- store: The Swift Stitch
- address: 402 Ingalls Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
- website: www.theswiftstitch.com
- date of visit: April, 2012
Everywhere I travel, I go to yarn stores. In fact, during my 5-day trip to California, I visited 7 yarn stores in 4 different cities.
Some stores are mega-huge with a fabulous selection. Of course, I blog about those… because they’re really interesting and I encourage you to visit! But there are a few stores that I fall in love with even though they’re an average-sized shop with a lovely (but non-gargantuan) selection. Do you know what makes me fall in love with a shop? The people.
The second I walked into The Swift Stitch, I felt like I was at home with friends. There were customers on the sofa happily chatting away, and Marina (employee extraordinaire) welcomed me as if I were one of her fave customers.
At first, friendly staff may seem like a trivial requirement of a shop… until you enter countless stores with a clique-ish atmosphere and employees/owners too busy working on their projects to eek out more than a feeble ‘hello’. After a dozen or so of those experiences, you can truly appreciate (and adore) someone who welcomes (even a newbie customer) as a friend.
Since I was a visitor to town, Marina (and the customers) helpfully suggested the ‘must-sees’ of Santa Cruz: both in terms of attractions, restaurants and other crafty shops to hit. Truth be told, I had to scrape myself up off the sofa to see any of them… I wanted to stay at the shop!
In addition to friendly personnel, the shop was stocked with an exciting assortment of lovelies: Habu, Alchemy, Blue Sky Alpacas, Malabrigo and Abstract Fiber to name a few. As someone from the (often chilly) East Coast, I was delighted to explore how warm-climate yarn shops differ from what I’m used to… thinner yarns, more plant-based fibers and interesting yarns destined for beautiful shawls lined the shelves. This is what traveling is about!
With a beautiful assortment of yarns, a comfy sofa and lovely staff… you can bet I’ll be back at The Swift Stitch whenever I’m back in the Santa Cruz area! You should, too!
Oh! I went to Santa Cruz 6 years ago and didn’t see this back then. The crearive big hadn’t bitten me then. I loved Santa Cruz :-)
Esther.
As you can see i’m still exploring your blog…
I went to several yarn shops when we were in the Pacific NW this summer. One was fantastic– just as you say, the people were SUPER friendly and made me feel very comfortable. It was So Much Yarn in Seattle. But the reason I’m commenting is to tell you about another shop where the staff person was on the phone the ENTIRE time I was in there, talking to a friend about her gluten free diet! I don’t think she ever realized that I was in the shop. Ugh.