Williamstown Yarn Store Bringing the Hobby Closer to Home
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — If you knit, crochet, or want to pick up a new hobby with yarn, a new space is open to get your supplies.
On March 18, owners and friends Ashley Cart and Geraldine Shen opened Gather on Spring Street.
The two teach knitting classes at Williams College and thought it would be great to bring their hobby to life.
"We have always been avid knitters, and we've spent a lot of time together doing that, and find it to be for ourselves like this really wonderfully calming hobby," Shen said.
Shen said they see many people starting to take up the hobby and thought it would be great to open in location convenient for students and to give them a space to curate their work.
"We're finding a lot of interest amongst people to learn how to knit. Young people who want to get off their screens, find something that they can do with their hands, and so we have always talked about, like, wouldn't it be cool to one day do this," Shen said.
Shen said there aren't many options to buy yarn in the area, and often they're a long drive away. While they opened an online shop before finding a storefront, they recognized that for some knitters buying, online was not ideal.
"Yarn is one of those things that you do, at least the first time, want to see it in person, and like touch it, and look at it against your skin, or you know, color combinations, if you knit or crochet, just like to squeeze the yarn, and feel how squishy and soft it is, and so it is one of those things that you can't just easily buy online," she said.
Their new space is at 57 Spring St. on the third floor. An elevator at the Bank Street entrance can be taken straight to their door, it is especially readily accessible to the college students.
"We've sort of been working with Williams students, and we wanted to be accessible to them, because we really feel as though there's a renewed interest in this craft from younger folks, and that it can be a really good thing for them, and so we wanted to make it easy for Williams students to access the store, and they don't all have cars, they don't all leave campus much, so being on Spring Street was important to us," Shen said.
The store offers a variety of yarn and supplies, and a sit and stitch room where anyone can come in and hang out and work on their projects with others.
They buy yarn from local producers and offer other products as well.
"When people come through, like tourists and stuff, often they ask us what can you get here that you can't get anywhere else," said Shen. "So we have some yarns from local farms, we have some handspun by a local artist who's based in Lanesborough, we've got yarn from this woman who dyes it up in Brattleboro [Vt.], and so we're trying to highlight some of the really cool farms that we have around here."
One of the main opportunities they hope to expand on is being able to go into schools and teach children how to knit. They recently were awarded a grant to teach WIlliamstown Elementary School fourth graders how to knit. Each child was able to make a square and Shen and Cart put all of the squares together and it is now hanging in their space when you walk in.
"We want to go into more schools and teach kids how to knit, because there's some really cool research that talks about, like, the benefits of teaching younger children how to knit. It helps them concentrate, it helps them calm down, and gives them a sense of accomplishment," Shen said.
Cart said they hope to bring a sense of community to the area for all ages.
"The coolest part about all of this is the community, like the intergenerational community that we're building, and that people really can just come as they are, whether they're a 10-year-old or a high school student or a grandmother, and anything in between, and that the shop enables that to happen, which is cool, and really kind of what drove us to want to start the business," Cart said.
Another aspect they mentioned about knitting was the activism it could represent, and that it can be more than just a hobby. They mentioned the red hat campaign that happened earlier this year as well as how they have helped raise proceeds for certain organizations they and others are passionate about.
Knitters and crocheters in Minneapolis responded to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by making bright red tasseled beanies, based on a hat Norwegians wore as a nonviolent protest against the Nazis.
"I think that was a really great example of how it's not just a hobby, I mean, it can be right, you don't have to do all that, but if you find things that are meaningful to other people and you give them a way to sort of like tap into that by participating in something and creating something that they like," Shen said. "We donated money to a group that people care about and want to support, that does work completely unrelated to knitting."
Gather is open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m, with Wednesdays open until 7 p.m.; and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The community sit and stitch will be held Wednesday 5 to 7 p.m., Thursday 1 to 3 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to noon.
Tags: new business, knit,crochet, yarn,
