Sheared Sheep by the seashore
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Creative do-it-yourselfers weave their way to a new Costa Mesa business that offers skeins and skeins of unusual yarns.Lisa Kolbly and Shelby Doane are building a business out of yarn.
“It [knitting] is really coming into its own because it’s getting very modern,” Kolbly said.
Kolbly and Doane are the co-owners of the Sheared Sheep, a Costa Mesa shop that sells “boutique yarn” to knitters. The store’s walls are lined with yarns made from a variety of materials and as many colors as one would expect to find in a jumbo box of crayons.
The most unusual yarn in the store, Doane said, is the Ozark hand-spun variety. The Ozark yarn is hand-dyed in multiple colors and has a stringy, scraggly appearance.
“I called it ‘hair’ when it first came in,” Doane said.
The Sheared Sheep, which has been open about three months on Irvine Avenue, also sells cotton, silk, cashmere and alpaca yarn.
Kolbly said she wants the store to feel “modern enough for younger knitters to come in and not feel like they’re going to their grandmother’s store.”
At the same time, Kolbly said the shop should not seem too hip to deter older customers. On Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m., the store hosts “knit nights” that draw knitters of all ages.
“We even have some little girls who are in sixth or seventh grade,” Doane said, as well as “women who have been knitting for over 40 years.”
To target the younger knitter, the store hosts youth nights on Mondays from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Those sessions are typically attended by 11- to 15-year-old girls.
Kolbly has been a knitter for about six years. The craft, she said, can be therapeutic as well as an opportunity to spend time with other hobbyists.
“There’s an incredible social aspect when you’re around other knitters,” Kolbly said.
The Sheared Sheep will likely never become a chain store, Kolbly said. Though the day may come when she and Doane need to move into a larger store or decide to sell yarn over the Internet, Kolbly said she values the attention to detail that comes with having only one store.
In addition to social knitting nights, the Sheared Sheep also offers knitting classes. Class schedules and prices are available at www.theshearedsheep.com. The store’s address is 2675 Irvine Ave., Costa Mesa.
* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at [email protected].
20060116it5sm7ncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Shelby Doane, left, and Lisa Kolbly show off a few of the many yarns available at their knitting store, the Sheared Sheep, on Irvine Avenue in Costa Mesa.
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