lower left hand side of the cow.

Definitely not to be missed exhibit!