Gobsmacked Yarn is the newest addition to downtown Sackville’s commercial landscape.
Owner Marit Munson has been dyeing yarn since 2012, and when she outgrew her space at home, decided to expand into a space that allowed for both her studio and a retail shop. Gobsmacked Yarn opens officially this Saturday, in a space on Ford Lane, in the rear of the Goya’s Pizza building in downtown Sackville.
CHMA dropped by the new location to speak with Munson:
The grand opening of the Gobsmacked Yarn shop coincides with Worldwide Knit in Public Day, and to celebrate, Munson is collaborating with another Sackville dyer, Megan Ingman of Lichen and Lace, for a ‘mini yarn crawl’ between the two studios.
“The dye power here in Sackville is pretty incredible,” says Munson. “Lichen and Lace is a business that’s known worldwide, and then there’s a bunch of artists in town who also have really amazing practices with natural dyes and all kinds of neat things going on.”
Munson works with and carries both treated ‘superwash’ yarns, as well as what she calls ‘farm yarns’, which are sourced from sheep farms in Nova Scotia and Ontario.
“People are really rediscovering wool,” says Munson. “I think because it’s a natural material, it’s warm, it absorbs a lot of water. It keeps you warm in the winter, and it actually keeps you a bit cool in the summertime as well, which is fantastic… And when you’re done with it, it will biodegrade and go back into the soil in a way that modern synthetics absolutely don’t.”
Munson says there’s a large community of knitters, spinners, weavers, rug hookers and crotcheters in the Maritimes. “We’re everywhere,” she says. “I’m expecting to see people of all ages, all genders, all races. Everyone is welcome in my store, and I’ll be hosting some knit nights and I hope that that will help to kind of create a bit of community around fibre arts.”
