Sew What! - Redding, California

Location: Redding, California
Shop:       Sew What!
Owner:     Lisa
Website:   www.sewwhatquilts.com/

Redding is in northern California along I-5, approximately 100 miles fromt he border of Oregon. 90,000 people live in Redding which is the county seat for Shasta County, and where 1/2 of the county's population live, the other 90,000 are spread out between the county's two other towns, Anderson and Shasta Lake City.

I sell primarily to knitting shops, and I have sold to a few quilt shops in the past year, but this is the first quilting & knitting shop I've sold to. Lisa opened Sew What! as a quilt shop 10 years ago, the yarn came in a year later. When asked if she was a quilter or a knitter, she quickly answered, "Both!"

The yarn is in it's own room inside the quilt shop, but don't let that fool you into thinking they have a limited supply, there was plenty to choose from, you just have to get by the fabric first, good luck. While I visited, there was a class going on in the yarn area. I asked all the gals what the class was, and they all just kinda shrugged their shoulders and said knitting. Each one of them had a completely different project going on and the instructor was there to help address any issues they might have. I really didn't see much instructing going on, I think these gals just come in to "class" to knit together, because they were still there while the instructor had gone on to her next appointment.

I think I found the socks I want to knit. The sample on the right in the picture above (on the left) has beads at the top. I think they're calling my name. Soon my pretties, soon.

Next stop: a bead shop in Redding, California

Location: Elk Grove, California
Shop: Babetta's Yarn
Owner: Babetta
Website: http://www.babettasyarnandgifts.com/

Elk Grove is a suburb of Sacramento, and although only incorporated 12 years ago, boasts a population of over 150,000. It's in the bustling Sacramento County, which holds almost 1.5 million. Not at all a small town, quite a few yarn shops, and we visited a couple.

Babetta's was the first stop in the area, and the first sign of palm trees. This is what I remembered about California. Although that was 30 years ago, and Disneyland was the main existence of my memory, but palm trees stood out because they reminded me of Gilligan's Island. I loved that show. The Professor and Marianne....

Several things stand out about Babetta's. First, there's a lot of stuff in here, "Stability through variety," is Babetta's motto. She's been open 7 years, and Babetta works seven days out of each week. Her daughter comes in and relieves her for Sunday afternoons and she has a niece that helps as well.


Several years back, Babetta, a single mother of 5 children, purchased her first house by borrowing her daughter's income tax return. Several years later, much to her surprise and delight, her house went up in value. She remortgaged the house and with the money opened up her yarn shop. Pretty inspiring.


Her shop is expansive, lots & lots & lots of yarn and accessories. You could lose a few hours in this shop quite easily. She opens at 8am for you early birds, plus she serves espresso for your friends you drag along that aren't early birds. (For those of you paying attention, she opens at 8am, closes at 6pm, that's a 10 hour day, and she does 6.5 of those each week)

And of course, she's got an extensive book selection to go with her extensive yarn collection. Babetta claims she sleeps well at night, I'm left wondering: "How the heck does she do it"

Next Stop: Fair Oaks, California

Location: Eureka, CA
Shop:       Yarn
Owner:     Sunni
website:    www.yarn-fun.com

Home to about 27,000, Eureka is the county seat for Humboldt County, which holds 7 incorporated towns, plus 40 unincorporated towns. That's a lot of towns. There are over 44,000 square miles of Humboldt County, located in the top western part of California.

Yarn is in what's considered Old Town Eureka. The shop itself is about as cute as a button, no pun intended.

Once, past the cute worn welcome mat, you'll find that it's probably the tiniest yarn shop you've ever been in. But Sunni made great use with this tiny space. There's absolutely no backstock, the place is too tiny to have a back room. Everything she has is right there in your face, and she has some cool stuff. They tend to focus on natural fibers and locally dyed yarn, which came in some fabulous colors.

One wall of yarn, and I'm serious about the wall. Every nook is filled with some great stuff. The ladder shown in the above picture gets you to some out of reach spots, but not climbable by customers. If you see something you can't reach, just ask Sunni, or one of her 3 part time gals, they will most likely point out where you can find it at a lower level.

Yarn has been in business for four years. They have classes and every Sunday is Sit & Knit. They also carry locally made things, including knitted items, chocolates, jewelry & yarn sacks, just to list a few. And, just like any great yarn shop, they've got a nice selection of books and patterns. I'm amazed that with as tiny as the shop is, they've manage to strategically place some really cute samples.

If you plan on visiting Eureka, you should know there are three yarn shops in town. I did not visit the other two, but this one had everything I would need, plus as I said before, it's about as cute as a button.

Next stop: Ferndale, California

Location: Ashland, Oregon
Shop: The Websters
Owner: Linda
Website: http://yarnatwebsters.com/store/

In the "You-learn-something-new-every-day" category, I learned that webster is an old english term for a weaver. Merriam-Webster's dictionary says "Middle English, from Old English webbestre female weaver, from webbian to weave; akin to Old English wefan to weave".

The Websters is located next to beautiful Lithia Park. There's a nice meandering stream in the park for you to sit by and be crafty while you enjoy the day. Ashland is home to only 20,000, so there's plenty of room for you and your crafty gear at the park. There's also plenty of other shops around, all within walking distance of the park and The Websters.

This store is awesome. I was amazed at the store and it's selection. There's a huge rack of sweaters in the middle of the store.

Not one of them is for sale. They're all amazing samples of things you can make with the yarn that they carry. They also have a great selection of books and plenty of bins for you to rummage through.

Not to mention the walls, yes I said walls, of yarn.

The Websters is getting ready to celebrate their 30 year anniversary. Don't ask about an anniversary sale though, Dona's way too busy to even think about that. She's got a big store to run, plus a pretty extensive website.

Her shop's been in the same location the entire time, just not so big. They started as a small store which is now their back office. Now they have an upstairs, a back room, and an amazing giant store, with a roomy classroom.

Plus, the two gals at the front counter were all smiles and extremely helpful.

This was our last stop in Oregon, at least for the southern part of our journey. Next stop: Crescent City, California.

Location: McMinnville, Oregon

Shop:       Boersma's....

Owner:    Michelle

McMinnville lies approx. 35 miles southeast of Portland, and just happens to be the home of the famous UFO photographs that appeared in the Oregonian and subsequently LIFE magazine in 1950. There are 27,000 people in McMinnville, and I'm sure every one of them know about Boersma's. They've been in business and in the same location since 1935. They also dominate two corners of downtown.

The knitting shop only opened 6 years ago. They had no plans of ever having a knitting shop, but they admitted they needed to when they got calls on a daily basis asking if they carried knitting supplies. So instead of making room in their quilting and fabric store, they opened up an entirely new shop, just for knitters, right across the street.

This store has a lot of room, and it's full of a lot of fun stuff. There's Michelle & Kathy sitting on the comfy couch (while they check out my buttons) in the side room, which even had more stuff.

Lots of yarns, lots of samples, and a few things you don't find in every knit shop

I followed Michelle and her manager Kathy over to the quilt shop and was amazed at the selection. This place was enourmous. And this is only one of the aisles.

I also found out that this building was built in the late 20's and had the first elevator in Oregon. It was originally built for Montgomery Wards, which didn't last very long. Boersma's kept the Montgomery Ward doors on the building, and they're still in use as the main entrance.

If you can't make it in, you can check out their website:

http://www.boersmas.com/