A Verb for keeping Warm is the legendary Berkeley, CA, yarn shop, the go to place for people such as Ysolda, Mike Wade and Cookie A and Sonya Philip… plus a whole bunch of kind and cool Bay area knitters, spinners, sewers and fiber lovers.
I first heard about it from my friend Mike Wade (aka wondermike) and later got some of their lovely Targhee fiber sent to me as a birthday present from my friend Casey. So I was super happy to get to speak at Verb when they hosted a Lopi event for me on March 1st 2012. My lecture was on Icelandic sheep, wool, lopi knitting and lopi sweaters – and knitting tours may have been mentioned.
Calling Verb a yarn shop is actually quite the understatement because it’s so much more… they grow plants for the dyeing in the backyard, do all the dyeing in-house or in the backyard, there was a canary singing in his cage and a lovely fluffy Angora bunny called Marcel in the back room. The greeter and mascot on duty, mini dachshund Cleopatra, was so sweet and delightful, all yarn stores should have one! The place was so alive and organic and everything they sell is super tasteful and lovely. There was not one ugly fabric among the several hundred types available… I kid you not!
This is the delightful Kristine Vejar, the owner of Verb and the mastermind behind their fabulous naturally dyed yarn and fiber. Sarah O. in the background selling a bunch of Whimsical little Knits 3 it seems…
Adrienne is the co-founder of Verb and an expert on mushroom dyeing. She was a very skilled enabler/salesperson when it came to helping me decide to buy my Schacht Sidekick spinning wheel!
This is a wall with some of Kristine’s beautiful colors hanging. They have all different weights and fibers and a fabulous color palette. You can shop online if you don’t have the chance to visit the store. Here is the online shop.
Me talking about Icelandic knitting. Look at the fabric selection in the background!
The lovely people who came to my lecture 
This beautiful sweater walked into Verb for attending my lecture along with its owner. It’s quite unusual, probably 3-4 decades old and was purchased at the Kolaport market down town Reykjavík last year. The owner is the handsome guy in the white shirt behind me and on my other side you can see the fabulous fiber artist Sonya Philip.
What an inspiring visit… I hope you too get to visit Verb one day. Until then you can enjoy their website!
