With precocious names like Hippy Strings, Darling Deviance and Wooly Ewe, knitters and other fibre artists are invited to go on a Yarn Crawl to discover these unique stores located throughout the region.
There are a dozen stores in all, including three in Prince George, that are inviting adventurous knitters to come check them out and get special discounts for their efforts.
Playing with String is the group organizing the self-led event that lasts all summer and sees stores from as far away as Prince Rupert, the Northwest Territories, Fort McMurray, and 100 Mile House participating.
Jen Boots, Bonne Leiphart and Darlene Wainwright are members of Playing with String who are organizing the event.
The group started three years ago after a small group of knitters traveled to some outlying yarn stores one morning and returned to Prince George for a nice pub lunch.
"And said that was so much fun, why don't we do that all the time?" Leiphart said.
And so the Great Northwest Yarn Crawl began and culminates with the FibreFest which will be held on Sept. 22 at the Senior Citizens Activity Centre, 425 Brunswick St.
Fibre arts enthusiasts are invited to get a passport from Playing with String and present it at each of the stores they visit for a chance to enter draws at the FibreFest.
Boots is an avid knitter who began at her grandmother's knee, then took it up again with her mother-in-law and creates sweaters and other items of clothing for family and friends.
Leiphart is a knitter who creates scarves and shawls using unique stitches, colours and textures, who dabbles in crochet but only if she has to, she said.
"I started off at 11 or 12 when my mom tried to teach me but she's left handed and I am right handed and it was a disaster," Leiphart recalled with a smile. "So I took up crocheting and that was really fun but I kept looking at the beautiful knitting patterns and so about 15 years ago I found myself a right-handed knitting mentor who was just fantastic and got me going."
Leiphart said Wainwright, who used to own a yarn store in Prince George, is a knitter, weaver, spinner, crocheter, and yarn dyer.
"We refer to Darlene as our yarn goddess," Leiphart laughed, talking about her friend's contribution to the group's dynamic.
Bringing about the yarn crawl started by comparing big city centres hosting yarn crawls to a dozen stores that would only take a weekend.
"We know there are a lot of other beautiful stores out there so we went further afield, contacted the stores to ask if they'd be interested in something like that," Leiphart said.
Emphasis was put on Canadian yarns and artists to showcase the rich culture that is in the region, she added.
"There's so much talent here and so many people who create wonderful things and unfortunately because we're all so wide spread it's hard to showcase that," Leiphart said. "We thought we could do that with the yarn crawl."
For more information and to get a passport visit www.playing-with-string.com.
