If you’ve ever been jealous of your grandmother’s knitting circle, Yak-n-Yarn might be your crowd.
Knitters, crocheters and all kinds of crafters gather monthly at two different locations – The Daily Bird in Riverwest and the Beulah Brinton Community Center in Bay View. They hang out, work on their projects and learn from one another.
Emily and Maddie Noorlander-Bury, along with Emily’s sister Alexis Bury, started these meetups last year as a “third place” for fiber artists of all skill levels to meet like-minded people. Now, Yak-n-Yarn is filling up its venues, and the group has started to hold other events like clothing swaps.
Tell us who you’d pick to be a Betty this year!
“I’m so grateful for Yak-n-Yarn because it’s my only social time besides work and being home with my partner,” says Sara, a knitter who moved to Milwaukee from Texas just this year.
To be a welcoming space for all kinds of people, Yak-n-Yarn holds meetings in places that don’t serve alcohol and don’t require stairs to access. This opens the group up to disabled crafters, and parents or sober folks who might otherwise have a hard time finding activities not centered around alcohol in Milwaukee.
“It is so hard to make friends as a parent who are not also parents themselves,” says Carol, a crocheter. “Like, I want to talk about non-kid stuff and make a bed for my cat!”
The group is diverse in terms of ability, age and gender, but organizers Emily and Maddie are working to make it more inclusive for BIPOC crafters by advertising the group in other community hubs like Sherman Phoenix.
They’re also looking at offering beginner classes on various crafts, but “expansion isn’t really the goal,” Emily says. “We just want to make some friends and build community.”
