Meet the Yarns By Design team-Part Two

Part two to our "Meet the Yarns By Design Team" blog series!

Next up is Natalie Belmont, Boutique Manager. 

Natalie's path to knitting and to the Yarns By Design team started in 2010 and came about when she was in search of a creative outlet. "I went to art school and when I quit, I also quit drawing and painting", she begins. "I wanted to try knitting so I bought some yarn and a pattern and gave it a shot." "When my baby bootie pattern came out to fit a 5 year old, I started looking for a place to get help." Natalie lived in Oakmont, so YBD was the next logical place to go. "Sandy (owner) took me in and taught me everything I know, and eventually employed me!"

Natalie and fam!

Natalie's favorite place to knit is on her sofa with Netflix or at Thursday evening Fiber Friends at YBD.  When she is not knitting or at the boutique she enjoys hot yoga and spending time with her husband and two boys. One of her knitting projects she is most proud of is "The Bounce Blanket, made for her newest son Otto (born in June). "It is such a fun pattern, I had a blast and it turned out beautiful". The blanket is made all out of Rios!

The Bounce Blanket designed by Tin Can Knits, made by Natalie and ready for  baby Otto!

Natalie's favorite knitting designers are Tin Can Knits and Stephen West. When asked what is currently her go-to fiber for knitting, Natalie said "I am a total Malabrigo junkie, and my favorite line of theirs is Rios!"

Natalie and Antonio, owner of Malabrigo. 

Finally, a few words of wisdom from Natalie to anyone just getting started with knitting:

"Just keep knitting! Don't leave any idle time in between projects, always have something on your needles."

Stop by to say hi to Natalie and the rest of the YBD team, we are here to help! Interested in learning to knit or crochet? Sign up for some individual or group lessons today.

Warmly, 

Sarah at Yarns By Design 

sarah@yarnsbydesignpa.com

Steel Valley Yarn Crawl 2017 Round Up

The 2017 Steel Valley Yarn Crawl has come to an end and we are all catching our breath! Yarns By Design was open during seven of the 10 days of the crawl and were fortunate enough to have quite the turnout. This year we estimated well over 200 passports stamped at our boutique. We had familiar faces stop by and many first-time visitors as well. Some of our crawlers even came from out of state just for the event. 

We noticed lots of crawlers stopping in to check out our Hedgehog Fibres and our newest brand of Brooklyn Tweed. We can't wait see what everyone has to say about trying those yarns for the first time-be sure to let us know. Don't forget to bring in your finished projects when you stop in, we enjoy seeing our yarns come alive! A special shout out to Tin Can Knits for donating the free knit pattern "Undertone Cowl" and YBD's Sarah LaVoie for designing the free crochet pattern with purchase of the featured Hedgehog Fibres yarn. Both patterns are great for transitioning to Fall weather, so get started now.

2017 Yarn Crawl Knit pattern "Undertone Cowl" by Tin Can Knits and made by Sandy

Undertone Cowl made with this fun shade of  Hedgehog Fibres DK in "Bounce" 

2017 Yarn Crawl crochet pattern "Morning Smoothie" by Sarah LaVoie

 

Morning Smoothie cowl made with this dynamic shade of Hedgehog Fibres DK  in "Birthday Cake" 

 Winners of our raffle were selected. Congratulations to our winners:
Bag #1: Faye Gardany
Bag #2: Chelsea Kelly
Bag #3: Noralynn Spiri

Congrats to Chelsea Kelly, crocheter and winner of YBD raffle bag #2 and newest fan of Hedgehog Fibres!

We hope you love your prizes as much as we do!

Have any recommendations for things you'd like to see at our shop or about the crawl in general? We would love to hear your feedback. Stop in the boutique, drop us a message or just comment below. We are trying to improve the crawl experience every year.

Some views of our 2017 crawlers in action. 

Yarns by Design would like to thank all of the crawlers that stopped by this year and we hope to see everyone again soon. Looking forward to what the 2018 crawl brings!

Warmly,

Sarah with YBD
sarah@yarnsbydesignpa.com