Yarn Spot: Knitting Together a Community

Sitting at an enormous oak table, sipping coffee from a chic designer mug and listening to Victoria Rothenberg and her companions discuss their very full lives, it is easy to feel like this is a social visit with old friends gathered in a warm kitchen to chat before having to resume the day's busy rhythm.

Except for the dizzying array of colorful yarn stacked high all around the women sitting at the table – on display shelves, in baskets, on top of tables, and in neat piles on counters.  And, of course, the deep, musky, earthy smell of wool that permeates every corner of the room.

"My husband always said I should open a yarn store," Rothenberg said.  "But who does that?"

Victoria Rothenberg did exactly that.  After losing her position at a private day school as the director of school life to economic downsizing, then spending several fruitless months on the job hunt, Rothenberg decided to pursue a lifelong passion: yarn.  The unconventional result?  The Yarn Spot on Georgia Avenue in Wheaton.

"I was always a very practical person, but I decided that the time was finally right to invest in myself," she said.  "Making things has always been a part of who I am."

Rothenberg admits that leaving a career in education to open a small business was a daunting prospect, but her confidence was boosted by the support of her family and the knowledge that yarn and knitting were things that she knew very well.  Armed with a feasibility study, professional advice from lawyers and accountants, and a business partnership with fellow knitting enthusiast Jill Goldwater, Rothenberg set out to create a modern yarn store.

"You start small and you grow," Rothenberg said.  "A customer came in the other day and said that compared to when we opened, we now have so much more inventory that it looks like a rainbow exploded in here."

The Yarn Spot will celebrate its first anniversary at the end of November and Rothenberg says that taking a calculated approach to growing the business has positioned them well.  

It's not your grandmother's yarn store: there's WIFI access and an iPad available to customers for browsing patterns. Yet Rothenberg's contagious passion for the craft of knitting and the warm, welcoming atmosphere of the shop all create a sense of a time long gone.

"There is a real lack of community in modern life, but people want to make connections.  Yarn stores are places where people come to connect with each other," Rothenberg said.  "At least that's what the best yarn stores can aspire to become."

Rothenberg's customers seem to agree that she and Goldwater have realized that aspiration at The Yarn Spot.

"This is a fun business and people are happy here," said Debbie Heller, a former school colleague of Rothenberg who has now become a regular customer at The Yarn Spot.  "You walk in here and you want to take out your creative side."

The Yarn Spot offers both the novice knitter and well-seasoned hobbyist opportunity to explore their creativity.  Along with weekly drop-in knitting circles and formal classes, Rothenberg and her staff also organize knitting-themed birthday parties and charity knitting events at the store.

"People in this area seem to be willing to pay a premium to come to a store like this," Rothenberg said.  "You can probably find what we sell cheaper online, but you wouldn't get the service or the community we have here."

The Yarn Spot has a very varied customer base, including a 10-year-old knitting prodigy as well as several male knitters, according to Rothenberg.  The centuries-old craft of knitting has made a comeback, thanks to modern technology.

"There is such a vibrant, vibrant, dynamic life for yarn, for knitting, for crocheting, for yarn dying, for spinning online that [the craft] is so far from dying that it's amazing," she said.  "There are millions of people from all around the world in an online community communicating and collaborating about knitting.  It's unbelievable what the Internet has done."