Village of Pinecrest Aventura Mkt Council

Four years ago, Jeanne Dykstra was downsized out of her job running the mail and printing departments at Florida Power and Light. Today, the owner of Palmetto Bay's Elegant Stitches says it's the best thing that could have happened.

Jeanne Dykstra has yards and yards of yarn at Elegant Stitches

"Yes, I got re-structured from my job at FPL and needed to find a new line of work," she explained. "My husband was kind enough to tell me to go ahead and do something like this and he would back me. So, I did."

Today, three years after opening and with more than 16,000 balls of yarn in stock in her little store on the second level of a strip mall at 14115 S. Dixie Hwy., she says without hesitation that Elegant Stitches is the place to go for knitters.
"We're really the only good knitting store in South Florida," Dykstra said without hesitation. "We have everything from inexpensive yarn -- for people who want to make basic baby afghans and baby clothes -- to fancy designer yarns that come out seasonally and change.

"We carry a base stock of yarn that's very stable," she said. "The colors stay the same year to year. And then we have other things, which come and go. You'll get it one season and never see it again, like Adrian Vittadini, Grinasco and other designers. We also carry cashmere and silk, a lot of the high-end fancy things for people who want to be very extravagant and do things like a cashmere baby blanket."

In addition to yarn, Elegant Stitches sells thread for crocheting and cross-stitching, has knitting and crochet books, patterns, needles and other related accessories. The store also offers knitting classes.

"We have a lot of individual classes," Dykstra said. "One-on-one for beginners and scheduled classes that are more formal. You can learn the basics of knitting in an hour or two and becoming proficient depends on how much practice you give it."

Dykstra said the Twisted Ribbers, the Elegant Stitches chapter of the Miami Knitting Guild, meets in her store on the fourth Saturday of every month.

"We coordinate special knitting projects, like knitting that particular jacket," she said, nodding to a beautiful shaggy-looking piece of attire on a clothes hangar. "That's called ragged knitting and for that there's an all-day class when the girls go together to the fabric store, get fabric, come back, cut it, eat a decadent lunch, knit and have a good time all afternoon."

Dykstra said her group also does charity work and currently is knitting for orphans in Russia. She has a collection of knitting gathered in a section of Elegant Stitches called the holiday boutique, items that are available on a consignment arrangement, with the knitters donating either all or a portion of the proceeds to help feed the Russian children. Dykstra said she plans to travel to Lithuania in April on an orphanage tour and will carry a large quantity of knitted pieces for the children along with her.

"It's not just for the yarn that we come in here," interjected a customer who overheard this interview. "We come here because Jeanne is very hospitable, makes everyone who comes into the shop very welcome and makes them feel at home."

Elegant Stitches is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Wednesday until 9 p.m.

For more information about Elegant Stitches, call 305-232-4005 or contact the Web site at < elegantst@aol.com >