More updates and a special guest!

On Monday, March 11, 2013, Saco River Yarns opened its doors as a yarn store.  Some of you may be surprised to hear me say this because you have purchased yarn at the store since February.  A brief explanation follows:

The Saco River Dye House, located just behind the store in the historic Pepperell Mill in Biddeford, ME has been skein dyeing yarn since December.  In order to access the dye house, clients need to enter through the retail space.  Often, a client or someone who accompanied them would notice the yarn that was sitting in the retail space and inquire about purchasing it.  Others may have seen the dye house’s ad on Craig’s list and purchased yarn through the dye house.  So…technically the store has been open since December but it has not been an organized, independent retail space.  As of 3/11, it is.

Now the store has set hours, a dedicated Knit-at-Night/Crochet-at-Night (KAN/CAN) every Tuesday night from 5-8pm and some new yarn stock in addition to the bargain wall.  Did you know that we are an official Quince & Co. flagship store?  The colors are inspirational and the feel of the yarn is divine.  We are also ordering yarns and anxiously awaiting their arrival in addition to fiber for spinning,  needles, crochet hooks and various accessories.

My camera does not do these colors justice. You’ll just have to come in and see them for yourself!

Those of you who have visited the store already, know that it can be a challenge to find us.  We are tucked away, partially hidden by an old fort and without a sign.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!  to everyone who has tenaciously sought us out.  We now have an “Open sign” and will be meeting with someone to get signage made the beginning of this week.  Hopefully, this week will also bring a shop phone so you can call if you are lost and I can run to the curb and wave a skein of yarn at you to guide you into the parking lot.   Until the signs are up, here’s a picture of the front of the store from the outside of the mill.

 

Follow the “Open” sign and enter the gray door.  We are currently, the only door on the right when you enter the mill.

So now that I have bored you with all the “business”, let’s talk about all the fun!  On April 6 from 9am-2pm, Saco River Yarns will welcome a special guest, Clara Parkes,  Clara, an intrepid fiber adventurist, is the author of Knitter’s Review, a free weekly online knitting magazine.  She is also the author of three books, The Knitter’s Book of Wool, The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, and The Knitter’s Book of Socks as well as contributing to  many other books and magazines.  Currently, Clara is working on a yarn adventure partially set in Biddeford, Maine known as the The Great White Bale.  Clara will be available to discuss and sign her books and maybe discuss her adventures chronicling the bale.  Who knows what else we might be able to talk her into doing. 😉

The festivities on the 6th are still in the works and more information will become available as the event becomes more organized so keep in touch and share, share, share the news.  As always, if you have any requests or suggestions, please let me know.  I want this store to be a place where people come to relax, visit and create great fibery things.

 

Update…

It was my intention when I began this blog to write at least once a week.  So far, I have not done a very good job!  But there have been so many changes that every time I started to write a post, it would be irrelevant by the end of the day because so much had changed!

So here’s where everything stands with the shop at this point:

We are going to go for a “soft” opening Monday, March 11.  Beginning next Monday, we will have set hours.  The hours will be M,W, Th, F 1-5p.m.  Tuesdays, we will be open from 1-8.  The reason for the later hours is so that knitters can drop in and visit and just knit/crochet/spin/whatever, in the company of other “fiberists”.  Saturday, we will  be open 9-2.

To this point the shop has been a mishmash of old yarn and boxes of product.  This Saturday, we cleaned house!  Gone are the bins of mystery yarn, and one of the mill tables.  In their place are the beginnings of what will be the casual sitting area for visitors of the shop to sit and look at patterns or work on a project.  We are beginning to fill the bins with beautiful Suripaco alpaca blend yarns, produced by Claudia’s herd of suri alpaca along with Fair Trade hand knit products and manufactured socks out of an alpaca blend.  And tomorrow I will have the great joy of going to the back and “shopping” for the types and colors of Quince & Co. yarn!  Quince & Co. is dyed in the Saco River Dye House and we are so excited to take those beautiful skeins of yarn we walk by all day and put them out on the wall for you to purchase.

One of the exciting things about Quince & Co. is that they carry crochet patterns!  I am slowly making progress on Haiku, a beautiful shawl.  I am making the shawl in a yarn called Finch in the Split Pea colorway.  This is a solid but springy yarn that is so nice to use in crochet.  A nice break for me from the cotton I usually use to crochet dishcloths.

 

 

Finally, this past Saturday we had the first drop-off of mittens from the Mitten Project for the Maine Children’s Home.  So many adorable mittens created by some very dedicated and carrying crafters!  If you are interested in donating a pair (or six pair or seven pair…), more information can be found on their Facebook page.  My daughter took some wonderful pictures of the mittens and dutifully forwarded them to me from her iPhone but I can’t seem to save them from my text message to put on the page.  So, I will be sure to do so as soon as she e-mails them to me.

We are up to 86 likes on the Saco River Mill Facebook page but can’t wait to hit 100 likes so keep spreading the word about the store!  And as always, if you are in the area feel free to follow the “OPEN” flag if it’s out, to the store and be sure to bring your project so you can sit and visit for a while.