Woolyn - a new yarn store in Brooklyn

Posted on September 21, 2016 | 0 Comments

My friend Rachel has opened a yarn store in Brooklyn called Woolyn (Get it? Wool + Brooklyn = Woolyn).  It's a great name for a pretty nice place.  

Woolyn - a new yarn store in Brooklyn Heights

 

(FYI - I've know Rachel for a while, we were roommates for Sock Summit and Woolyn is selling my project bags.)

Chiagu Project Bags at Woolyn Yarn Shop

 

Rachel has a wonderful background for a yarn store owner: she has worked in a local yarn store and she has designed knitwear that has been featured in Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits. And she hand dyed yarn for her previous business venture, Studio Avenue Six.  She knows her textiles!

 

Yarns at Woolyn Yarn Shop

Woolyn is stocked with industry workhorse yarns from Cascade 220 and new indie dyers -  in fact both Mollygirl and Narwhal Needlework dyed special color ways for Woolyn.

Lux Adorna Sport Kit

In addition to wool and cotton fiber Rachel also carries the cashmere kit from Lux Adorna Knits which Clara Parkes has just blogged about for Knitter's Review.  

 

Roving and braids at Woolyn

Woolyn also stocks roving (Sweet Georgia!) for those who use drop spindles and spinning wheels.  There is an area where you can sit down and have some refreshments.  And don't forget to browse the highly curated books.

The store opened in mid August which may have been too late to be included in the New York City Yarn Crawl that is happening this weekend (Sept 24-25).  If you are exploring the city's yarn stores Woolyn is definitely worth the visit.  Near the Brooklyn Bridge Park, the area has great eating, shopping and calling all cat lovers - it's one block from the Brooklyn Cat Cafe.

 

Woolyn

105 Atlantic Ave (between Henry and Hicks Streets)

718-522-5820

By Subway: R to Court Street , 2/3/4/5 to Borough Hall, F/G to Bergen St

By Bus: B63, B61 (Atlantic Ave and Henry St stop)

www.woolyn.com

Posted in Atlantic ave, brooklyn cat cafe, cascade, chiagu, crochet, knitting, mollygirl, narwhal needlework, needlefelting, project bags, spinning, sweet georgia fiber, woolyn, yarn store

Vogue Knitting Live 2015 Recap

Posted on January 23, 2015 | 0 Comments

(Yes, this post would have been up a couple of days ago if not for the fact that I lost it while I was in final proofread mode.  I gave myself a timeout before writing it again).

Vogue Knitting Live and I have a bit of history with one another.  I was a volunteer for the first VKLive, working the Marketplace entrance.  I worked for a vendor in 2012. The third year I injured my leg and missed all the classes I paid for. And last year I barely spent time in the Marketplace because I took machine knitting classes.

So when VKLive 2015 was announced I considered volunteering again.  Then I thought about taking classes.  But as New York Sheep and Wool (aka Rhinebeck) and the holidays rolled around I dragged my feet about doing something at VKLive. Well as fate would have it it was good that I hesitated: at the last minute my friend Marsha and I got a Marketplace booth.

Marsha sells stitch markers and jewelry at her Etsy store, One Geek to Craft Them All.  I had just acquired Chiagu and I had the inventory from my Etsy store, Sooze In The City.  We both had inventory and we had one month to make this work.  Up until this point we had shared a table at various holiday fairs but this was our first time working a booth.  We had to up our game and I'm glad we took the risk.

Here is the Chiagu side of the booth:

It was an exciting experience.  I loved meeting and talking to all the current Chiagu customers (thank you for visiting!)  And we enjoyed meeting all the new knitters and crocheters who found us.  The Tramonto Shawl was a big hit and the Runners Watchcap and Eldridge Hat patterns sold well. I almost out of everything from my Etsy shop.  And quite a bit of Koigu yarn found new homes.

I want to mention our lovely neighbors, MollyGirl yarns and Bar-Maids skincare.  They helped us stay fed and sane. The Bar-Maids owner provided insight on doing these shows and MollyGirl provided a view of gorgeous yarn:

 

And even with short notice we managed to have guests visit us on Saturday. Many thanks to podcasters Maria (SubwayKnits) and Kristin (YarnGasm) for coming by the booth.  Maria gave out buttons and Kristin gave out mini skeins of her yarn, Voolenvine.

We were busy most of the weekend.  On Sunday Marsha and I took turns walking around the Marketplace and got some shopping done. 

I picked up a pattern writing book by Kate Atherley (you can always pick up tips from one of the technical editors of knitty.com), an Orla Kiely print pouch from Splityarn and a couple of Hiya Hiya 11" circular needles for knitting sleeves, socks, and baby items:

But my absolutely favorite purchase is this wood yarn bowl from the Wools of Whimsy:

I love that the bowl is signed, numbered and that there are two holes to rest your needles. Wools of Whimsy provided the bowls for the Yarn Tasting area and they were able to sell the bowls when VKLive was closing on Sunday.

Well that's it.  I've been following up on some of the contacts I made and I've updated the shop's Koigu inventory.  In the next few days I will post new colors for the Loreley Kits and the Freemans Alley Kits.  And I'm working on getting the February Koigu Mini Skein Club packages out.  See you next week.

Posted in bar-maids, Eldridge, Etsy, Freemans Alley, Kate Atherley, Koigu, loreley, mollygirl, One Geek, podcast, project bags, Runners, Sooze in the City, Splityarn, Subway knits, Tramonto, VKL, Vogue Knitting Live, Voolenvine, Watchcap, Wools of Whimsy, yarn bowl, YarnGasm

 

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