In a carriage house behind Julie Luckasen’s home on Mountain Avenue in Fort Collins, a fairy-tale scene awaits. After walking across a textured stone path complete with greenery and chickens, one is greeted by the yarn-lined walls of My Sister Knits.
The women of the knitting and yarn shop My Sister Knits said they aim to foster a diverse community for students, parents and teens, and that no matter one’s knitting skill level or identity, the shop provides a place to learn, teach and share life experiences.
“I really think Fort Collins is a gem, and I want to keep it that way with local businesses,” Luckasen said. “And I think it’s all about community. And that’s what we strive for.”
The shop hosts classes that provide a starting point for new knitters to work off of or for seasoned participants to build their techniques.
There is a lot to the process of knitting, and the fine details and patience required can easily become frustrating. However, Gretchen Groves, an employee at My Sister Knits, said this frustration is actually what makes knitting so rewarding and special.
“Even the ugliest sweater you’ve ever made, you still keep (it),” Groves said.
Groves spoke about the ways the modern world can at times feel disposable and perhaps even harmful, as many quickly produced items end up in landfills and short-form content chips away at attention spans.
“I just feel like (knitting) is a little bit of a break from what our world is right now — a lot of social media, a lot of computer, a lot of, you know, instant gratification, more, more, more, more, more,” Groves said.
Luckasen talked about how special it is to create something that takes understanding, time and effort.
“I think people are appreciating ‘I made it,'” Luckasen said. “You know, whether they’re sewing or knitting or whatever they’re doing, they’re like, ‘I can make that. I’ll make it myself.’”
My Sister Knits ensures patrons learn to knit any product they want themselves: sweaters, socks, hats and more. With ample supply of available yarns, knitters can bring their designs to life exactly as envisioned. The shop carries yarns from all over the globe, including Colorado, Montana, Norway, Denmark and New Zealand, mill-dyed and hand-dyed, with different types of yarn such as cotton, linen, wool, alpaca, llama and yak.
They have specially dyed yarns for holidays, yarns based on movies and even glow-in-the-dark and sparkly yarns.
“We have a lot of yarn that has met certain classifications for, or specifications for, like, good treatment of animals,” Groves said. “We only sell things we love.”
This close-knit community began to form in 2004; Luckasen said she was teaching at elementary schools and driving to apartment complexes with a trunk full of yarn and that it has evolved ever since.
Since its humble beginnings, the shop has grown into a hub for artists focusing on finding community through fiber arts.
“It’s a wonderful community — this community of knitters and crocheters and artists,” Luckasen’s sister Diana Keairnes said. “It just brings a lot of people together. Through the years, it’s just grown and grown.”
Reach Patric Wallis at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
