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Knits And Bolts

photo by Dale Piper Jean Clark sorts yarn at Knits and Bolts in New Haven.

photo by Dale Piper

Tuesday April 4, 2006

By Dale Piper

Opening the door of Jean Clark's New Haven shop at this bleak, dismal time of year, you find that you are surrounded by warmth, light and color.  It's almost too much for the senses to take in, but certainly enough to make you forget the gray landscape outdoors. Jean has created a one-stop Mecca for knitters and quilters, where one can find virtually every kind of yarn, fabric, tools, pattern and accessory needed to complete a project.

A lifelong quilter and knitter, Jean visited a shop in New Hampshire to stock up and suddenly thought, “Why can't I do this?”  And she did.  After retiring from her job she spent a year and a half at home, but soon ran out of things to occupy her time, so in June of 2003 she opened her shop, first in a small house in Bristol that she and her husband fixed up. A year and a half later she moved the shop, which had quickly outgrown its space, to New Haven Junction.   Now, Jean can indulge her pastimes and run her business at the same time.

She stocks the full gamut of yarns, from the economy lines to the finest cashmeres and silks.  Determining what her customers want and need is an ongoing challenge.  “You must be a buyer, not a shopper,” says Jean, “and choose for your customers, not for your own tastes.”  To this end, she attends several trade shows a year and sits down with company representatives in her shop to determine what will sell the best.  For a while, there was a flurry of new knitters who created scarves of novelty yarns:  fluffy, wispy or plush, but all in riotous colors.  Now, she is seeing a return to traditional sweater knitting.  She offers a full range of classes and would like to expose her scarf-making customers to the challenge of sweaters.  “It's all the same two stitches!  All they need to learn is to read a pattern.”

A new technique that is gaining in popularity is felting.  Bags, hats, mittens - whatever you could want - are knitted many sizes too large and are then machine washed in very hot water.  The heat and friction cause the fibers to shrink and mat to create a dense, felt-like texture.  

The other half of the shop is devoted to quilting, with bolts and bolts of fabric in every color and print imaginable, from the muted solids and small prints of colonial America and the Civil War era to the bright, flamboyant prints that are perfect for children's rooms.  The shop is awash in samples of finished designs to inspire even the most experienced quilter.  Again, Jean offers classes in all techniques.  There are still many who stick to traditional designs, but fabric art is gaining in popularity, with landscapes in the lead.  

A fun event that, unfortunately, has just ended is the Shop Hop.  This year, thirteen Vermont quilt shops participated.  Customers buy a “passport” and as they visit each shop the passport is stamped.  Those who make the complete circuit are entered into a raffle, for which the grand prize is a week of classes at Fletcher Farm School of Arts and Crafts in Ludlow.  Other prizes are a basket of supplies, admission to the quilt festival at the Essex Fairgrounds and gift certificates from each shop.  In addition, each shop provides the pattern for a quilt square and once a customer has all thirteen patterns he or she can complete a quilt, which is on display behind Knits and Bolts' checkout counter.  Jean has found that quilters and their spouses use the Shop Hop as an excuse for day trips or weekends away.  Hopefully this will become an annual event.

Not to be missed at Knits and Bolts is the back room, where finished quilts are displayed for sale.  If you are not “craftily”-inclined, you can buy that wedding or baby gift that you need, or if you are, it's a roomful of inspiration.   Either way, the shop is well worth a visit.

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