The Los Angeles County Yarn Crawl (LACYC) will kick off its 11th crawl while also celebrating Earth Week. The event is scheduled for Thursday, April 20th through Sunday, April 23rd 2023. The Crawl hours for every store will be from 10 am – 6 pm Thursday – Saturday and Sunday 10 am – 4 pm. This event is free to register. The Crawl features 13 yarn stores across the county. Fiber enthusiasts will get a glimpse of what southern California yarn stores have to offer. From the Beach to the city and from the Valley to the suburbs, Angelinos and visitors alike can travel through Los Angeles County for a cultural and creative jaunt around the yarn sun. The cities on the route include Bellflower, Claremont, Encino, Inglewood, La Verne, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Redondo Beach, Valley Village and Santa Monica. This event is for knitters, crocheters, weavers, artists and those who just want to experience something new, see old friends and visit areas across the county. Friends can schedule meet-ups or travel together across LA’s highways and byways with a mission of visiting every participating yarn store. This four-day adventure will offer a one-of-a-kind, family friendly yarn extravaganza.
The LACYC is a non-profit group for Los Angeles County yarn stores. All of the shop owners are part of the organization and work together throughout the year to create this showcase of artists, designers, curated fiber accessories and of course yarn. Participating stores in this year’s crawl include Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, The Altered Stitch, Buku Yarns, Gather DTLA, The Knitting Tree, LA, L’Atelier, L’Atelier On Ventura, The Little Knittery, Phebie’s Needleart, Stitches in Time Yarn, Wildfiber Studio, Wollhaus and Yarnaholic™ Store and Boutique. Each store offers their own personality and interpretation of what makes the fiber industry diverse, contributing to the wellness of many and continuing to educate their communities about the traditions and current trends in the fiber space.
What’s a Yarn Crawl
Let’s answer the question, ‘What is a yarn crawl?’ The concept of a yarn crawl is similar to a pub crawl. These events use the concept of a crawl or progressive meal experience to promote a neighborhood’s boutiques, stores or eateries scheduled at a specific time. Los Angeles County Yarn Crawl members work together to offer this “Shop Hop” experience but, for fiber enthusiasts throughout the county. The Yarn Crawl, like most crawls, is a very predictable event where attendees know the participating yarn stores, featured events, planned demonstrations and of course the main event: Yarn. LACYC members agreed collectively that this is “An open-house celebration of all-things yarn related featuring Los Angeles County yarn stores.”
Rideshare Your Way Through The Crawl
The Los Angeles Yarn Crawl covers about 250 miles throughout Los Angeles County. Coincidentally, Earth Day, April 22, 2023 and oftentimes a celebratory week is happening simultaneously to the crawl. This is a great time to make the trek with friends or hop on a Metrolink train and make your fiber rounds. The Crawl and shops would love to see your snapshots of helping Mother Earth with your carpooling buddies. Gather DTLA is close and participants can take the Metro Red or Purple train to Pershing Square Station. They are one and a half blocks away! Phebie’s Needleart and Yarnaholic™ Store are located north of the Metrolink’s San Bernardino line exiting at the Claremont station. For Wildfiber Studio, take the Expo line and get off at 17th St. Yarn stores encourage participants to check their Metrolink and other public transportation systems if they would like to use this method.
Yarn Crawl Happenings
The Los Angeles County Yarn Crawl stores are preparing for the hundreds of visitors that will be crossing their thresholds in a few short weeks. Their mission is to bring continued awareness to this age-old tradition of knitting, crocheting and the fiber arts as well as peaking the interest for newcomers to the artform.
While each store has their own distinct personality, during the four-day yarn crawl, all stores will offer some key promotions and activities that crawlers look forward to experiencing. One of the first to-do’s is to download your 2023 Los Angeles Yarn Crawl passport. Fiber enthusiasts will get their passports stamped at each shop that they travel to. At the end of the crawl, participants will get entered into an opportunity drawing for a chance to win prizes based on the number of shops visited. Each store will offer 10%- 20% off of one to two yarn brands; the infamous Yarn Crawl Tote Bag that can be purchased at each shop for $18. The bag can be pre-ordered and picked up at the participants' selected yarn shop and is perfect for collecting skeins every day of the crawl. Last, shoppers and on-lookers should not forget to pick up their free Yarn Crawl shop pins from each store. They are perfect to adorn on their Crawl totes. Some stores will also be offering free patterns that will be a great addition to any fiber lovers project to-do list.
Yarn Store Special Events
The Altered Stitch will have several trunk shows like Baby Cat Yarns, Jam Jar Yarns, Teach Torch Knits, Forbidden Fiber, Slipped Stitch Studios and more; Buku Yarns will have Maridee Creates doing crochet demos on Friday, Pam Powers of Ikigai trunk show with demo of embroidery on your knits on Saturday; Gather DTLA will have trunk shows from Waifu Yarns, Baby Cat Yarns, and Murky Depths Dyeworks all four days and will also feature Maridee Creates Crochet trunk show Saturday, April 22 from noon – 3 pm; L’Atelier (Redondo Beach) will feature designer and owner of Trendsetter Yarns’ Barry Klein on Saturday, April 22. They will also feature a Prism Yarn, Lana Grossa and Tahki trunk show all four days; L’Atelier On Ventura will feature an Artyarns and Stacy Charles trunk show all four days; Wildfiber Studio will feature Apple Tree Yarns, Kim Dyesa trunk shows. They will also have Nicole Mmork from Mork Made Fiber Co. and spinning demos; and Yarnaholic™ Store and Boutique will be featuring trunk shows from Trendsetter Yarns, Universal Yarns including their Danish Handmade MUUD Lifestyle leather project bags and an Urth Yarns trunk show as well as yarn tastings all four days of the crawl. Please see the websites and social media accounts for Alamitos Bay Yarn Company; Buku Yarns; The Knitting Tree, LA; The Little Knittery; Phebie’s Needleart; Stitches in Time Yarn and Wollhaus for their scheduled events.
To keep up-to-date with store happenings, please visit the Los Angeles Yarn Crawl Event Page as well as visiting each store, their website or social media pages.
Yarn Crawl Sponsors
The Los Angeles County Yarn Crawl has industry sponsors that work in partnership with the local yarn stores to provide high-quality fibers. This year attendees will see these partners and their diversity of products. Many of the participating shops will feature trunk shows from specific vendors. Please see each yarn shop’s website and Yarn Crawl website for the trunk shows that will be shown at a participating shop. Trunk shows featured at this year’s crawl are chosen by the shop owner and team to showcase their unique fashion sense and choice of yarns. The trunk shows from The Yarn Crawl sponsors that will be featured this year will be from Lana Grossa, Tahki Yarns, Stacy Charles Yarns, Trendsetter Yarn Group, Universal Yarns and Urth Yarns. The sponsors for this year include Anzula, Art Yarns, Berroco Yarns, Cascade, Circulo, Clover – Needles & Notions, Dream In Color, Ikigai Fiber, King Cole, Lana Grossa, Lykke – Needles, Noro, Plymouth, Prism, Skacel, String Yarns, Tahki/Stacey Charles, Trendsetter Yarn Group, Universal Yarns and Urth Yarns.
History of Fiber Arts
Knitting is connecting yarn or another fiber with needles creating a series of loops. These stitches today are commonly referred to as knitting and purling. They form the basic stitches and evolve from there creating a myriad of stitches and designs. These fibers intertwine row by row creating fabric that emerges from the crafters hands as scarves, hats, bags, sweaters, jackets, blankets, socks, dish cloths, baby clothes and a little something even for the fur baby. The art of knitting has been said to have originated in the Middle East between 500 A.D. and 1200 A.D. using natural fibers such as silk, cotton and wool.
Crochet like knitting uses yarn or another fiber to create a series of knots using a crochet hook. Crafters can create clothing to jewelry to toys. A range of fibers can be used including threads and wire. Knitting can also use these same materials. While documentation of crochet is not as prolific as knitting, evidence seems to emerge in the early nineteenth century in Europe. However, there are theories that there is earlier evidence of the artistry from Iran, South America and China.
Crochet, Knitting and other fiber arts can be done alone or with social groups. And the participating yarn shops see a combination of the aforementioned. But, promoting the social aspect with their Los Angeles County Yarn Crawl event is a highlight that brings friends and their community together.
What’s next
The Los Angeles County Yarn Crawl participants will quickly segue into their next event which is Local Yarn Store Day April 29, 2023. Think of this as an international yarn crawl day. This is where fiber lovers everywhere show their shop some love with a visit and hopefully a purchase of more glorious yarn. This is an individual yarn shop event and once again these unique shops will have their own unique promotions, giveaways, special kits, patterns and guests to promote fiber arts. If you are interested in finding out more about what stores may be doing for this national event, please visit the yarn shops’ websites or social media for more information.
For more information about the Los Angeles Yarn Crawl please visit www.layarncrawl.org
For press inquiries please email layarncrawl@gmail.com
Media Communications:
adamtorres@missionmatters.com
Source: Adam Torres / Co-Founder
Release ID: 574128
