#dowagiac

Yarn On Front, Dowagiac, Michigan

One of the pleasure of traveling is visiting LYS, or Local Yarn Stores, enjoying the goods, and meeting the people who work there. When I went on a short vacation last month, I had my fingers crossed that the small shops had made it through the pandemic.

Yarn on Front is in the small downtown of Dowagiac in southern Michigan and as you can see has a wide range of yarn of all kinds, including some great hand paints, plus the place is sprinkled with projects created by customers or the owner, June Nemeth. You see here a tiny French sailor sweater in coral and white hanging in front of the baby yarn and then an intricate woolly sock being made using the laddering method which keeps the stranded knitting floats from catching on your toes when you pull it on. 

And they are just down the street from another small business, the Bakers Rhapsody which is one of the best sweet bakeries I have ever visited, they make lovely danishes, cookies, etc. Shop local, eat local, says I, with my mouth full.

You can find Yarn on Front on Facebook here, including news of their events like Washcloth Wednesday: https://www.facebook.com/YarnOnFront/?ref=page_internal

Madam Jenner in Dowagiac, Michigan

We found this place on the way up to Michigan Fiber Festival in August. There wasn’t more information about the historical plaque on the building in downtown Dowagiac, but I like the idea that a milliner got her own plaque (right next to a man who had a tavern). Especially the idea that even a small town in Michigan would have its own millinery shop. That is how essential hats were to women’s outfits in 1905. In fact, you were considered in a state of informality unfit for public view without your hat on.