Northwest Yarns & Mercantile is a welcoming third place for knitters
Northwest Yarns & Mercantile was one of the first places Heather Seevers went to when she moved to Bellingham from California. The fiber arts shop soon became like a second home to her.
“One of the great things about the fiber arts in general, not just knitting, is that you can go into a group of strangers and you have a thing in common already,” she said. “You have knitting or sewing, or stitching or whatever — you have crafting in common, and so you instantly have something to talk to somebody about.”
Seevers almost immediately joined the Northwest Yarns’ knitting circle and said she “basically lived” at the shop. She was devastated when she learned the shop would be closing when the previous owner stepped away. After talking it over with her friend and now business partner Echo Mae, the two decided to purchase the store and keep it going. The duo became the third owners of the shop in 2016.
“We’re definitely not making tons of money on it; we’re definitely doing it for the community,” Seevers said. “We try very hard to be that safe third space for a lot of people of all walks of life.”
That sense of community is apparent on any given Wednesday night, when the store holds its free beginners knitting class — those with more experience are welcome to drop by as well. People of a variety of ages gather around tables in the shop’s side room as Seevers demonstrates stitches and answers questions.
“It’s an interesting social phenomenon: you have people from all different age groups and walks of life that you’re interacting with. You might have a superior court judge and a barista in the same group. You might have an 82-year-old and a 16-year-old all in the same group,” she said. “And it just works. It works because you’re all sharing something that is pretty great.”
In Northwest Washington, knitting classes and meetups are held at local yarn and fiber art shops like Wild Fibers in Mount Vernon as well as through community groups and spaces like the Skagit Valley Weavers’ Guild and the San Juan Island Library.
A desire for community drew Ollie Ng, 26, to Northwest Yarn’s knitting class. Ng lost interest in knitting during middle school but picked up the hobby again early this year by watching YouTube videos.
“It’s been really nice to meet different people and kind of find more connection… Knitting can be a very solo-type activity, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be,” Ng said. “And it’s also nice to come here to have accountability for continuing to work on projects or asking questions to more experienced people and just sharing projects with other people — it’s really fun to see what people are working on.”
‘Peaceful and meditative’
Ellen Govedare and her daughter have been looking for “soulful” activities — hobbies and pastimes that offer a sort of escape in today’s busy world. Knitting, Govedare said, seems to fit the bill.
“The idea is just to do something peaceful and meditative and catch a peaceful moment in a troubled world,” Govedare said. “It’s our times that we live in. We’re so impatient, we expect instant gratification and it’s really good to try to rewire that.”
The mother-daughter duo has found just that at Northwest Yarns. They are among a growing number of individuals contributing to a knitting resurgence, especially as younger generations turn to what many of them have dubbed “grandma” hobbies as a way to unplug and be more present.
Mimi Exum, a 24-year-old pastry chef, and Ellie Charpentier, a 22-year-old student, are among those Gen Zers picking up traditional hobbies.
“We’re kind of like old ladies. We have all kinds of weird hobbies like whittling and stuff,” Exum said with a laugh. “Knitting kind of felt like the next cozy hobby to have.”
Charpentier, likewise, said having someone who can walk through the stitches in person and point out mistakes is a big bonus of attending an in-person class.
“I find with the YouTube videos, they just go so fast and the next thing I know, all the yarn is in a place and I’m like how did they even do that?” she said. “I need someone to be like ‘No you need to put this bit there’.”
Seevers, who has been knitting for two decades, said knitting can be meditative, especially once it becomes muscle memory.
“Some people actually do it as like therapy,” she said. “When it becomes a muscle memory, it will actually give you endorphins.”
Patty Vezzetti, a 66-year-old pilates instructor, learned to knit from her mom and grandma but never pursued the hobby. Recently, though, she attended her first class.
“It’s something to keep my hands busy and make me sit down and chill out,” she said.
Learning patience
Govedare initially worried about picking up knitting. She’d tried the hobby as a child but never as an adult.
“At first, I thought, Oh, my God, I’m going to be revealed as being incapable or something, that was kind of a little intimidating. But then as soon as I got going, it did kind of come back. So it was just really fun because it’s very friendly, accepting and there’s all different levels.”
Her daughter, Juliette Clem, has been trying a lot of hobbies in her 20s. It’s been a lesson, Clem said, in accepting that it’s OK not to be perfect at each one.
Clem worked diligently on casting on a row of stitches onto her needle for most of the class. “Casting on” refers to creating the first row of stitches on a needle. Toward the end, she said, the stitch finally clicked.
“Starting anything from scratch, obviously you have to start somewhere,” she said. “Pushing through the urge to throw it across the room and give up out of frustration and anger is hard, but once you can do it after that, not only do you have the satisfaction of doing it, but you have the satisfaction of not having given up.”
Watching students have that breakthrough moment when it finally clicks is Seevers’ favorite part about teaching.
“That’s one of the things I love about teaching is that joy. I love that moment,” she said. “You should try new things. What’s it gonna hurt if you don’t like it? If you don’t try it, you don’t know.”
As the class wound down, Clem wondered aloud about the next steps in turning the single line of stitches into, eventually, a scarf. That, however, would be a task for next week’s class.
— By Sydnee Chapman
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Artists, firsthand,” Oct. 3, 2025
• “Art by NW: Eduardo Fausti’s prints reflect the energy of Orcas Island,” Aug. 28, 2025
• “From gym mats to coffee shops, third places anchor community,” Feb. 7, 2025
• “Quilts and fiber arts bring joy, fun and a way to learn,” Aug. 28, 2024