Nestled in the back of artisan collective Walnut Creek in Old Town is a cozy historic space with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and yarn, fabric and stationery of every color filling the shelves. Though The Twisted Stitch has been open for just over six months, it has managed to build a community of crafters of all skill levels.
“We opened it in May, and we did some pop-ups and tried to do a little bit of market research ahead of time,” said Mariah Tree, co-founder of The Twisted Stitch. “We have all sorts of crafting; we focus a little bit more on knitting and crochet, and then also sewing, accessories and apparel. … We do try to facilitate all sorts of crafts, so we have punch needle, we have embroidery, we have needle felting. If it is a craft, we want people to be able to access it and try it out.”
Fellow co-founder Nadia Hare and Tree both bring a passion for crafting and the fiber arts, along with business skills and connections.
“I own a bar in Old Town already, so I was a little bit familiar with running a business; a bit different from the craft world, but Mariah is the main crafter,” said Hare, who also runs The Forge Publick House in Old Town and is well connected with other small business owners in the area.
“I have always seen sort of that avenue of almost elitism in craft and in art, and that broke my heart.” –Mariah Tree, The Twisted Stitch co-founder
Tree’s background is in the corporate world, but she found her way to owning a small business through her passion for creating.
“I have been crafting ever since I was tiny,” Tree said. “I learned crochet when I was probably 7. I love sharing it because it’s such a positive thing for me, that if I can create that positivity for other people, that makes me really happy.”
Hare and Tree said their vision for The Twisted Stitch was to create a gathering place for people that was welcoming and inclusive and to foster community among other businesses in Fort Collins.
“We really love working with other neighboring businesses,” Hare said. “With me and the bar down here, I know a lot of the different owners in Old Town. So we’ve done events with (Old Firehouse Books), and then I also know the owner of the Bookstore On The Square, and we like doing cross promotions with them. We recently had a local artist that put out an embroidery book, and we had a class here with 13 people, and all of our chairs were full, and that was a lot of fun and we all worked on an embroidery project.”
They said they want to ensure people of all skill levels can come to The Twisted Stitch and find community and assistance with their projects.
“Mostly it’s just a community and getting more in person and off of our phones and off of the digital experience,” Tree said. “So that’s kind of what we want to facilitate for people and offer community spaces.”
Regarding the formation of their business, Tree and Hare said they saw a need for more inclusive spaces in the world of crafting.
“The whole idea of naming the store The Twisted Stitch was I went into a local yarn store, hoping for community, hoping for kind of approval of my little knitting hobby, and this was a long time ago,” Tree said. “The owner was pretty unkind and called out that I twisted my stitches, which I didn’t know I was doing. It’s a very common beginner mistake. I have always seen sort of that avenue of almost elitism in craft and in art, and that broke my heart.”
The shop also offers a variety of classes and opportunities to gather with other crafters.
“We do different kinds of beginner events,” Hare said. “So pretty much once a month, we’ll do a beginning level, knitting, crocheting and sewing class. And then we usually have some guest crafters come in to do other classes. Mariah does most of the knitting classes, and I do most of the sewing classes. We also offer private lessons, so if you have something really specific that you want to work on, it’s probably easier to do a private lesson.”
Additionally, The Twisted Stitch holds several crafting groups that are free to attend, like Open Stitch on Thursdays and Sunday Spin-Ins.
“The Open Stitch group on Thursdays, we intentionally made it craft agnostic,” Tree said. “You can bring in any craft. You don’t even have to do a craft. But I think people need that community. It’s almost like an art therapy group: Everybody gets to come in and talk about what’s going on in their week. Some people don’t even want to talk; they just want to be around others, or they just want to sit with people.”
Reach Gracie Douglas at life@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
