A visit to White River Yarns

Today we begin a series that will be a mainstay of this blog: features on local shops, groups, and individual fiber artists. We have a long list to start off with, but would love suggestions for more - hopefully we will never run out!

White River Yarns was opened in 2011 by Karen Caple, down the street from the Hotel Coolidge. Karen is an excellent person to ask for knitting advice both because of her knowledge and her interest in helping. When I arrived she was assisting a woman finishing a gift under deadline; while I was in the shop another woman came in wanting to knit a certain item in lightweight yarn and Karen helped her locate a pattern that was to her taste and choose a specific, suitable yarn.



I counted 18 chairs in the shop, not including the one behind the counter, and a lot of footstools and side tables. A number of the side tables are enormous spools from the old weaving mills. Every Tuesday and Thursday the shop is open later than usual for Knit Night 4-8 PM, but sitting and stitching is welcome at other times as well.



In the main room of the shop there is a large bookcase, the lending library. For an annual fee ($25 your first year, $15 each year thereafter) you can borrow a wide variety of crochet and knitting books, for 30 days apiece and two at a time. If you donate to the library you get a year's membership free.



Of course there is a huge amount of yarn in the shop (most not pictured here), from incredibly fine to extra bulky, in a variety of fibers and a rainbow of colors, and you can special-order yarn if you don't find the perfect kind for your project. There is a wall of needles, hooks, and other tools, a growing selection of needle felting materials, buttons, gifts, patterns, and instructional materials.



Classes are held at White River Yarns regularly, given by Karen and other local instructors about six months of the year (not in the summer), with outside instructors brought in once a quarter. Recent offerings include seamless knitting, fixing knitting errors, sock knitting, and buttonholes in knitting. The best ways to learn about classes and other events, besides visiting the shop, are to watch their website, subscribe to their email newsletter, or check their Facebook page. White River Yarns hosts the Green Mountain Fiber Festival each November and has already reserved the Wilder Center November 15-16, 2014, for the 6th annual festival.



I hope I've convinced you the store is a treat for the eyes as well! Everywhere you turn there is color: scarves and shawls, creatures peeking at you, another fiber-related toy (there's an umbrella swift for yarn winding, and a loom under the front window), or other yarn-related decor.

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Make your own visit!

White River Yarns
49 South Main Street
White River Junction, VT 05001
802-295-9301
http://www.whiteriveryarns.com/

Hours: 10 AM to 6 PM Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
10 AM to 8 PM Tuesday and Thursday (Knit Night 4-8 both days)
10 AM to 4 PM Saturday

A Day for Quilting

You're probably not going to find a card for it at the card shop, but according to Brownielocks.com, January 25th is "Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day." Here in the Upper Valley and surrounding area we have two fabric shops and two quilt shops where you can get your fabric fix on Quilt Shop Day.

Hen House Fabric
246 Holiday Dr, White River Jct, VT 05001
(802) 295-4436

Fabric Dicor
19 Hartland Hill Rd Hartland, VT 05048
(802) 436-7939

Barnyard Quilting
232 US RT 5 North, Fairlee, VT 05045
Phone: (802) 333-3566

Four Pines Quilting
38 Summer St Claremont, NH 03743
(603)543-3311

The Sew-op in the Upper Valley Co-op offers quilting classes. And as Rebecca mentioned earlier, Our Savior Lutheran Church of Hanover holds Disaster Relief Quilting sessions twice a month.

On the web, Sew Mama Sew is running a month-long series on quilting that features patterns, techniques and an in-depth look at "31 Inspiring Quilters."

Erin from House on Hill Road creates beautiful quilts and provides tutorials on projects and cutting techniques.

And my other favorite quilting blogger is Blair from Wisecraft. Who also provides helpful tutorials and creates lovely quilts.

Charitable Crafting Opportunities

In the new year thoughts turn to bettering ourselves and our world, so I've assembled some local opportunities to put your fibercrafting skills to charitable use.

• Our Savior Lutheran Church of Hanover holds Disaster Relief Quilting sessions twice a month, making tied quilts for refugees and disaster victims. Their schedule is through the link; the next session is Monday, January 20th, 10-3. Most sessions are at the church, but that one will be at Dartmouth. No sewing skills are necessary! Address and directions (to the church, not the Dartmouth location).
• The New Hampshire Children's Trust has a program called CLICK for babies in which volunteers knit or crochet purple infant hats. PURPLE is an acronym for traits of infant crying, and the goal of the hats is to remind new parents the amount of crying is normal and temporary, and prevent shaking of infants and other harmful actions. Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Alice Peck Day both participate, and finished hats may be mailed in or dropped off.
• A group meets each Thursday evening at the VA in White River Junction to knit and crochet warm items for homeless veterans, including squares to stitch into blankets, mittens, hats, and socks. Coordinated by Margaret French, they meet 5:00-7:00 in room 215 of building 31. Address and directions.
• Periodically White River Yarns coordinates knitting events, such as a recently completed drive to make scarves for grandmothers in Africa. To find out about other such events, sign up for their email newsletter.
• For non-local charitable crafting opportunities, check out Crochet Spot for crochet and knitting, and All Free Sewing for sewing.

Finally, a warning about disasters, natural and otherwise: It's tempting to respond by making things and sending them, but resist! In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, the biggest need is for food, water, and repairs, and other items using up transportation and distribution resources are a hindrance rather than a help. Working locally or through an established group helps ensure your crafting skills are beneficial. Alternatively, make items to sell locally and donate the money to disaster relief.

A Crafting Challenge

We're back from our unannounced hiatus with a twofer this week. Today, just a shameless plug for a challenge I'm hosting on my craft blog.



The goal is to finish as many projects as possible from the list that has been hanging around undone for a long time. This is a young blog so we haven't had a chance to build up much of a list like that, but we do have one item: adding a directory of locally-owned and nonprofit locations that hold fibercraft classes or host fibercrafting groups.