York Corner
What a warm welcome we got at The Yarn Sellar in the Meadowbrook Plaza on Sunday!
And that was at least in part because our arrival proved most serendipitous - or, you might say, a little spooky in its unplanned timeliness.
We'd never met or talked to proprietors Patti and Roger Venenga before, and we'd only dropped in at the shop that day on impulse, and for the first time, shortly after 11 a.m., after seeing a big "OPEN" flag flapping in the breeze outside and lights burning inside.
But, after we'd entered and introduced ourselves, Patti and Roger told us with astonishment that they'd hardly finished saying to each other that they wished that they'd invited the press to the function that they were right in the middle of hosting.
So there we were, pen and notebook in hand - and we got to work.
The Yarn Sellar, Patti told us, sells "anything to do with hand-knitting" - yarns, needles, knitting kits, knitters' gauges, knitting bags, books and more. The Venengas bought the then-three-year-old business just about one year ago, on April 1, 2006, from Heidi Chase, who hails from one of the Berwicks, and with it came one other feature that had led to Sunday's special event: a tradition of knitters gathering there every Tuesday night to sit around a table, socialize and, of course, knit.
That informal group calls itself "Chicks with Sticks," and, on the day we popped in at the shop, its members were rendezvousing there with a comparable group from Manchester, N.H., who call themselves "Manchvegas Knitters" (Manchvegas being a nickname for Manchester) and all were about to move the party next door for lunch at Greenleaves.
Julie Schramm of York (she's an assistant assessor in Town Hall) is one of the Chicks with Sticks, and she told us that the connection with the Manchester group came about after she'd attended an annual affair called the New England Textile Spa held on a weekend in February at the Doubletree Hotel in Portland. (Its advance notice this year read, "This is a EWEnique group of New England KNITTERS, Spinners, Spindlers, Weavers, Dyers, Lacemakers, Felters, keepers of Bunnies, Goats, Alpacas, Llamas and SHEEP, Yarn Shop Owners, people who CROCHET and Tat and Hook, and people who are BRAND NEW to it all and want to LEARN.") Gina House, of the Manchester group, was there, too, and they met in person then, after having met on the Internet, on blogs each keeps. (The address of Julie's blog, for those who might be interested, is http://noolieknits.typepad.com, and of Gina's, http://sleepyeyesknitting.blogspot.com.)
Julie and Gina eventually arranged for Sunday's group meeting - and we witnessed a new kind of event that's becoming a commonplace these days: individuals coming face-to-face with folks they've already come to know in part in cyberspace. Jackie Wolk, for example, from Londonderry, N.H., a member of the Manchester group, squealed with glee to learn that the person she was talking with was Julie, after which they enveloped each other in a big hug. (Jackie also has a blog; it's at http://hellojackie.blogspot.com.)
Chicks with Sticks, which has been meeting for about four years, Patti told us, draws between five and 12 attendants each week, and they come not only from York (York's Deputy Town Clerk and Tax Collector Mary Indiano is a member, and she was present there on Sunday), but from up and down the Seacoast. Similarly, she and the others said, the Manchester group is about three years old and draws from all around Manchester when they meet at that city's Barnes and Noble shop on Wednesday nights.
For last Sunday's gathering, there were 12 present from Manchester and seven from York.
"Usually what we do is laugh a lot," said Patti of the York group's Tuesday sessions. But she became a bit more serious as she added, "We really encourage each other to go outside our knitting comfort zones - to try different techniques or projects that are challenging."
Patti, in fact, met The Yarn Sellar's founder and previous owner through membership herself in the Chicks with Sticks group, and it was that connection that led to the Venengas' purchasing the shop.
When we asked what backgrounds they brought to the purchase, we were mightily impressed: not only are both retired from careers in the military, but both are still working full-time at other jobs while bringing up two adopted teenage sons: Randy, 14, who's at York Middle School, and Tommy, 16, who's a sophomore at York High School.
When we pressed further, we learned that Roger grew up in Little Rock, Iowa, and Patti, in Kansas City, Kansas. They met in the Army in St. Louis when both were stationed there, and have now been married for 19 years. Of their 20 years, each, in the service, 15, all told, were spent in Germany, most recently in a town called Kaiserslautern - and it was in Germany, Patti said, that she was taught to knit by a German woman. Both Patti and Roger retired from the military in 1993, each as a sergeant, first class.
In the Army, Roger's field was finance and accounting and Patti's was personnel. Now and for the past 10 years, Patti said, she's been office manager, full-time and year-round, for the New Hampshire elementary and middle school called the North Hampton School, while Roger runs his own local bookkeeping and accounting business called Venenga Associates.
How did they happen to settle in this region of the country?
Roger has two sons from a previous marriage who are now 33 and 30, Patti said. When the older son was graduated from Emerson College, friends who owned a house on the Nubble let the Venengas stay there for the graduation. When the Venengas returned to the U.S. for good, she added, "We thought we'd try it out here and see if it worked out." Then she laughed and said, "It's been 10 years, and we bought a house, so I guess it did."
Although Patti's the knitter, it was Roger's dream to buy a business, Patti said, and he himself reported that he's now in the shop "every day," though the couple relies on three local women, all accomplished knitters, for the shop's day-to-day operation. They are Margaret Weatherly, Martha McAffee and Patsy Carbonetti, and each also teaches knitting in classes that the shop offers, for a fee, on a 6 to 8 p.m. evening schedule.
There is no charge for membership in Chicks with Sticks, however, and Patti said she encourages learners to join the group, and knitters facing any knitting problems simply to bring them to the shop for solutions. "If we can help, we want to," she emphasized.
They haven't changed much in the shop, Patti and Roger said, since they bought it, nor have they experienced any major surprises, though Roger's been pleased at all he's learned from yarn vendors. Yarn, we were intrigued to learn as we took in the scores of varying colors and textures available, comes in wool, cotton and silk, and originates in spots as varied as Argentina, England, Turkey, Chile, Peru, Ireland, and Norway and Sweden.
Among the most unusual uses to which they've seen yarn put, Patti volunteered with a chuckle, were some items called "baby soakers" - covers for diapers knit by a customer in a violet-colored wool from Uruguay.
And new among knitters, and among their customers, they said, are men. Roger isn't yet among them, but they're all working on that project, Patti reported, good-naturedly.
We made a note to check back on that score in another year or so, and left the happy group to their lunch.
For more information about The Yarn Sellar, go to www.yarnsellar.com.
