The story was originally published by The Telegraph.
When Michelle Meeks returned to her hometown of Warner Robins after college, she felt something was missing.
During her studies at the University of Georgia, she fell in love with knitting after buying a sock monkey knitting kit on a whim.
“When I came back to Warner Robins, there weren’t any local yarn stores,” Meeks said. “You can go to Michaels and Hobby Lobby, but there’s nobody to help you if you have questions. There’s nobody to sit and stitch with you. So that’s what I always wished was here.”
Years later, a novel called “Friday Night Knitting Club” by Kate Jacobs inspired Meeks to see whether the community-oriented yarn store she dreamed of could become a reality.
“It was about a group of women who came together and worked on projects together,” she said. “They had a yarn store with all this beautiful yarn they could love on and touch before they brought them home. They had just this group who took care of each other. It was a place like I always imagined. And I was like, maybe the Lord has put this desire in my heart for a reason.”
With help from the UGA Small Business Development Center in Macon, Meeks and her husband created a business plan and opened Our Yarn Studio in Warner Robins.
Credit: Jason Vorhees
Credit: Jason Vorhees
“I read the book in fall of 2021 and we opened at the end of May 2022,” she said. “I just took off with it and the community that I hoped existed did, and they’re all here.”
Crafting a community
Our Yarn Studio offers a variety of specialty products for knitting, crochet, macrame and embroidery projects as well as group classes taught by local instructors.
During open hours, crafters often sit and work on their projects in the studio, share new things they’ve learned and ask for advice.
Meeks said this sense of camaraderie is her favorite part of running the store.
When she first opened Our Yarn Studio, she wasn’t sure what kind of audience to expect. She was surprised to find that store regulars range in age from 18 to 90, with most between ages 20 to 45.
Meeks believes the COVID-19 pandemic and trends on TikTok and Instagram helped knitting and crocheting reach a wider audience in recent years.
“Handicrafts were going down; we don’t teach them in schools,” she said. “We don’t learn them from our grandmothers the way our parents did or their parents did. It was getting to be a scarcer thing and that was part of why I wanted to do the yarn store, to make sure it lasted.
“But during the pandemic, people went home and they had to find things to do. So a lot of them found fiberwork, whether it be crochet or knitting or weaving or spinning. It definitely picked up popularity and I think that’s why you see the teenagers doing it now.”
Collaboration and giving back
Our Yarn Studio sells a wide range of yarns including hand-dyed yarns and yarns made from unique fibers like baby alpaca wool and silkworm cocoon as well as accessories, tools, patterns and kits both in-store and online.
Credit: Jason Vorhees
Credit: Jason Vorhees
Many of the goods are made by local artisans in Warner Robins and sold on consignment.
“It allows them a place where it’s free for them to have their items in the store,” Meeks said. “So they don’t have to worry about craft fair booth rentals or pay for the fees of selling on Etsy. They have a place to showcase their goods here and then they take a portion of sales and we take a portion of sales. So it’s kind of symbiotic.
“That was part of my mission for the store, which is kind of unique for a yarn store. I just imagined what I wanted the store to be. I never actually visited a real yarn store before I opened this one.”
Our Yarn Studio hosts frequent beginner-friendly and seasonal classes taught by local experts. Recent class topics include learning how to weave “mug rug” coasters, knit mock-cable socks and crochet baby blankets.
The store also features a “request board” where customers can request classes they want to take, skills they want to learn and products they want the store to carry.
Every month, the studio chooses a new community project where they create and collect items to give to charities. This month, they’re knitting and donating baby blankets to families at Parris Island.
“We’ve done Knitted Knockers, which are breast [prosthetics] for women who have had mastectomies or lumpectomies,” Meeks said. “We’ve also done hats for Chase the Chill in Macon where they put out a bunch of hats and scarves for homeless people at one of the parks in Macon.”
Empowerment through creativity
Meeks discussed the various benefits she sees from learning these new skills and encourages people who are interested in trying fiberwork not to be intimidated.
“One benefit is artistic expression,” she said. “You underestimate the value of that until you get an opportunity to do it and it makes you feel like wow, I can actually do this thing. It makes you feel empowered to actually create something from a ball of yarn. And then if you’re capable of doing that, you feel capable of doing more things.
“It’s also about problem solving, when you run into a problem and you don’t know how to fix it. I’m very much a puzzle worker, so being able to go back and figure out why isn’t this edge lining up properly? Or why does this pattern not work out? You don’t think about it and this scares some people off from the craft, but there’s a lot of math in crocheting.”
In addition to running the store, Meeks still works her full-time job in information technology, a field she’s been in for 13 years.
She enjoys the balance between working her analytical side in IT and creative side at her “favorite place,” Our Yarn Studio.
Our Yarn Studio is located at 4883 Russell Parkway, Suite 350 near the Monkey Joe’s. The store is open on Tuesdays and Fridays 2 – 7 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Credit: The Telegraph
Credit: The Telegraph
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