The Inaugural Oklahoma Yarn Crawl Part One: The Eastern Shops

The 2024 Oklahoma Yarn Crawl recently wrapped, and my gosh was it FUN!

Twelve fiber businesses from across Oklahoma got together to put on the state’s first yarn crawl. Yarn shops, dye works, a working farm, and a mini fiber mill dot the state map, and fiber lovers made the trek to each one during the August 16th to 24th (excluding Sunday) special event. 

Each shop had their own special charm and yarns in addition to special events just for the yarn crawl. Some fiber businesses aren’t usually open to the public every day of the week, but they all kept special hours for the crawl.

The shops encouraged fiber lovers to visit each one by creating a “passport” that is stamped, clipped, or marked in some way to prove that a crawler visited. People who traveled to each shop were eligible to enter a prize drawing, in this case, for a basket full of fiber goodies worth $600!

(I don’t know about you, but I don’t normally need that much incentive to visit a yarn shop! That was just icing on the cake!)

They also created a special tote bag for the crawl, and each shop offered a free stitch marker for the visit!

My friend Susan and I decided to do our first yarn crawl together. We visited the *five* shops on the Eastern half of the state in one day, which was a mistake… 

As fun as it was, it was a lot of driving, and our schedule really limited our ability to appreciate each shop fully. By the time we made it to the fourth shop, we were exhausted, and we had more driving and another shop left to visit.

Next year, we’re definitely splitting the Eastern half of the yarn crawl into two days so we can spend more time at each shop!

Each shop we visited was wonderful, and I hope I can convey something special about each one, as they all have their own unique charms and strengths. Oklahoma has a widespread and vibrant fiber community, and the yarn crawl really showcased that.

Get Stitchin’ – Tulsa

We started out in Tulsa at Get Stitchin’. It’s now Tulsa’s only yarn shop, and it’s the shop I’m most familiar with since I offer machine knitting classes there (when healthy).

Get Stitchin’ frequently has fun events throughout the year for things like Knit in Public Day, Spin-Ins, shop milestones, and more, and the yarn crawl didn’t disappoint. They use their space to showcase small fiber businesses and feature local artists year round, and they brought in even more for the yarn crawl.

I went home with some yarn from Rachel Wolfe Designs and some amazing buttons. Look at that sparkle!

Get Stitchin’ really went all out with meet and greet and fiber artist showcases!
You can learn more about Get Stitchin’ at their website, Instagram, or Facebook pages.

Next up was

Community Fibers – Claremore

Community Fibers is in an office-like building that is divided into different rooms rather than one large retail space. Each turn into a new room reveals more yarn fun and bright displays, and I think they really utilize the layout well.

There is an area where visitors can try out new styles of knitting needles and crochet hooks AND they have a book lending library, not to mention the coziest couches ever to sit and craft in.

Community Fibers worked with Leading Men Fiber Arts and had a build-your-own shawl kit for the yarn crawl that came in both knit and crochet versions. 

Hand dyed yarn is my favorite, so I love finding new-to-me dyers, especially in local shops.

I bought some really fun rainbow speckle yarn.

You can learn more about Community Fibers from their website or Instagram.

Susan visited our third stop years ago, but I had never been to

Shepherd’s Cross – Claremore

Shepherd’s Cross is a farm outside of Claremore with a Christian-based missions focus. Their big barn is a shop with items made from artists both local and international with revenue returning to the artist or mission. They have a fiber museum, teaching area, and outdoor areas where you can observe the farm as well as seasonal things like a pumpkin patch. 

We had to leave sooner than we’d wanted to be able to make the next two shops by 5PM closing, but Susan and I decided to visit again and make a day of it so we had plenty of time to explore their fiber museum. There was so much more than I expected at Shepherd’s Cross.

I bought some fluffy pencil roving to level up my spinning abilities (hopefully). It was very reasonably priced, so I am not quite as intimidated to use it as other gifted fibers in my stash.

Shepherd’s Cross has a “Sheep to Shawl” Wooly Weekend in April where you can watch the sheep be sheared, see the wool cleaning and carding processes, watch hand spinners making the yarn, and then see different fiber art crafts in action to turn the yarn into a shawl.

I know where I’ll be next April!

You can learn more about Shepherd’s Cross at their website, Instagram, or Facebook pages.

My energy was flagging after three stops, but we had two more to go! Fourth up was a hidden gem in a tiny town

Hometown Yarns & More – Deleware

One of the owners of Hometown Yarns also took machine knitting classes from my mentor Pamela Carrico, so I got a bit of a sneak peek last year while the shop was being set up.

Under construction no more, it’s really cute AND they had shop pets-two rescue kitties and a dog! I love meeting shop animals. They’re adorable and can be a little distracting from the most important thing (yarn!), but oh so snuggly and sweet. (I wish my cat was that well behaved.)

Hometown Yarns & More had so many amazing creative fiber arts showcased. There was rug hooking, oxford punch, knitting, crocheting, weaving, and more that I know I’ve forgotten.

They also dye their own yarns in house and present them at the most reasonable price I’ve ever seen for a hand-dyed yarn. Honestly, I think they’re under-priced at around $16-20 per skein depending on the fiber content. Getting beautiful, one of a kind yarn like that is a heck of a deal.

I bought these gorgeous greens to make an Ambah O’Brien-inspired shawl. They included a soak sample pack for washing and blocking the finished project, too!

You can learn more about Hometown Yarns & More at their website, Instagram, and Facebook pages.

I’ve mentioned this one quite a few times here on the blog. We went to my mentor, Pamela Carrico’s shop, one of my favorite places, for our fifth and final stop on the Eastern half of the Oklahoma Yarn Crawl.

Carrico’s Creative Corner – Bartlesville

The shop is on the smaller side and attached to her house, but the walls are covered in shelving with loads of wonderful cone yarn. Pamela carries handwork yarns, too, as well as the SilverReed LK150 mid gauge knitting machine, which was set up to showcase machine knitting.

Pamela knits samples on her knitting machine so you know what yarns will look like when they’re worked up and lets you know if they’re good for the washer and dryer like they claim or if you need to take special care of them. She can tell you how they feel on the machines and which machine gauge works best with different yarns.

Pamela blends yarn together frequently in her work to create gorgeous, one-of-a-kind pieces. When I started thinking about things made of yarn as fabric like she taught me, I really noticed a change for the better in my knitting. I’ve visited her numerous times since 2018, and I always walk away having learned something new. Even if Carrico’s Creative Corner is small, it’s always a welcoming experience full of wonder and inspiration. 

I bought some fun specialty yarns to match yarn in my home stash along with the yarn crawl tote. I’m really excited to play with these and make some fun textures and borders in the future.

You can learn more about Carrico’s Creative Corner by visiting their website, Instagram, Facebook, or Etsy pages. (Some social media handles are named after the design side of business, CMO Designer Knits).

Along the way…

The 2024 Oklahoma Yarn Crawl was the first yarn crawl for my friend Susan, myself, and many yarn and fiber enthusiasts I know. Susan and I ran into some of the same groups of yarn crawlers as we visited different stops. It was really fun to see what they were looking at from each shop and hear what part of the state they were from.

I’m really glad that these Oklahoma fiber businesses got together and hosted this event to show off our community and give us another opportunity to meet others within it. As our Eastern Shop day went on and my fatigue increased, I didn’t take as many pictures as I intended, but I made sure to correct that for the Central and Western Oklahoma shops in next post’s Part Two.

Be sure to check out these awesome shops the next time you’re nearby!

Thanks for joining me on this state-wide stretch of my machine knitting journey! Did you also attend the Inaugural Oklahoma Yarn Crawl? Are you planning on joining the next one? I sure am!