The 2025 Yarn Tour

Melissa is the owner of The Bees Knits Yarn Shop, located in Knoxville. She is a self-taught crocheter & knitter. She loves anything with bright pops of color, enjoys color-work, and often works off-pattern to customize her projects. Her mission is to share her space with the community as often as possible and inspire those around her to be creative, no matter what the craft. She strives to make fiber arts more accessible and inclusive through the use of knitting machines at her store.

In addition to fiber arts, Melissa enjoys expressing creativity through food. She was a professional baker in a past life, and when she isn’t at the shop, you can find her in the kitchen, baking treats to share during her shop’s community events! You can find out more about community events, knitting machine classes, and Melissa’s shop by visiting the website: www.thebeesknits.com or via instagram @thebeesknits

Nickie Fox is a creative individual who has been crocheting since she was eight. Nickie lives in Vonore, where she is a pastor, but teaches in Sevierville. Crochet is not only a method of relaxation for her but she also enjoys passing on the love of crochet to others. As a pastor, she starts prayer shawl groups in each church she serves. She fosters the use of fiber arts in these groups as blessings to others by making prayer shawls, lapghans, and baby blankets, as well as hats and scarves for veterans. 

There are many stitches that Nickie likes to use, such as the V-stitch or C2C, but the bobble stitch is her favorite go-to crochet stitch that she uses in interesting ways to add texture to her creations.  You can find her patterns on her Esty shop or Ravelry under her designer name Wayfaring Crocheter.

Raquel has a life long love of learning and being creative. She began crocheting when she was very young. She often jokes that she has crafting ADD. She is constantly learning new skills to add to her repertoire. Raquel also loves to challenge herself, and this year, she decided to try to write patterns of some of her creations.

Along with crocheting, her current favorite crafts include knitting, quilting, weaving, and making wire wrap jewelry. If it has anything to do with fiber she has it or is about to acquire it!

Raquel also loves reading and can often be found sitting on the couch with the cat in her lap reading and crocheting (or knitting) at the same time. The challenging part in that equation is the cat! Tolkien is one of her favorite authors. She and her
daughter often crochet together and fangirl about different
books.