Getting Stitched on the Farm

Finding Julia in Yarnland

Although my daughter Julia has been making her enthusiastic rounds on this earth for a little over eight yarns now, the yarn Julia has been developing slowly and steadily. Begun as a single yarn distributed by Goddess Yarns about 5 years ago, Julia is now distributed nationally by Nashua Handknits (a division of Westminster Fibers - those same folks who bring Rowan and Jaeger to our shores). Julia (the yarn) has been making a slow but steady progression and transition to the national yarn marketplace. Last Fall was the debut of the entire brand Nashua - a creative, natural fiber yarn line developed expressly for the American knitting customer. I was so very happy to be asked to have Julia become part of their brand. Headed by National Marketing Director, Linda Pratt and Creative Director Susan Mills, these Nashua girls are really onto something. Maybe I'll ask one of them for a guest blog post - that would be fun, wouldn't it? The Nashua girls are doing some great designs and selling some amazingly beautiful yarns.

At any rate, as all yarns go, there are channels of distribution that all lead to your friendly local yarn store. I am so happy to say that Julia is now available in 130 stores throughout the USA and Canada. (Thank you Nashua sales reps and all the stores who are taking the chance!) This increase in distribution is so exciting for me (and Julia too). Knitters can actually find Julia, feel it and buy it. And I don't have to keep apologizing that it can only be found a few places. Here's the link to the new listing on my website giving all the current stores who carry Julia. (A giant public thank you and applause to all those who made it happen, inserted here please!)

I have been working with the major magazines like Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting to develop a steady stream of editorial content of beautiful sweaters and projects. And if you are a regular reader of this blog, you have probably already guessed that I'm working on a knitting book due out next Fall 2007 - more about that much later. Although not all the items I design for the mags are in Julia I try hard to place it. First of all because it is so very nice to knit with and second of all, the colors are so beautiful. (Thirdly, I do receive a very small royalty on the sales of the yarn and that's how I am trying to support myself here folks.)

So look for Julia at your LYS! And if you decide to knit with some, I thank you, as does my family thank you and your local yarn store owner. Here are most of the colors, although I was missing three that day. Isn't it a beautiful color range? And we've already planned five new shades for next Fall.


And as for my post title, we all loved that great movie with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet..... Oh the costumes, the scenery, and the story.....