Our Story

Welcome to Sandcastles & Seashells Yarn Shoppe, we are so happy that you are here! We would like to take a few minutes to introduce ourselves, and to tell you a bit about why we started our business.

Let’s start with my husband Chris. He’s the brains behind SC & SS. He’s worked in the Semi Conductor world for over 25 years. He enjoys “tinkering” on older cars😂, playing with our dogs, and watching movies. He has become quite efficient at handling yarn. Chris has worked up many gadgets, which have made it much easier for me to go through each process. We love him to bits and don’t know what we would do without him.

Beau is our in-house social media “expert.” They started knitting around the age of 6, but really took a shine to it when they went away to college. Their very first finished piece was a scarf for themself, and then their second was a matching one for Chris for the following Christmas, using a colorway reminiscent of Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor from “Doctor Who.” Beau graduated Summa Cum Laude from Bridgewater College in 2022 and is continuing their education in getting a Masters in Library and Information Science from The University at Buffalo. Their hobbies outside of fiber crafts include reading, writing, talking to us about their “fandoms” (Dead by Daylight and Resident Evil) and listening to Taylor Swift an inordinate amount.

As for me I love to knit and have made many pieces over the years, some of them you can see @bellasknitsnpurls.

I began to play the piano at age 5, my Mom actually had to convince the teacher to take me on, because she thought I was “too young.” I continued my private lessons, until I went off to college, with that same teacher, Mrs. Hertz. I then taught piano for many years while we lived in Virginia.

My favorite tv show growing up was The Bionic Woman, and when it got canceled, I wrote to the network, asking them to reconsider. (I was very passionate about my interests even as a youngster.) My favorite shows today are Yellowstone (I feel a great kinship with Beth Dutton, and I adore Kelly Reilly), The Old Man, and Heartland. We are currently watching Felicity, and I can’t for the life of me understand why we didn’t watch it when it was first televised, aside from the fact that Beau was born in 2000.

Another fun fact about me is, I love flowers. My favorite flowers are Peonies and Gerbera Daisies.

I also love to read, mostly fiction. My favorite book is Scarlett, by Alexandra Ripley. My favorite color, in case you can’t tell, is pink.

I also love Country Music my favorite song is “Paint Me a Birmingham” by Tracey Lawrence.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about me is I would rather eat dessert before anything, my favorite being chocolate fudge cake with fudge icing.

My ‘happy place’ is the beach, hence the name Sand Castles and Sea Shells Yarn Shoppe.
We had a vision in mind to bring to life our happy place, each and every day, even when we couldn’t be there.

Why take on another business you ask? Well, Chris travels a lot and we wanted something we could do together when he is home, instead of simply binging our favorite television shows. He saw how hard I worked with bellaknitsnpurls and thought about how we could take that business to the next step. He encouraged me to persue SC & SS and to see how far we could go together.

On a trip to Hilton Head May 22, 2021 I took so many pictures, and while looking at all of the colors, I said to myself, I wish I could dye a skein of yarn that captures these exact moments, these exact colors. Everything was so wonderful, I wanted time to stop in those days, and in those moments.

Let’s face it, we aren’t getting any younger. What better way to focus our energies than to capture them into something we both love. Why not combine my love of yarn and Chris’s love for calculations & working with his hands. (It certainly beats putting in new brake lines on our old truck !) My motto for his abilities has always been, if you can fix multi million dollar Semi Conductor equipment, you can fix anything. Next to my Dad, he is the handiest person that I know. For those of you who know my Dad, that’s quite the compliment.

The creative process comes to me a lot of times in the middle of night, while I am lying awake thinking of a million different things, for I am not a good sleeper. I get up and write my thoughts down right away, so I don’t lose a single one of them.

Thank you to our family who always believed we could do anything we set our minds to. To my parents who took us to Ocean City on the Jersey Shore, each summer, which inspired our love for everything beachy. From the painting of the Ocean City Boardwalk in the 1920’s, which Chris bought for me in Fredericksburg, VA of all places, and that we have had for 32 years. To the sea shells my Dad carted back and forth from the beach, since my sister and I were little. To our Honeymoon on the beautiful island of Hilton Head, SC and to every trip back since. We took all of those memories, which have served as inspiration, and put them into the colors for SC & SS. They are the heart and soul of SC & SS. We hope you enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed making them.

To our darling daughter Beau, you have given us so much joy. You have opened our eyes to a world we never would have understood with out you. You are such an amazing person with wonderful qualities and we continue to be blessed by you each day. You provide so many creative thoughts to our vision, and we are very proud that you continue to be with us on this journey. Your potential is limitless, and you have all of our love.

To my sister Donna, who has stood by me in the darkest hours of my life and showed me there would be a light through the tunnel, I love you.

To our dear friend George Bacalakis, who had an exquisite yarn shop in Charlottesville, VA in the 1990’s, and who taught me everything I know about luxury yarn. I’m am still learning to experiment with colors and to leave my comfort zone and embrace the entire spectrum. I miss you every day, and I hope I have made you proud, my friend.

To my dear, dear friend Khatuna who taught me to knit. All I can say is you are a saint. Look how far we have come! Did you ever imagine it?? I love you always.

To my dear friend Bethani, who sent Rice Krispies during the Pandemic when they were all I could eat, and we couldn’t find them anywhere where we lived. For lending me your marketing expertise, thank you. You brought the talented Mia into our lives. I am so happy to call you my friend, love.

To my dear friend, Marcie who helped me stumble upon a game changing dying process, I am so thankful for your friendship. You have held my hand virtually, through so many ups and downs, you are truly a sister to me, I love you.

To Dr. Rothschild and to Dr. Strickler you have given me back my eye sight. We will be forever grateful to you!

To Ma, I hope you realize how much we love you and I hope you find the same peace you had when we were at the beach each summer.

To Daddy, I know we did the right thing on August 10, 1991. I married a man who loves me almost as much as you do, and I am so happy you have gotten to see that. Thank you for offering me the choice that morning, I hope we have made you proud, we love you very much.

We want SC & SS to be as environmentally friendly as possible, and we are sure it will continue to be so, even as we grow and learn. We believe we have so much to contribute to the up and growing world of Natural Indie Hand Dying. We hope that you will follow along with us on our journey, happy yarning!

Welcome to our first collection, we have poured our hearts and souls into “Welcome to the Beach!” Which will be the first of many, many collections to come!

We have found beautiful, natural yarns to offer and after many attempts, lovely, natural dyes, in shades you are certain to love.


Fondly,
Chris, Debbie & Beau
OXOXOX