The Rose City Yarn Crawl is an annual event for fiber enthusiasts, including knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, and felters. The crawl takes place in 10 shops in and around Portland, Oregon. This year marks the 16th year of celebrating Portland as a yarn and fiber destination. The Rose City Yarn Crawl ran from Thursday, March 6th, through Sunday, March 9th, 2025. The theme for this year’s crawl was “Our Sky Full of Stars”, celebrating the mesmerizing beauty of the night sky and all things celestial.

The concept of the event is that participants “crawl” through a variety of participating shops across the Portland Metro Area, collecting exclusive yarn patterns, entering prize drawings, and getting inspiration from trunk shows and shop displays. Each year features specially designed swag for RCYC (including T-shirts, totes, and bucket bags), along with unique shop-specific swag. There’s a wide variety of trunk shows featuring yarn, fiber, notions, accessories, and other items.

This year’s participating RCYC shops were:

• Close Knits
• Fiber Rhythm
• For Yarn’s Sake
• Green Trees Crochet
• Hood and Needle
• Knotty Lamb
• Northwest Wools
• Ritual Dyes
• Starlight Knitting Society
• Wierd Sisters

A few months before the crawl begins, the organizer hosts two mystery-alongs—one knit and one crochet. The mysteries start in mid-January and wrap up just in time to wear the finished garment during the crawl.

This year’s knit-along designer was Jamie Lomax, and the crochet-along designer was Mikah Rae. You can find the patterns on Ravelry:

• 2025 Rose City Yarn Crawl MKAL (Knit)
• 2025 Rose City Yarn Crawl MCAL (Crochet)

You can also see the finished projects on Instagram by checking out @RoseCityYarnCrawl and the tags #RCYCMKAL or #RCYCMCAL.

The fun part of the crawl is the passport, which serves as an entry for the Grand Prize Basket if all participating shops are visited and stamped. For those who can’t attend in person, there is a virtual option where each shop provides a themed word instead of a stamp. Signing in at each visited shop allows winning one of the shop’s prizes.

The fun part of the crawl is the passport, which is entry for Grand Prize Basket, if all the participating shops are visited and stamp got it. For those who can’t be in person, there is a virtual option. Instead of a stamp, each shop has a word that is in connection with the theme of the crawl. Signing in at each visited shopes, gives opportunity to win one of the shops prizes. 

I went on Saturday with my friends and we visited Starlight Knitting Society, Ritual Dyes, Close Knits and Wierd Sisters. Each of the shops had interesting trunk shows. 

 – Starlight Knitting Society: Crow and Crescent Yarn (www.crowandcrescentyarn.com) and Fiber and Flame (www.fiberandflame.com) 

– Ritual Dyes: Oshen Knits (www.oshenknits.com), Reiko Co (www.reikoco.com), Bad Dog Studio (www.baddogstudio.com) and Savannah Rose Handmade (www.savannahrosehandmade.com)

– Close Knits: Peace Fleece (www.peacefleece.com)

– Weird Sisters: Ex Libris Fibers (www.exlibrisfibers.com), Teal Torch Knits (www.tealtorchknits.com), Hanks & Needles (www.hanksandneedles.com)

The Rose City Yarn Crawl has a laid-back, welcoming vibe. Even though there are lines to enter some shops, there’s a lot of positive energy going around, with plenty of laughter and compliments on finished garments. People are curious about the yarns used and are happy to chat. Each shop has its own unique atmosphere.

We met Caesar the No Drama Llama.

We took a break for lunch at John Street Cafe, where I enjoyed linguine with chicken and artichoke hearts. We finished the crawl with coffee to go from Affogato.