Yarn Crawls

There are many yarn-related activities that non-knitters are, most likely, completely oblivious of.  Like fiber fests.  When I talk of fiber fests at work, people inevitably ask, “is this a place where you eat different flavors of fiber?”  Ha!  A yarn crawl is similar.  No, we’re not crawling around in a room, looking for yarn.  

Let me explain…

What Is It, Then?

A yarn crawl is when a group of yarn shops in a defined geographic area get together to have events and prizes for a week or two.  And yarn lovers try to get to all the shops in the crawl – within the time period – to win prizes…and buy yarn, of course.  

It’s basically an excuse for knitters to shop.

But Why?

A crawl is like an open house for a yarn shop.  The shops put their best foot forward and try to make this time special.  They will often host trunk shows from designers and yarn dyers.  It’s always fun when you get to personally meet the dyer behind one of your favorite yarns.  

Sometimes a LYS will have a sale or give away free patterns….  And there’s sometimes swag.  For the North Texas Yarn crawl, you can buy a tote bag to remember the occasion – and hold all of your yarn purchases.  

Pandemic Time

There’s a yarn crawl in south Texas that I’ve always wanted to participate in – mainly to get to some new-to-me yarn shops. That crawl has been canceled this year, due to COVID-19.  The North Texas Yarn Crawl, in my area of Texas, is still going forward.  But most shops are allowing you to make your purchases online – and they’re hosting trunk shows on Zoom (like mine).

This is a great alternative for those of us who cannot get out in public but who want to see new, pretty yarns.  

Conclusion

The North Texas Yarn Crawl kicks off next week, on September 11.  I encourage you to see if there’s a yarn crawl in your area of the country – or in a place you’d like to visit.  What better way to vacation, after all, than going from yarn shop to yarn shop!?

Yarn crawls are a great way for local yarn stores to band together, support each other, and build a community of knitters.