We (Rox & Nyle from Artfibers) coined the term “yarntasting” in the early ’90′s to describe a portable swatching workshop that we took on the road in New England, to homes, libraries, senior centers, and churches — any place favored for knitting group meetings.   We still gratefully remember a group of burly knitter-husbands in New Hampshire who shoved us (our car, that is) out of an icy parking lot, late at night in a blizzard, after an uproariously entertaining swatching session that nobody wanted to leave.

In 1996 we set up San Francisco’s pioneering “Yarntasting Lounge” in our then-new store called Artfibers.  Many customers said over the years that it was a key part of their visit to the Bay Area.  Since those first days of “Yarntasting by the Bay” we’ve dreamed of extending the swatching workshop magic to people who were not in San Francisco.

It’s a long history that was all a wonderful adventure, and finally it’s dawned on us that swatching is itself a great adventure.  This blog is offered in that spirit, as an online meetingplace for “people swatching”.