By Olivia Robinson
Published June 8 2018

So you’ve heard of a pub or beer crawl – but what about a yarn crawl? This summer a unique pilgrimage offers crafty day-trippers the opportunity to explore some of cottage country’s best yarn shops – and the chance to win a prize.

Eight yarn shops are participating in the inaugural Cottage Country Yarn Crawl. The event runs from June 9 to Sept. 3 – and includes Haliburton’s own JanKnit’s Studio.

Janet Sheehey owner of JanKnit’s Studio was asked to join the crawl last year. She hopes to get other Haliburton businesses on board with the crawl.

“Anything that’s going to bring people into Haliburton I’m alright with” she said. “It’s hard to get people to come to a small town because people think there’s nothing to do here but anything like a website and Twitter really helps.”

Yarn crawlers are asked to download the Cottage Country Yarn Crawl passport from their website so that when they visit the shops they can get their passport stamped. They can also get a bonus stamp from the first-ever Kawartha Yarn & Fibre Festival on June 9.

Once crawlers have collected eight stamps on their passport they are eligible to win a grand prize. Even if crawlers can’t make it to all eight shops before Sept. 3 participants can still submit their incomplete passports to win one of three runner-up prizes.

The other seven stores partaking in the yarn crawl include Aberdeen’s Wool Company (Lindsay) Between 2 Lakes Yarn & Craft s (Fenelon Falls) Granny Birds Wool Shoppe (Bobcaygeon) Happenstance Books & Yarns (Lakefield) Muskoka Yarn Connection (Bracebridge) Needles In The Ha y (Peterborough) and Shel dridge Yarns (Woodville) .

The Cottage Country Yarn Crawl promises the event is an “ideal setting for a relaxing road trip this summer through the back roads of Ontario.” Crawlers are also encouraged to pick up official crawl buttons and a clue at each shop in order to knit a “Mystery Crawl Cowl.”

The Cottage Country Yarn Crawl kicks off at Kawartha Yarn & Fibre Festival held at the Fenelon Falls Secondary School on June 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. JanKnit’s Studio is closed Sundays and Mondays in June but closed only on Sundays starting in July. For more information and to download a yarn crawl passport visit http://cottagecountryyarncrawl.blogspot.com/.