About Us
Welcome to Yarnia!
Located in the heart of Montclair, NJ, Yarnia is a resource for knitters, crocheters, and spinners in Northern New Jersey. We bring our passion for traditional handcrafts together with the modern and sophisticated spirit of our community to help today’s knitter make the most of their craft.At Yarnia, we feature a diverse line of yarns and fibers from around the US and the world. We particularly love finding unique independent dyers and mills that bring a love of fiber to their craft a love you can feel when you work with their products. We also respect the tradition of well-established mills, whose fibers have served generations of knitters, and have helped handcrafters bring their dreams to life for years.
Fiber crafting is a continual story, and we all learn from the process; whether it’s the journey from start to finish of one project, or a lifelong experience through a series of projects and handcrafts. At Yarnia, we share these stories with our community of fiber crafters through classes and lessons, through our Instagram and blog, and through our Ravelry page and group. There’s nothing we like more than hearing about your fiber stories we look forward to seeing you online or in the store!
How it all began
The idea for Yarnia began one Tuesday morning at the weekly meeting of the Montclair Knitting Circle. Kathleen was talking about looking for her next corporate job and said, “You know what my dream job would be? To open a yarn store…*sigh*.” Amanda, sitting next to her, piped up, “Well, why don’t you? I’ll help out.” And with that, Yarnia was off and running. Through the summer of 2017, we worked to find the perfect location, get it cleaned up, and order all the yarn and supplies that fiber artists need for their craft. It was a big investment, and we needed the support of our community both financially and spiritually to bring this project to life. We ran a Kickstarter through the month of August, and over 130 friends, neighbors, and makers worldwide kicked in to get Yarnia off the ground. We are forever grateful to the support of our Kickstarter contributors!
Team Yarnia!
Kathleen Vandervoort, Jen Bonnell, and Amanda Turcotte are the owners and managers of Yarnia. All three women live in Montclair, raise their children here, and are early members of the Montclair Knitting Circle.
Kathleen has been knitting she was in high school, and crocheting for even longer; she also loves embroidery and sewing but doesn’t get to them as often as she’d like. She is mom to Haley and dog-mom to Anna, who greets every visitor at the door of their home. Kathleen has an extensive background in corporate marketing, and is the knitting brains and expertise behind Yarnia.
Amanda learned to knit on the bus during her commute to New York City back in 2001, making hats for everyone on her Christmas list. Since then, she’s been an avid knitting hobbyist in between her work with a InsureTech startup and raising five silly kids. Amanda takes care of the accounting, website, and social media for Yarnia, as well as all the photography.
Jen learned to knit when she was 7, and never stopped. She knits, crochets, spins, does tapestry weaving, plus the occasional needlepoint and embroidery project. A former children’s book editor and author (of a long-out-of-print craft book for tweens), she has two crazy, but adorable, boys.
We’d love to get to know you better. In addition to Yarnia’s social media, you can follow us on Ravelry, or to Amanda on Instagram, or Jen on her blog. We’re always sharing our current project and hope to see yours!.
