Yarnmaven: Central Texas Yarn Crawl Recap

Open Letter to Central Texas Yarn Retailers

Dear Yarn Store Merchants,

I want to thank you all for collaborating on a great Yarn Crawl concept and execution this year! I know some of you personally, but not all. As a knitter for 40+ years, a knitblogger for 5 years (returning from a life hiatus) and a lover of all things yarny, I want to let you know what a great outing (or series of outings) this year's event was. This was my first time to participate. We couldn't get a seat on the bus so we devised our own route and recruited riders. It was a long day on Sunday in the rain and drizzle and we put over 300 miles on Frank's car, but it was totally fun!

Things I liked about the Crawl:

The prizes were VERY much an incentive.
I found some new yarn stores! - visiting a minumum number of stores was a great idea because many were not on my normal travel routes, but this event got me to them and now I will return to the ones I really liked when I can.
Most of the folks running the shops were really nice and helpful.
Each store had it's own flavor and culture - diversity is good.
Just about every store had something unique that wasn't found at another store.
I love the fact that the store owners worked together to pull this thing off and I hope it benefitted all of you.
It seemed most of the passport holders tried to find something to buy in as many stores as possible (knitters need yarn stores to succeed!)
Reasonable fee on the Passports AND bus (the ones we couldn't get on).
The store freebies were a nice touch - I will use ALL of them!

I wish we had gotten a seat on the bus, but we managed, we made 6 stores on Sunday! It just would have been great for someone else to do the driving so we could all knit. Next year, if there are more busses or even 15 passenger vans leaving from different locations, I think they would get filled with enough lead time and promotion. And prehaps next year, enlist the help of the knit-bloggers. With a little coordination, I'll bet other knitbloggers in the area (besides me) would be happy to help get the word out.

Can't wait to find out who wins the yarn prize goodies. Can't wait for next year! It's been a real inspriation to start blogging again.