MD Archives - Tinking Turtle

A Brief Tribute to The Yarn Spot

February 10, 2016 by Jennifer Raymond

Today I got a sad letter in my email inbox. The Yarn Spot, a knitting store in Wheaton, MD, is closing. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about the store, so I thought I’d take a moment to reflect.

In June 2010 Mr. Turtle had just graduated Davidson College, and I was wrapping up my contract working for the Davidson College Theatre Department. Michael had just gotten a job working for the Advisory Board Company in DC, and I was rather desperately looking for employment. After having our apartment in Maryland fall apart, I found a place to sublet with a crocheter on Ravelry, and we moved in just as summer hit full swing. Still being in the recession, I was finding full-time employment rather difficult to find. Our landlady pointed me towards The Yarn Spot, and shortly thereafter Victoria, one of the owners, had hired me part-time to teach crochet and work in the store.

The Yarn Spot gave me a place to grow. My job with the Davidson Theatre Department had been a poor fit, and I was too inexperienced to ask for the support I needed. It left my confidence shaken. The Yarn Spot was where I began to get my confidence back. There, I was able to allow my expertise to shine. I was allowed to develop my first classes for an adult audience. I was allowed to peel back the curtain of the Yarn Industry. I learned about yarns by fondling them, knitting them up, and listening to what other customers had to say.

It’s hard not to talk about The Yarn Spot without talking about the culture of the store. The Yarn Spot drew on a large base of deeply Jewish people, and it’s there I learned the meaning of so many yiddish words, ideas and concepts. Preparations for Pesach (Passover) were discussed in the store; it is there I learned what a Sukkot was. On slow afternoons, Victoria would discuss with me Jewish mourning traditions or recipes.

I moved from DC just as The Yarn Spot was moving into their new space. We’d drifted apart before then – I’d moved further away from the store, and was unable to work there as an employee anymore. Still, every time I’d run into Victoria, Marianne and Lee at Trade Shows or when I was able to stop by the store, it was wonderful to catch up with them. I’m so glad that the store existed, and I hope they all are successful with wherever life takes them next.

If you live in the DC/VA/MD area, The Yarn Spot is having an end-of-business sale. From February 10-18th, everything will be 50% off. From February 19-29th, everything will be 75% off. You should stop by!

Housekeeping: Teaching and Patterns!

March 13, 2015 by Jennifer Raymond

In a note that will surprise nobody, I’ve been rather busy lately. Some great things are in the works, but I’ve had to be very careful budgeting my time, and (as normal) the blog is one of the first things to go. But I wanted to share a few updates:

Teaching this Spring
I’m teaching at a variety of venues this spring, and wanted to highlight a few. Click on the links for more details.
3/28 Fixing Knitting Mistakes at Woolwinders in Rockville, MD
3/29 Finishing Essentials at Fibre Space in Alexandria, VA
3/29 Padded Crochet Baskets at Fibre Space in Alexandria, VA
3/29 Duplicate Stitch Cup Cozy at Fibre Space in Alexandria, VA
4/10 Duct Tape Dress Forms at Carolina FiberFest in Sanford, NC
4/10 Crochet with Beads at Carolina FiberFest in Sanford, NC
4/11 Heels, Heels and more Heels at Carolina FiberFest in Sanford, NC
4/25 Oops! at Powhatan’s Festival of Fiber Powhatan, VA

If you’re thinking of attending these classes, signup as soon as you can! As you know, teaching is one of the big ways that I’m able to do this fulltime, so if you love my classes and want to see more of them, having you signup and take my classes is a great way for both of us to benefit! I also love to see repeat students – it always makes my day!

New Patterns
I’ve got two new patterns that came out with the April issue of Crochet!. I know it’s not April: Annie’s magazines are released well before their “official” date, so they can get to stores in time. The two designs are:

City Girl

A fun and flirty cloche style hat, this is a project you could work up in a weekend. And accessible to beginners, the main stitches are chains and single crochets. If you can count, you can make this hat.

Points of Interest

Worked in the same style as the hat, this bag is also accessible to beginners! A cute and fun clutch, suitable for spring, it gets its shaping for the short row wedges worked in contrasting colors. This pattern was also featured as an insert in the cover!

Both Points of Interest and City Girl can be bought at almost any of the big box craft stores: Michael’s, JoAnne’s, etc, as well as bookstores and online. I’d love to hear about what you think of these patterns!

Have you seen the New Yarn Spot?

October 3, 2013 by Jennifer Raymond

Yesterday I had a couple of errands to run that were taking me up the Wheaton way, and as I hadn’t been over to the new Yarn Spot lately, I decided to take a look.

It’s located around the corner from the old location, in the former Brazilian Market. For now, they have a sign in the window. I’m sure the Yarn Spot sign will be over the awning soon.

It’s a larger space than the previous storefront, with a desk located in the center and yarns to either side.

To the right, pictured above, are books, some hand-dyed, and what I believe were the bulky yarns, but don’t quote me on that.

Directly to the side of that is a sitting area, where people can congregate, socialize, knit or crochet.

To the left is the bulk of the yarn, hand-dyed yarns hanging up, and lots and lots of shelves full of yarn. What strikes me about the new space is the sense of room – and the realization that The Yarn Spot had been very cleverly managing to cram more yarn into a smaller space without shoppers being aware. Here, the yarn seems to have more room to breathe, and with things placed a bit more apart, mobility challenged people will have an easier time moving around.

Instead of having needles behind the counter, needles are now kept next to the counter. This means it’s easier to look through the needles. With well-labeled boxes, I think it was easier to look through and find the needle I wanted. Still, they had the needles separated out into different brands. Perhaps it’s just my approach to organization, but I probably would have organized completely by size, and allowed brands to intermingle. But with many people being loyal to a particular brand of needle, it probably makes sense to have them separated out.

One of the things that really struck me was the wealth of natural light that is in the new store. It’s a hard thing to manage for yarn stores – on one hand, natural light conveys a welcoming space, and lets colors shine. However, sunlight can be very harmful to certain acid dyes, and cause noticeable fading. I don’t envy the store trying to balance the two elements, but it made the space particularly welcoming, especially at the table area for classes.

Another great element to the new store is a help desk, right next to the register. Isn’t it lovely?

Perhaps my favorite feature of the store is these shelves against the windows. I think, if you added pillows or cushions, these would make the most perfect window seats. This is perhaps influenced by my burning desire all my life to have a room with a window seat.

Highlights from Maryland Sheep and Wool

May 6, 2013 by Jennifer Raymond

Maryland Sheep and Wool happened this past weekend, and Michael and I attended today. It was my third time going, and Michael’s first. As always it was a feast for the senses.

Buttons at Maryland Sheep and Wool

How do you explain Maryland Sheep and Wool to someone who hasn’t experienced it? To be silly about it, I’ll tell you what I told Michael today. Maryland Sheep and Wool is where “my people” are. Every third or fourth person I passed had on hand-made clothing: from socks, shawls and ponchos, to water-bottle holders, hats and fingerless gloves. It was a joyous sensory overload; here it is not strange to find someone looking closely at how your handmade garment was put together.

We stopped by to see the people competing in the Sheep to Shawl competition. It’s interesting to see the festival from a non-knitter’s perspective: while I’m looking at the spinners envying their speed, Michael’s wondering what the optimal ratio of spinners to weavers to carders is. We went through several of the sheep barns, with me explaining to Michael what I knew of different breeds. We went to go see a sheepdog demo – which was REALLY cool. Perhaps the highlight of my day was a free talk about social media for farmers (which ended up being pretty helpful even though I’m not a farmer).

There was fair food, and (of course) dozens upon dozens of vendors to look at. We didn’t nearly get through enough of them, but what we did see was beautiful and inspiring and fun.

This is the thing about Maryland Sheep and Wool: it drives home where are yarn comes from. It tells a story from the farmer to the consumer of the finished product, and there aren’t many places you can go and be able to do that.

Sign me up!

Thank you for visiting!

Tinking Turtle

Latest Posts

Social Feed

Email Signup

Don’t miss a stitch!