What’s next?

Like the phoenix on the flag of San Francisco, the Bay Area Yarn Crawl was born from the ashes of the demise of Stitches.

Stitches West ended slowly, then suddenly.

There were signs, even before the pandemic. Their vibe was -so- 20 years ago, VKL was nipping at their heels, and it seemed to be harder and harder to find a new class. Still, with 300 vendors, and some truly excellent instructors, Stitches might have limped along for a while, were it not for the pandemic.

When the bankruptcy was announced, it was certainly a shock to the vendors who had pre-paid for booths at future shows, and teachers who - just hours before - had taught classes for which they had not been, and probably would never be, paid.

Looking back, I wonder if that collective shock and panic allowed the B.A.Y.Crawl to come together at all. I reached out to shops with the idea for the Crawl just days after the announcement, and although most of whom had never even met me, they all said yes and showed up for that first zoom meeting.