First Person
The Bottom Line
When I opened Stilly River Yarns, my yarn shop in rural Washington in 2017, I wasn’t fully aware of the reality of domestic yarn and tool production. I focused on finding the types of people I most wanted to serve, and then I started looking for the yarns and tools that would best fit those people’s budgets and needs.
The Skagit Spinners, a local guild, meet at the shop once a month.
No matter how much I emphasized the advantages of domestic wool, though, most domestically produced yarns inevitably languished on the shelves. Customer feedback on those items ranged from “there’s not enough of a color range from this company” to “it’s not machine washable” to “it’s not soft enough” to “I just can’t find room in my budget for the projects I’d make with this.”
It’s been disappointing to realize that my shop would probably not survive if I focused on predominantly domestically produced inventory. No matter what my personal thoughts are, the fact is that I chose to open my business specifically to support fiber crafters in a rural area.
I can’t change the economic circumstances of the community, and our shop community has grown specifically because I recognize that and work hard to provide customers with general-purpose yarns and tools that fit their needs and preferences. Most of those yarns and tools have to come from overseas if I’m watching the price points to best serve my core customers.
The introduction of unpredictable, retaliatory tariffs has introduced unprecedented volatility into my shop’s finances and strain on my customers’ budgets. Every single company I work with has raised prices this year.
These needles are not for sale.
For example, a customer asked me if I could order a set of US17 circulars for her. I expected the usual $2-3 price jump per pair we’ve seen on average from our suppliers since January—but its retail price had jumped from $22 to $32. (I did not end up placing that order.)
The last distributor who hadn’t raised prices emailed stockists late in September and told us that they’d be raising prices effective October 1.
This is the point where some community members will encourage me to “just buy American!” or tell me, “Surely you can work with a local fabricator to make needles and hooks!” I’m afraid my smile is more strained than usual at this point when it happens. As I tell these well-meaning people, “If it were honestly that simple, we’d be doing it already.”
What’s standing in our way?
First, we just don’t have the wool production that we used to. The American Sheep Industry Association estimates that the U.S. produced 22.5 million pounds of raw wool last year—that’s less than 1% of global wool production. Contrast that with the 1940s, when the United States was the fifth-largest producer of wool in the world.
During World War II, the military requisitioned most of that wool for its own wartime needs. In the post-war world, busy families opted for the convenience of synthetics and left wool behind.
Second, we don’t currently have enough mills capable of producing the volume of yarn needed for regular commercial distribution.
We have a lot of micro-mills starting up in the United States, and even a few larger mills coming online that are able to do the full process from washing to yarn. Very few of these are producing yarns that local shops can access for routine restocks on a quick turnaround.
Plus, most fully domestic yarns are going to be stuck at a price point that makes them more of a luxury item than a workhorse until we see larger mills and more wool production that meet the handcrafting market’s demand.
trunk show with two local vendors, Sunrise Grove Artistry and Schmutzerella Yarns.
Finally, regarding tools—yes, we absolutely have domestic fabricators who can handle one side of the tool-making process: the precision milling of crochet hooks and needles.
But there’s more—you have to source material for cables for circular needles and flexi-hooks.
And after you’ve sourced the tools and the cables, then you have to figure out how to join them. Ask your local crafting group for their opinions on cables and joins—chances are that there will be almost as many as there are people around the table. It would take at least 18-24 months to develop, test, and manufacture any sort of tools … and that doesn’t fill the gap in the meantime.
So where does that leave us? And what do we do if we want to help effect change?
For the time being, we’re kind of in a holding pattern. Your local yarn shops and their distributors are doing everything they can to ride this out while also trying not to price crafters out of their materials.
Supporting your local shop doesn’t have to mean purchasing yarn, though. Take a class or a lesson. Maybe offer to round up to the nearest $5 amount when you do make a purchase. Buy a pattern to use yarn you already have.
Saturday Social.
Effecting industry-wide change is a more difficult issue because it will take major sustained grassroots efforts to change the supply and processing chains.
If you haven’t read Clara Parkes‘s book Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool, it’s an excellent starting point to understand the complexities of the American wool industry.
Similarly, The True Cost of Wool by Anna Hunter updates that vision from the Canadian side of the border and has suggestions to empower you to make choices that, over time, have the potential—if enough of us make them—to reboot domestic wool.
Header photo: a class with Jamie Lomax from Pacific Knit Co.
Come Shop With Us
Thank you for providing insights into the difficulties facing LYSs these days. We need to do all we can to support this industry.
Thank you. Very good information that all of us should have in mind when we visit our local art shop!
And better yet… keep all these aspects “actively” in mind when you vote next time.
I wonder how many of the shortchanged crafters or LYS owners mentioned in the piece above, have voted for this, pardon me, caricature of a president… Unfortunately observing his performance first time, it was clear things would not get better on the second take .
This! From cattle ranchers to those on SNAP benefits, how many people actively voted against their own interest for a creature who has never even pretended to care about anyone beside himself. Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple. And Americans bear the brunt of it.
While the election results last week were encouraging, I despair at how short people’s memories appear to be and how willingly they accept a rewriting of history on an Orwellian scale. It will take a generation to repair the harm done in just the last 10 months.
Thank you for the insight on what it takes to create, manufacture and distribute product. Also, I appreciate the references to better help us understand how we can help to make changes. I love your business model of retail store and community space!
There are 2 sides to this argument. We got lazy and bought from the less expensive sources, so our industries declined and vanished. We should be able to produce goods in this country and not be reliant on trade with other countries. Yes, it will hurt on the beginning, but more Americans will be employed and maybe other countries will stop using cheap labor!
Thank you, Lindsey, for a “real life” example of how economic policy can affect us personally, even if we choose to ignore the issue. Also, you highlight an example of how small businesses pay the price because they do not have the political pull to “make deals.”
Stories like this, don’t make it into the news. My LYS it’s always my first choice. It is truly a community. I am honored to be a part of. Where would we be without the shops?
From the other side of the story as a small producer, much of the hold up on selling is marketing. For this of us that have a large inventory of home grown, local mill spun yarns, the hold up is marketing. Online sales platforms are flooded. Craft shows mean leaving the farm and finding someone reliable to do animal care. LYS face to face discussions result in the wholesale low price to retail mark up discussion that puts the home grown way higher in price than the imports. So hg yarns sell slowly. On farm sales produce other concerns from zoning to ….. well you get the idea. In an ideal world knitters would find farms. The idea of fibershed has far to go.
Thank you, Lindsey, for this important and well written article. We all need to support our LYS in order for them to survive.
I’m so glad to read your post and do understand much of what you talk about. I wish there was a way to connect knitters/crocheters with those who have too much stuff (yarn, equipment) perhaps in a resale venue. My first thought was that I have good quality rarely used large size needles I’d love to get rid of…
Maybe MDK can be a resource for those of us with stuff to pass on?
Approach your LYS with your offer to share/sell/donate your unneeded supplies. As a former LYS owner, they will be an easier coordinator between your stuff and knitters/crocheters that would most appreciate the opportunity to benefit.
Within the last year, a shop opened in Burlington, VT, that resells donated crafting supplies and I’ve read about other shops in the United States. This shop accepts all kinds of crafting supplies (fiber arts, paper crafts, jewelry-making, sewing and quilting) and crafting books. You can get a store credit or donate outright. The staff uses the sales proceeds and donated supplies to offer lots of crafting classes for ages from pre-school to adults. Check to see if there’s a shop like this near you.
Q: Resale marketplace?
A: Ravelry is a good place to start with! Yarny people seem to be an honest and very understanding folk and one on one email exchanges are super quick and efficient and also tax or duty free! The tools that are useless to one and available for sale could be posted just like yarn.
In addition, postal costs are very reasonable in the US – next time look for options on Rav.
Let’s not forget NAFTA’s role (a Clinton darling) as well as other trade agreements. Somehow Germany has kept manufacturing & higher wages (plus Medicare & lots of other benefits). It’s a structural problem in addition to an attitudinal one.
This financial information is exactly the type of statistics that needs to be supplied to both the state and federal representatives and legislators. Although if your states representatives are like our representatives, they are currently gun shy of town meetings. If it all possible, set up a meeting with their local office and include others who have a similar type of business structure.
Years of working for our state gave me a full on view of how isolated enclosed off their vision of the economy can be compared to the reality of what we live in. Best wishes to you!
Thank you for your article, Lindsey. I still miss being able to participate in the Puget Sound LYS Tour! I left the area in 2017 so not sure I got to visit your shop; I would have loved it!
Hoping the economy and support for true home grown materials changes before we lose it.
Thank you for this insightful article. You’ve painted a very vivid picture of how things are right now for so many LYS. Here’s hoping for a better future.
Cheers for Lindsey Spoor for her efforts to supply and serve fiber artists of all types. I wished I lived closer to her shop as I would definitely support it.
Prior to moving to Northern VA, I had 2 LYS to which I could walk, and 3 more within a 15 minute drive. Now my closest LYS is a 45 minute drive, so I have adapted to searching for LYSs on any trips my husband and I take. I truly miss the camaraderie of sitting down at an empty chair at a large table full of knitters and crocheters. I have lost my tribe and I dearly miss them.
Very sobering. The challenges you face are discouraging. While I live on the opposite coast from your yarn store, I really hope you continue what you are doing for your community. Perhaps if the Supreme Court votes against tariffs, it will help. Thank you for what you are doing.
Thank you for this deeper look at the current struggles LYS are facing. I love the suggestion of taking classes as support, it builds a great sense of community. Next time I am up your way I will definitely come by your shop! It sounds lovely.
I read this with great interest and sympathize and agree ImHO wholeheartedly with the points made. And with one of the commenters who notes that marketing in an overflowed market is a big part of the problem. Whenever I go to a farmers market and talk to the person trying to sell wool and fiber products from their farm I pity them the insurmountable task of penetrating the market. There probably is a larger interest group/association of domestic wool producers/farmers out there? Or is there? How can we as a community join forces to help more effectively I wonder.
This highlights how little most Americans understand about processes in general.
I bought frequently from Brooklyn Tweed, an American only yarn company, now they have ceased selling yarn. But, to be honest, their yarns were always a bit more “rustic” than those from Europe. Fine for many projects. Not for all. American business focuses on high dollar return. The American mind set overall is making money. People often question why I spend so much time on a sweater I can buy cheaper!!