Stitched together: Craft stores key local spaces for connection

As yarn stores around the country celebrate an annual spotlight, local business owners say they work hard to not only make ends meet but to invite crafters to make lasting connections in what are now community hubs.

Those opportunities were on display on Thursday afternoon, April 16, at Purls of Joy in Healdsburg. One of the co-op members who run the store, Janice Orrego, taught a crochet class, while another member Elisa Snedden assisted customers with finding the right supplies for their project. Later in the day, another group was set to arrive for a regular drop-in potluck, where crafters catch up on life and community as well as handmade projects.

Orrego said keeping the space open as not only a retail business but a hub for communal learning is what keeps local yarn stores open during tough times. She began teaching Cloverdale resident Gerri Burgess how to make stitches, with Burgess saying she came although she's been a lifelong knitter because she loves coming to the store: "They're very friendly and helpful."

Burgess arranged her supplies ready to learn alongside Windsor resident Janna Conley, who added "I love this store."

"When I'm feeling sad, I like to come here," Conley said. "You feel good when you're here."

Bringing crafters through the doors

Sonoma County is home to multiple yarn stores, including some which have been open for more than a decade. Justine Malone has owned Cast Away Yarn Shop in Santa Rosa since 2008, building a well-known presence in Railroad Square. She said the location and consistency has drawn locals and tourists alike as the city's downtown has transformed through multiple economic shifts. "My store has boomed in the last two years," she said.

Noma Knits in Sonoma has been open for five years and has built a customer base with a variety of yarns, knitting and crochet tools, sewing and mending supplies. Owner Marie Utnehmer said they relocated in February to 116 E. Napa Street off the Sonoma Plaza. "Our customers are a mix of locals and tourists," she said.

"Most people are looking for connection," Utnehmer said. "Connection to other crafters and to working with their hands, making something real and meaningful."

Others closely watch the shifting demographics of crafting customers. Alisha Bright said she thinks she brings a unique energy to her business at 35, having a sense of what younger people with families may want.

Bright operates Petaluma's shop Fiber Circle Studio, first opened in 2018 in Cotati as a makerspace with very little retail, but shifted during the pandemic. She moved to 113 Kentucky St. in 2021, a space which now offers room for the makerspace, classes and selling retail items from yarn, needles, patterns and kits to ball winders, spinning wheels and looms.

Healdsburg's Purls of Joy is run in by about 12 members as a cooperative of people invested in maintaining a local yarn store. They're in their fourth year running the shop, following former owner Rosanne Parks, who moved on to producing her own hand-dyed yarns after running the store for about a decade.

It's worked so far, Orrego said, in part thanks to the community's support through a Go Fund Me: "It's just a little different business model."

Keeping the doors open

The yarn store owners say they are keeping a firm foothold even in tough economic times.

All of the stores offer different kinds of classes for different interests, at varying times of the week to try to cater to customers with varying schedules and skill levels. Classes give fiber arts students a place to learn and finish an item, while enjoying having a teacher who can offer encouragement and constructive feedback.

Malone says Cast Away offers instruction in needle felting, beginning weaving, embroidery and occasionally seasonal offerings like tree branch weaving. She said the shop recently experienced a sustained uptick in customers, which she can't explain, including before recently rebranding the store. She kept the doors open through multiple regional and national crises, including economic downturns and wildfires, maintaining a long list of email subscribers and regularly posting on Facebook and Instagram, while keeping the shop fresh with a rotating inventory.

"There are always 10 to 15 people in here, all the time," Malone said. "I think because it's such a big space and there's so much for everyone, I think that people stay longer. There aren't really a lot of retail spots in Railroad Square, as it's more restaurants and services and furniture."

Utnehmer said having a central location in downtown Sonoma has worked well for her shop, along with offering various classes from beginning knitting to specialized techniques, as well as on mending, needle felting, and crochet.

"We have found that crafters like having a brick and mortar shop to go to where they can feel the fibers and talk to friendly, knowledgeable people who can help pick the right materials for a project," she said.

Bright said she took the approach of surveying her customers – of the people who subscribe to her store's newsletter, the majority are over age 50. There is a growing community of people under 40, however: "We have families whose kids are learning in school and who are coming in for supplies," she said. "I think we have diverse demographic of people.''

She said she is mindful of how the cost and time to take certain classes can be hard for younger working people to attend, and tries to offer a variety of ways people in different situations can participate. She can relate: "I'm a single mom and I'm the sole provider. It is 100% my livelihood." She said it can be hard to make ends meet during the slower times of the year, typical from late spring until early fall (yarn stores do their best business between October to February, she said).

Fiber Circle Studio offers memberships, such as to use studio equipment in the makerspace and to offer discounts on classes and products in the shop as well as early access to special events like their Community Yarn Stash sale, Handmade Closet Sale and Indie Dyers Spotlights.

"A big part for me is location – being centered where I am in downtown Petaluma means I have a lot of exposure," Bright said. "It's also important to be able to appeal to lots of different people."

Orrego agreed that offering classes and some individual aids are unique at local yarn shops, offering a helping hand to crafters at all levels that could not be found at a Michael's big box store.

A former classroom teacher, she also teaches crafting classes at local libraries, which helps pull in new crafters with tighter budgets. She and Snedden, both bilingual, have also taught new mothers at Alliance Medical Center how to knit blankets and clothing for their newborns. They and other members will gladly volunteer to help customers with anything from mending holes to broken supplies.

Orrego said of this approach, "We need to make a profit, we need to stay open, but we like to spend a lot of time helping customers."

While the profit margin has grown more difficult for all businesses, purchaser Tammy Montenegro said they have been able to make it so far. She said she works hard to balance ordering what people seem interested in online communities, and what locals regularly ask for and respond to.

"The tariffs have affected all of our yarn purchased," Montenegro said. "The distributors have held off as long as they can, but they've had to pass on some costs. Notions have nearly tripled in price. That's unfortunate, because that really limits people.

"We're trying to maintain a price point for our demographic here, and it really makes a difference in what I order. I have to really be careful, so it's challenging – but it has not overwhelmed us."

Havens for health and community

The business owners emphasized how crucial crafting shops are to making and sustaining what can be lifelong connections, as people seek places to form relationships at different stages of life. A study published May 2021 in the National Library of Medicine found various health benefits of needlework like crocheting, such as for managing mental health and improving memory and motor skills.

The stores all offer various ways to meet others for free outside of a class. Malone at Cast Away hosts annual retreats, which brings in crafters from the Bay Area and beyond. Utnehmer said several times a year, Noma Knits will host Knit-A-Longs "where we meet weekly for a period and everyone knits the same pattern."

"I feel that people are looking to learn practical arts and skills after having been so submerged in technology and phones over the last few years," she said.

Bright shared that knitting helped her when she was a teen going through hard times, which began her life of visiting local yarn stores and frequenting a crafting group.

‘'For me it feels like a combination of teaching people and allowing me to stay afloat," Bright said. "In this industry, by and large, you don't do it to get rich. You do it because you love it.''

In Healdsburg, Orrego said the hunger for connection has continued since the days of pandemic lockdowns, when crafters wore masks and sat outside the shop in a parking lot to work together.

"Knitters, crocheters, people want to learn to think of something positive, rather than all the negativity that can be thrown at you," Orrego said. "Even for older people, you're learning something new and you challenge yourself." When these community spaces disappear, she added "We lose part of our history and connections to multigenerational traditions."

Montenegro agreed: "This is my second home. It's a comfortable place. Anytime you don't feel good, you come here … and you just instantly feel better."

Staff Writer Natalie Hanson can be reached at natalie.hanson@pressdemocrat.com or (619) 665-5887.

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