What comes to mind when you hear the words "Seattle
Washington", maybe Boeing, Starbucks, Nordstrom,
or Microsoft. If you lived there, you could be thinking,
Ballard, Alki, Belltown, Capitol Hill, Chinatown, Downtown,
Eastlake, Fremont or Queen Anne. Well, the Queen Anne
neighborhood of Seattle, is home to Hilltop Yarn Shop.
The store is owned by Jennifer Hill. The name Hilltop
Yarn Shop is derived from the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood
and also Jennifer Hill owner.
Hilltop Yarn Shop has been in existance for 5 1/2 years,
and appears to be doing very well. The store is warm
and cozy, full of yarn, and lots of employees to help
you.
Jennifer has a business partner, her Mom. Five and half
years ago, Jennifer took knitting classes in Seattle and
loved it. She was a stay at home Mom with her small daughter.
She worked for Starbucks before motherhood, in management
with experience in opening stores. She was ready to work
again, but wanted her own business.
Queen Anne is an urban neighborhood in Seattle, located
on top of a hill. It's quiet, peaceful, unique and has
a small town feel. Jennifer says, it's a walking neighborhood,
away from the city with quaint shops, restaurants, art
galleries,
and boutiques. It's not totally without a few chains like
Safeway and Starbucks, but it also has easy access to the
city downtown.
The store is in a house, not a building or a strip mall,
only no one lives there. It has a front yard, a porch and
luckily, great parking in the back. Hilltop Yarn is a Rowan
stockist and the Rowan line of yarn is also the store favorite.
Their
yarn is contemporary yet classic and you'll find it located
in the kitchen area of the house. Jennifers favorite Rowan
yarn is Kid Classic. The store organizes their yarn by
weight except for the Rowan. The Rowan yarn is all together.
Hilltop Yarn also has a line of patterns called "decidedly
Hilltop". They are employee designs. Hilltop has a
full staff of sales people and teachers and definately
celebrates learning.
Jennifer Hill is not only the owner of Hilltop Yarn in
Seattle, but a full-time student, and PTO President at
her daughters school. She is very passionate about children,
public school and knitting. She says of the store, it's
not just commerce,
it's connecting with the customer and teaching them to
knit. Seattle is a great place to come and visit; we have
our 3 day LYS Tour called Destination; Yarn in May (see
link below). The tour includes 20 different shops to visit,
one being Hilltop Yarn on Queen Anne Hill, Seattle, Washington!
