A Piece of Vermont

Today I started thinking about all of the great folks from out of state who will be visiting our shop in the next few months. They come from miles around just to visit our shop, and we are so glad to have them! It's always fun to meet people who are visiting our beautiful state. They always say how lucky we are to live here... and well, we agree.

We always like to have some special yarns for these folks - as most of them want to take home some yarn that will remind them of their visit to Vermont. We do have some Green Mountain Spinnery that is very popular with our out of towners, and the Cherry Tree Hill yarns, which are dyed just a few hours from here, are also a big hit. But I'm always looking for more yarns that have Vermont ties, so...

today I called Jessie Raymond, owner of A Piece of Vermont, in Middlebury, Vermont. She has been hand dying yarns in Vermont for several years now, and so I talked with her about getting some of her beautiful yarn in our shop. She has a number of fibers that look really interesting, and she handpaints these yarns in an array of gorgeous colors. I decided to try one of her sock yarns - a blend of superwash wool, bamboo and nylon, and it looks amazing! We've settled on about 8 colorways to start, and depending on how they are received, we'll take it from there. She does have some 100% Vermont Fiber, but I'm waiting to see that in person. Maybe it, too, will end up on our shelves?

I normally buy in really large quantities for the website, and that means I need to have large amounts of the same colorway (sweater quantities, etc) even in hand dyed yarns. But with A Piece of Vermont, I'm going to do it differently. These will really be one-of-a-kind "grab it when you see it" yarns.

In talking with her I realized that we both went to Middlebury College, and pretty much graduated in the same year. We didn't know each other then - so much for it being such a small school! But I am thrilled to be doing business with her, and eager to meet her face to face. I'm just as eager to get my hands on her yarn!