Yarns
on First Connie Egan and Roxana Forwood, partners in
crime, or partners in yarn? Yarns on First is a
yarn shop not only in California, but in Napa Valley. After
trying to purchase a yarn shop in St. Helena, Connie
decided that she would rather start a store of
her own in Napa Valley, and that’s exactly what
happened in 2005.
“I had 80 large boxes of yarn in my garage and
my late husbands’ woodshop that needed pricing. Since
the work on the shop was still ongoing, I decided
to get as much ready at home as I could,” said
Egan. Roxana is a friend of Egan’s, and generously
offered to help with the inventory. The colors
and textures of the yarn intrigued her and soon
she was volunteering to help get the shop up and
running. Yarns on First was open for business
on Valentine’s Day and by then, Roxana was hooked
and learning to knit. Connie Egan had herself
a partner!
Connie Egan has been knitting most of her life and used
to spend summers with an Aunt who taught her to knit. “I
remember knitting all garter stitch squares and various
sizes and my Aunt helping me put them together to make
blankets for my dolls,” recalls Egan. Now that there’s
a business to build and tend to, there isn’t nearly as
much knitting going on any more.
They like to describe their shop as a candy store without
the calories. The yarns are arranged by color and
it makes for a very colorful and stimulating experience. The
store has a modern and contemporary feel that suits their
nature perfectly. When you enter the store there
is a large table, typically full of busy knitters chatting
away, making friends and pushing their skills. “We’ve
become a community”, says Egan. Even though the climate
in Napa is temperate, cottons and other summer yarns aren’t
nearly as popular as wool. Surprisingly, the store
seems to move as much wool in the summer months as during
the fall and winter. The good thing is the store
is air conditioned which makes for very pleasant summer
knitting.
Napa Valley is considered to be one of the top wine regions
in the state of California, and in all of the United States,
with a history dating back to the nineteenth century. With the
combination of the Mediterranean climate, geography and
geology of the valley it's very conducive to growing quality
wine grapes. The city of Napa is the largest city
in Napa County. “There is a poplulation of about
75,000 giving us a good solid base of dedicated knitters,”
says Egan. Napa Valley gets a tourist base of about
4.7 million and is the 2nd most popular tourist desination
in California second only to Disneyland. Like most
knitters on vacation, they have their eyes peeled for a
yarn shop to visit and something to take home from their
vacation. The store offers classes and workshops
taught by Nancy England; a very creative knitter who is
described as an artist who knits. The store also
has knitting circles that meet up on Thursday evenings.
I asked the
girls what their favorite thing to knit is…..Roxana
digs socks, and is known around the shop as the “Sock
Queen”. Connie likes a challenge when looking
for her next project and is in love with lace and fair
isle knitting. For a favorite yarn, the girls
love cashmere and silk. As far as the store goes,
they can’t seem to keep enough sock yarn in stock and
Noro Silk Garden is also a Napa favorite.
Now, some parting words from Connie Egan…..”Roxana
and I want everyone to feel welcome at Yarns on First;
particularly new knitters who often feel intimidated
to ask questions. The one thing I’ve realized
that no matter how long we’ve been knitting, there
is always something to learn”.
Napa Valley is a world class wine region and they are fortunate
to have a world class yarn shop in Yarns on First, please
stop by for a visit!
