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Interview with Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

April 10, 2013

Hello, hello! Jillian here with another shop interview!

In the last several months, we started offering something new here at Blue Sky Alpacas called Yarn Tastings! These crafting parties allow local yarn shops to feature Blue Sky Alpacas (or Spud & Chloë) yarns that they either already carry or that they are considering bringing in but would like to test out with customers first. Yarn Tastings are often paired with items from our Trunk Shows so that customers can also see finished Blue Sky Alpacas patterns made with the featured yarn. It’s a fun and easy way to bring knitters and crocheters together to explore new fibers!

The most exciting part of this new venture is how creative many store owners have been with their concepts for the Yarn Tastings, and Sandy Spiller of Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn in Glenburn, Maine is no exception. Let’s find out how she took her Yarn Tasting one step farther!

Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn Logo

Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Jillian: Sandy, thanks so much for being here with me today! Let’s dive right in and learn more about your shop and your creative approach to your recent Yarn Tasting. From what I gather, your yarn shop used to be a felting business that your massage therapist named! Tell me how that happened! 😀

Essentially Felt Exterior

Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Sandy: Originally, the shop was named for the felting studio where I created unique wearable felt. The name Essentially Felt, submitted by my massage therapist, was selected from about 75 entries in a contest I enclosed in my annual family holiday greeting card! Other entries submitted were Oy G’felt!, O Wool is Me, and Brave New Wool. Ultimately, though, the impartial judges went with Essentially Felt. When the yarn shop opened in November 2011, the name was slightly altered by simply adding Studio & Fine Yarn to the end, and—ta da!! The Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn shop was born.

Jillian: What a great way to name your studio! You have very clever friends and family. 🙂 So, what types of classes and services does your shop offer? Is it for both knitters and felters?

Sandy: Though the shop is dedicated to knitters, offering an array of quality yarns from around the world and classes in knitting, we also hold classes in felting and other fiber arts. The shop interior is finished in natural wood and offers a feeling of warmth and coziness in a climate which is cold much of the year. (In warmer months knitting can be enjoyed under a canopy of trees just outside the shop!)

Essentially Felt Interior

Love the Spud & Chloë display! Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Sandy: The loft area of the shop is currently dedicated to a traditional yarn shop decorated with eclectic furnishings with a bit of an artistic approach.

Essentially Felt Interior

Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Essentially Felt Interior

Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Sandy: The lower floor remains a dynamic area where shelving and tables are on wheels and can be configured in infinite ways to showcase yarns or provide space for workshops and special events.
Felting Workshop

Students in a felting workshop working in the lower studio. Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Jillian: What a beautiful and practical interior! What is the shop’s neighborhood like? I bet it is just as beautiful outside as it is inside!

Sandy: Indeed! The shop is located in rural Maine and is surrounded by nature. It is not unusual to see a group, called a rafter, of wild turkeys strutting by, deer grazing, or woodchucks nibbling grass, all just a few feet beyond the windows of the shop. Recently, a young falconer graced the shop’s landscape with his tethered red hawk in training to work in the field just beyond. Despite the rural nature of the shop, it is located at the fringes of Bangor, Maine and is easy to find.

Wild Turkeys

They certainly get all kinds of clientèle at Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn… Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Jillian: I always like to hear the knitting history of shop owners we talk to. Can you tell me about how you came to open your shop?

Sandy: My Kansas childhood was filled with grandmothers, aunties, and teachers who were more than willing to share their skills and knowledge quilting, tatting, crocheting, embroidering, sewing, and knitting. As a young girl, these were the activities with which I filled my hours on the farm.

However, my real passion for knitting began at about age nine when a childhood girlfriend invited me to her home and showed me the basics of knitting. I was thrilled to be able to produce little garter stitch squares for her to apply to a sweater! Making those stitches and watching the yarn grow into fabric was hypnotic to me and gave rise to a passion that would follow me throughout my life.

During my university years, while sitting through courses such as anatomy, physiology, and chemistry, I daydreamed about how much more fun a yarn shop would be. I knit my way through elementary school, high school, nurse’s training, and interior design school, across two continents and three careers. Opening a yarn shop was the inevitable conclusion for my favorite fiber avocation, which has morphed to my full time occupation.

Jillian: It certainly seems only natural that Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn would be a part of your future! Let’s talk about the Blue Sky Alpacas Yarn Tasting you hosted recently, which introduced your customers to Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight and Melange yarns, but also resulted in a tangible object that was donated to the homeless.

Sandy: Yes, it seemed to me that pooling together a number of knitters for the purpose of seeing and feeling how a new-to-them yarn knits wasn’t enough. Eventually, I realized that so many knitters working on a project could actually create a finished piece! This led to thoughts of donating the piece to charity and, when I looked outside my window, I noticed it had started to snow and I knew just what to do: donate the finished piece to someone who needed to be warm.

Jillian: What a great idea!

Sandy: The actual Yarn Tasting was a breakfast event held on a Saturday morning over a two hour period. Guests were served a breakfast buffet of pastries, egg entrée, yogurt-fruit-granola parfait, and beverages. Each knitter was instructed to knit a swatch that was 48 stitches wide in any stitch pattern they wished. (The shop provided needles if guests had not brought their own.)

Happy Group of Yarn Tasters

Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Sandy: Each knitter who purchased yarn during the Yarn Tasting received a small gift pin and free pattern, courtesy of Blue Sky Alpacas, plus a small winding of yarn and a tiny crochet hook as a gift from the shop. Everyone really got into the spirit of knitting a piece with a purpose and at the same time had a lot of fun. The Yarn Tasting resulted in about 40 inches of lovely knitted swatches created by over 30 pairs of hands.

Swatches

Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Sandy: The shop did the final assembly of the scarf and donated it to the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter!

Finished Scarf

Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

Jillian: Gosh, it turned out absolutely beautiful! I am sure it is keeping someone both colorful and warm. 🙂

Sandy: Oh, and did I mention Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight and Melange sales were brisk? 😉

Jillian: Excellent, that’s what we like to hear! It can make a big difference when customers can not only pick up and feel the yarn in a shop, but actually work with it. I have just one more question: If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?

Sandy: To answer this, I would look to a real modern-day “superhero” embodied in Malala Yousafzai, 15-year-old Pakistani school girl whose conviction that girls should be able to attend school made her a target for the Taliban in October 2012. She has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She possesses unbelievable courage, hope, and strength of character in speaking up and taking action to help girls receive an education. These are attributes worthy of anyone’s pursuit!

Jillian: Absolutely. Sandy, thank you for chatting with me today, for holding a Yarn Tasting, and for giving back to the community. 😀 Readers, check out Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn’s website and Facebook page!

If you’re a store owner interested in hosting a Yarn Tasting or a Trunk Show but don’t know where to begin, email info@blueskyalpacas.com and we’ll get it sorted out. 🙂

Modeled Scarf

Photo © Essentially Felt Studio & Fine Yarn

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