From the moment owners Kate Hand and Tracy Young jokingly banter about the intoxicating aroma of bagged yarn, you realize that Handknit Yarn Studio is not your grandmother’s knitting store. With its bright blue exterior and skeins of variegated and dyed yarns bursting out of artfully arranged staggered box shelving, and others playfully overflowing out of baskets and candy jars, Handknit Yarn Studio is a cozy corner for curious crafters.
“We wanted to modernize the concept of what a yarn shop is,” explains Tracy. With bright sunlight streaming through the window, and a beckoning central table that invites the inner crafter in all of us to sit and stitch, the pair strive to ensure that “every crafter is satisfied with the whole process of knitting,” assures Tracy, from skein to sweater. Whether that is teaching a beginner to read a pattern, or calming panicked knitters who have erred, Kate and Tracy assist crafters at any stage.
Both have been passionate about knitting since their foray as business colleagues years ago. “My grandma knit everything. She was the inspiration for why I started knitting,” reminisces Kate. As for Tracy, she’s always known how to knit since she was young and intermittently knitted through the years until Kate re-ignited her passion.
