Foraging for Fiber - Knitty Gritty Yarn Shop
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For this foraging spotlight, I wanted to highlight a LYS in my wonderful little town of Lebanon, OR – Knitty Gritty Yarn.
The owner, Mo is genuinely a fiber enthusiast. She is a budget-conscious lady who has yarn available for all price points without sacrificing the yarn's quality.
The tool selection is robust, and you will find that Mo has stocked Chiaogoo interchangeables, fixed needles, and the minis. If you need help selecting the right tools, she is very knowledgeable on what would work best.
Pre-COVID Mo had many classes available through her shop. Again, since she is a fiber enthusiast, she had classes ranging from beginner classes, advanced classes, and even some dying/yarn spinning options. At the time that I spoke to her, she was thinking about having some dying fiber workshops. Still, since she did not have classes available, she was gracious enough to give me some tips and tricks, and she even sold me some of her dying stock since I could not get my hands on some at the beginning of the pandemic. I will be forever grateful for her generosity and her love of this community.
I want to mention that Mo has her fiber producers, and she makes her yarn ready to be dyed. Also, she has a section on her website and in her shop that is dedicated to self-dyed yarn.
Now, when I first visited, it was apparent that her shop was THE spot to be. She had people in the back knitting and sharing their day-to-day stories. And I guess I did not realize how big of an impact Mo had on our local knitting community. Fast forward a year, I visited in person (I usually purchase online), and there many (socially distanced) folks re-arranging her shop. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but apparently, they were volunteers (they call themselves the knitting elves) helping Mo while she was away. These volunteers were helping manage day-to-day business needs for Mo, and one of the things they wanted to do was help Mo re-arrange the space.
Now let's talk about the changes. These folks arranged the yarn by weight, and they used easy-to-read signs on the top of each section. Additionally, they stocked the yarn in color gradients. As you can imagine, this look is incredibly pleasing. They also made sure to post signs near yarns that were used for felting – to help those of us who have never dipped our toes into that craft but may one day consider it.
While I was there that day, I saw that they had two spinning wheels, and there was talk of another one coming in…I can only wonder what great things are coming!!!! If you’ve ever looked at purchasing a wheel, you know that those suckers are not cheap!
Finally, one of the biggest changes that I am very stoked about is the change to her website! The first one was difficult to navigate, but it was understandable because Mo was managing everything on her own. But NOW the site is brighter and user-friendly. She has menus for commercial yarn, ready-to-dye yarn, all of her needles, stitch markers, etc. But let’s say that you are in town and you would like to visit; what is their COVID protocol?
The COVID protocol at Knitty Gritty makes my inner Health Care fangirl self squeal with delight. They lock the door to manage the # of people coming in. They open the door for you to avoid spreading germs. They also require you to sanitize (awesome), and they ask that you provide your name and contact information to help with contact tracing if necessary (how cool is that?).
All in all, I really love what this shop is doing. The volunteers have gone above and beyond to help Mo during this time. So if you are looking to support a LYS but don’t want to travel and want to purchase online, check out Mo’s shop. Perhaps you can buy some ready-to-dye yarn and learn a new skill while you’re at it.
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