On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about owning a yarn store with my guest Sara Ingle.
Sara founded Boston Fiber Company, a local yarn store in Boston’s South End neighborhood, in 2022. Now finishing its second year, the store focuses on indie-dyed yarn, supporting local crafters, and fostering a strong community through numerous low-cost and free events and groups. The Boston Fiber Company team, consisting of three people, is dedicated to making fiber arts accessible to all. Looking ahead, Sara and her team are working on organizing a fiber festival for the neighborhood and dyeing their own yarn to offer to customers.
I was very excited to be able to visit Boston Fiber Company and record this interview with Sara in person.
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We begin this interview with Sara sharing their background, where they grew up, and how they learned to knit. We talked about how they came to own a yarn shop in the South End of Boston after working in a yarn and bead shop in the same neighborhood. Sara explains how they came to buy the inventory of that shop, change the concept to be yarn-focused, and eventually move to a different and better space across the street.
We talk about the various ways that Boston Fiber Company seeks to build community. One unusual aspect of this shop is that the clientele is primarily quite young in comparison to shoppers who visit many other yarn shops. Sara talks about the steps they’ve taken to welcome older consumers into the store. The shop hosts a variety of community gatherings each week and Sara shares how she works to create community and have the store be a place where people come to meet one another and hang out in addition to shop.
Boston Fiber Company is a fairly small space. Sara uses their experience working at Anthropologie to merchandise the space they has, arranging things very artfully and changing the displays frequently to keep the shop interesting and exciting. We also talk about the importance of stocking locally made products and collaborating with other local yarn shops and local businesses. We discuss Google reviews including how to get them and how to respond to them.
If you’re interested in what it takes to own a yarn shop in a downtown urban environment, this interview is for you!
Sara is also one of our 2024 Craft Industry Alliance Scholarship recipients!
And, of course, I ask Sara to recommend great stuff she’s enjoying right now. Sara recommends:
Follow Boston Fiber Company on Instagram and visit their website to keep up with what’s going on!