Paris, London, Rome, Mt. Holly

A FAQ at Woolbearers is, how did we happen to choose Mt. Holly as the place to open a yarn shop? Neither of us live there, although I once did, about 12 years ago. I raised my children there, had a network of friends, liked the urban feel in a little, bucolic looking town. Don't be fooled though, it's not Mayberry, a fact locals and those in the southern part of the state know.

We are down the street from the county prison, have three bail bondsmen (and a woman) in our block alone, have a few homeless people. Because it's the county seat, Mt. Holly also houses all the services humanity could possibly need. We have a sign on our door guiding people to the offices of the Public Defender, Family Services, and Miss Nancy's Bail Bonds. It's an interesting, alive place to do business.

The top picture is of Karen and Stacey, who spent Sunday yarn shopping together. They made a big dent in the Happy Feet, among other yarns! Behind that basket is Stacy's next baby, due January 23rd! Congratulations!

Lovely Judy in her pink sweater of Nashua in the next picture. The ruffle is removable. Judy looks great in pink and knits lots of pink yarn into wonderful sweaters for herself. It took Judy, Elda, and me over an hour today to figure out the yarn requirements for the Alice Starmore sweater in last month's Vogue. Judy will have it done in no time.


Mt. Holly is 20 miles from Philadelphia, 70 from Manhattan, 35 from Wilmington. We have loyal customers from those cities and many cities within that circle. Today, a lovely young woman from Dunellen, a tiny town in the northwestern section of New Jersey, drove for almost two hours to come to the shop. Barbara, an avid sock knitter and supporter of her LYS, (us), comes from the northern Philly suburbs every week. Phyllis, a wonderful friend and customer since we opened, drives from Barneget a couple of times a week. That's Phyllis in the picture. She couldn't take her eyes off her knitting. Debbie, another shore dweller, will drive down at the drop of a hat, as she did today. She loves yarn and can sniff out a new arrival like a blood hound. Her husband is a riot, too. He will drive her to our shop, Stitches (even Stitches Midwest) to try to monitor her yarn purchases. Also in the picture is Marian, who is felted bag knitting machine, Donna, of giant brown bag fame, her Breast Cancer Three Day Walk Buddy, Brenda who, besides being one of the funniest gals I know, is also the quickest learning sock student, and our own Sabra sock knitting teacher extraordinaire.

Almost daily, we have visitors from out of state who have seen or heard about us. I think it is because we love our yarn and store and love to see our customers. They know that, and tell their knitting buddies, and so through word of mouth, we meet more fiber fanatics.

Ellen and her daughter looking for scarf and vest yarn. Ellen is another knitter who buys the yarn and next week, the project is finished!

Today, Myra's friend Robin and her friends came in. Robin had a sweater with her that she is knitting from yarn she purchased when she was in the Hebrides. The yarn is shetland, of course, but what sets it apart is that it is naturally dyed. It is to die for. I'm not kidding. She is knitting a fair isle sweater from it; what else? She also finished this great Noni bag.

About the same time I was lusting after this yarn, the UPS guy came in with our latest order of Jamieson yarn, my favorite. It was 12 more gorgeous colors of Spindrift for that Alice Starmore sweater. I think we need to add hand-dyed Woolbearers shetland yarn to our huge Jamieson collection.