Welcome to

Mitzi’s Yarns

For Weavers and Knitters

About

Mitzi Meyers

Hello repeat and new customers. Thank you for looking at my website. Sorry that the web site hasn’t been updated in awhile. All of my inventory items remain pretty much the same with some additional Knitting yarns available. I have gotten my shop completely moved to Boise now and am very near the Mall in Boise if you are shopping in the area, and looking for great deals on yarn, please give me a call for an appointment, my address and directions. I do not keep regular business hours but will be glad to make myself available for you to come by. My phone number to contact me is (208) 340-9775. I still offer mail order, of course, and I will find the most suitable shipping method for your needs. Thank you So So Much for your Patronage!!! (2019).

I was raised in Kennesaw, Georgia, in a small, friendly, green community. My grandparents lived in Walnut, Mississippi, and that is where my summers were spent. MawMaw did embroidery, quilting, gardening, and canning. She needed to keep my small hands busy, so I was introduced to embroidery at the age of 8. That was the beginning of my creative urges and they have never left me.

In high school we had a great art teacher, Mrs. Kendricks, who had a large floor loom in the art class. I’m not sure if I ever wove on it, or even saw it used, but we did do frame weaving. The frame was made out of old wood from a log cabin’s exterior walls, slabs of logs… with nails to hold the warp. I used dog hair, panty hose, and many slubby, fat yarns in it. This piece is in my living room today. We also tried many mediums, Batik being one of my favorites. I had a wardrobe of batik garments, that have since worn out.

After high school, my mother purchased a rigid heddle loom for me. I wove many wall hangings, table scarves, and attempted tapestry weaving on this small loom. About 6 years later a friend, loaned me her 36″ Harrisville 4 harness floor loom. It had been in storage for a few years, and needed some parts that had gone missing. Another weaver, was staying in Georgia for a year while her husband was doing Military time in Turkey. She was chomping at the bit to get another person addicted to weaving. This was a huge asset to getting me going. She helped me decide what parts we needed, ordered them, and set up the loom, wound the first warp, and off I went. I think my brother still wears that hideous itchy wool/mohair scarf when it is very cold.

It is very interesting to me how fate put all these pieces of the puzzle together, for the end result of me having the loom, and a mentor. About three years later, for my 30th birthday, Thomasa said “enjoy the loom”, and I ignorantly said “ok. I am” . She was telling me I could have the loom. Eventually I added a tool tray and 2 more harnesses, and have had to replace a few parts, but my Harrisville loom will serve me for as long as I can weave. I am a color person, not a structure weaver.

A few years ago I rented out my house, tied the loom onto the top of a rental car, packed two cats in their cage into the back seat and drove to Idaho. Life is an adventure! Eventually I sold the house in Georgia. Georgia will always hold a special place in my heart, but Boise, Idaho is a great place to weave, spin, and live. I moved to my current location out in the country about 35 miles North of Boise near Sweet, Idaho.

I wove for 8 years or so before getting hooked on spinning. A friend in the local weaving guild taught spinning with a drop spindle in Community Education. I was obsessed as soon as I got started. After a year of producing yarn from all the fiber I could get my paws on, I decided I needed to weave a sweater coat for myself. It is a great conglomeration of commercial and handspun yarns. Of course as per my usual, I barely had enough fabric to squeeze out a jacket, and sewing is a major challenge for me, but it really turned out very nice.

Today I enjoy doing demonstrations at Museum Comes to Life at the local Historical Museum, and schools. It is funny what questions children can come up with, like: “What are you doing?”, and then after I go through the whole process of sheep, fiber washing, carding, twisting into yarn, they ask “Why are you doing that?”. Because I am a fiber addict.

I finally learned how to knit in 2011, and find that knitting has opened a whole new arena for my artistic nature. I have tried to create some unique items and have even sold some of the finished products. Learning to knit has only served to enhance my addiction to yarn and has led to my recent expansion of my inventory to include some very nice knitting yarns such as Cascade, Brown Sheep, Universal, Rozetti, Mountain Colors and others. Approximately 2,200 items have been added to my shelves in April of 2012 and I just acquired a large shipment of very nice weaving and knitting wools in January 2013.

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