Shopping for the holidays can be challenging. 

Shopping for the holidays for a fiber arts aficionado (or making a wish list for people who aren't sure of the difference between a knitting needle and a crochet hook) can seem absolutely impossible. Luckily for you, that's where our holiday bundles and wish lists come into play! 

If you're a crocheter/knitter/spinner/weaver, you can create a wish list that we'll store on your customer card in the computer system. You can choose to give vague guidelines ("a gift certificate," "some kind of green sock yarn," and so on), or you can be super-specific ("3 balls of BFL Colours DK in the Honey colorway," "Clover Amour hooks, sizes C/D/E", "a copy of the Hitchhiker pattern and one of the variegated colorways of Sprout Sock,"  for example).  You can then send your friends and family our way - we just need them to give us your first and last name, and we'll get them set up with something from your list! 

If you're a family member with a fiber artist who doesn't have a wish list, no worries. We've got you covered. We've taken the time to build a list of holiday bundles that will delight just about anyone, from newly-minted crafters to the most experienced folks in the area. The bundles are divided into budget ranges, starting at $10 and under. Download the PDF of the bundles list here, and please feel free to call, email, or stop by with any questions you might have! If your crafter has made purchases with us in the past, we can even look up what s/he has purchased and give you further guidance. 

Full-service yarn shop? You betcha. 

It's been just over six months since we opened our doors for the first time, and we cannot thank you enough for your support. Whether you've bought a sweater quantity of yarn, or brought friends and family to shop, or left us a review, or taken a class or private lesson, or forwarded our newsletter to another crafter, or done any of the million other small things you've done to spread the word about us, every little thing helps us grow stronger roots in this community. 

As part of the growth process, we're very excited to take part in our first Small Business Saturday on November 25! Here are all the details. 

• We're going to open an hour earlier than normal - 9 AM - and we'll close at 5 PM.
• The first 10 customers who make a purchase will receive a swag bag - what's inside? Could be needles... or yarn... or a pattern/patterns.... there's only one way to find out! 
• A different item will be on sale, 15% off, every hour. We'll let you know what's on sale by posting to Facebook and Instagram at the top of every hour, but you can only get the sale price by coming into the store to make your purchase. Each item will only be on sale for one hour, so keep your eyes peeled! 
• Best of all, we're raising donations for the Stanwood-Camano Food Bank - and your qualifying donation earns you the chance to draw an extra discount at checkout. Bring any 2 of the following items to the shop on Saturday, November 25, check them in with Lindsey, and you'll get to pull an extra coupon from the bucket when you're ready to check out. 
  • Canned soup
  • Canned vegetables
  • Canned fruit
  • Pasta sauce
  • Crackers
  • Baby food in jars
  • Diapers/wipes
  • Shampoo
  • Toothpaste/toothbrushes
  • Laundry soap
  • Toilet paper
• We've gotta put a few limitations on the coupons: they're not valid for spinning/weaving/fiber processing equipment, items from our consignment vendors, or special orders. One coupon per customer for the day, and each coupon is only valid in the physical shop on Saturday, November 25, 2017. The coupon is only good on an item/items present at the checkout stand at the time the customer draws the coupon. You may not use a coupon along with an existing rewards points coupon ($20 credit given after earning 200 rewards points). Rewards points will be awarded for purchases made with the coupon, but points will be given according to discounted prices. 

We've got a couple of upcoming shop closures we want to let you know about. 

1. Today (Tuesday, September 5, 2017), we'll be open at 10 AM as usual. HOWEVER - we'll close for an hour (4-5 PM) for a previously scheduled appointment, then reopen from 5-8 for our Stilly String Social Night. 
2. The shop will be totally closed from Tuesday, September 12 through Saturday, September 16 so that Lindsey can attend a family wedding in eastern France. We'll be back as usual at 10 AM on Tuesday, September 19! 

Thank you all so much for your understanding - we'll miss you while we're gone, but we can't wait to catch up with you when we get back! 

My husband, Eric, and I will be celebrating our twelfth wedding anniversary this weekend. We got married over Labor Day weekend in 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana. We donated somewhere around the equivalent of 20-25%  of the value of cash and gift cards that people gave us - even though we only had one job between the two of us, it just didn't feel right to buy things to replace or upgrade what we had when so many people had lost everything. 

That memory came to me this morning as I was getting ready to come into the shop. Yes, there's a lot of financial investment in opening a brick-and-mortar shop, and summer is definitely our lean season... but we find ourselves once more in a position to help those who need so much more right now. 

So.

Next week, from opening on Tuesday to the close of business on Saturday (September 5-9), we're going to do our usual yarn shop thing. And on Saturday evening, I'm going to tally up the week's gross pre-tax sales, and 10% of that number - that's before I pay shop bills, rent, or even take a couple of bucks to buy a cup of coffee -  will be donated to the Houston Food Bank. (Since we work with the Stanwood-Camano Food Bank, it seemed like a logical choice.) 

We hope you'll come by, make a purchase or two, and help Stilly River Yarns make a significant donation to the cause.  I look forward to sharing the final donation total with you all next weekend! 

-Lindsey