When Toni Ritchey-Ridella first attended a large Pittsburgh-area fiber arts show in 2008, she found herself awestruck.

“I walked in for the first time, and my mouth was open, I thought, where do you start?” she said. “There are so many different yarns, so many different bases. Everything mostly is wool, but there are a lot of things you can add to it. It was overwhelming.”

Ritchey-Ridella, who owns the Raggz Fiber Art store in Forbes Road, now provides her customers and fiber arts enthusiasts from around the region with a smaller-scale slice of that awe.

Through the annual Raggz Fiber Affair craft show, which expanded into a larger venue at the Lamplighter restaurant this year in Salem Township, and through her store, she introduces weavers, knitters, crocheters, spinners, felters and more to the tools of their craft, and stocks supplies for them.

According to Ritchey-Ridella, the creative world of working with fiber is vast and varied, and continues to grow.

“There’s a lot more to fiber arts than you’d think,” she said. “I guess if you’re not a knitter or a crocheter or do anything with fiber arts, maybe you don’t really think it’s that popular, but it really is.”

Varied interest

The Raggz store has a wide range of customers who stop in regularly on the days the store is open. Some are longtime fiber fans. A number of them belong to a social knitting group called the Chubby Knitters, who host meetings in the store space.

“It’s (a place) where we have all become friends, we all help each other, we do things outside of the shop,” she said. “We have Chubby Knitter luncheons, and we take road trips. It’s just become a nice community. I don’t think I ever have had so many women friends as I do now.”

Others, Ritchey-Ridella says, are newer knitters who taught themselves during the pandemic. Ritchey-Ridella herself started knitting as a child, and refreshed her skills with a class later in life.

“I think I’m just kind of old-fashioned, anyhow, and I love the old, traditional ways, so that’s why I learned to knit,” she said. “It’s just something I felt like I always wanted to do. I really think a lot of people who are into fiber arts feel that way about it.”

Knitting is particularly portable as a craft, and good for multitasking, she said. She can take her project with her while sitting in the car or have a conversation with someone while knitting.

“I see some men, but most of the women I notice are a little older. I have a lot of older clients who come here, and we are all friends, but there are younger ones too, and kids,” Ritchey-Ridella said. “Usually, the kids who are involved in it want to learn it is because their mom does it, and they are familiar with it.”

Some customers are surprised at first by the slightly more expensive yarn prices at small stores, in comparison with larger chains like Jo-Ann’s and Michaels. Starting with less expensive yarn can be a good idea for a new knitter, Ritchey-Ridella said.

At the same time, many of the attendees at festivals like the Raggz Fiber Affair are there specifically to support local businesses.

“I remember when I first started knitting, and somebody said ‘you’ll become a yarn snob and a needle snob’ and I thought, no, I’m not going to do that, but it happens,” she said. “You can knit two identical things, and you will see that the one with the better yarn is just a better product. But when you’re learning, you don’t need to do that.”

Expanding audience

At Needle Point Breeze, located in Point Breeze, owner Natalie Kelley says younger people are starting to get into the art of needlepoint, and are bringing with them new tastes, materials, and types of projects.

“There was a lull there for several years maybe before the pandemic, that younger people weren’t getting into it, but there is sort of this resurgence of younger people doing it, and doing the (canvas) painting as well,” she said. “Nowadays if I were to go to market, there are so many different funky types of fibers and so much more that you can do. The younger people are bringing in different things that spark them as opposed to traditional needlepoint.”

Natalie Belmont of Yarn by Design in Oakmont noted that at her shop’s knitting groups, the youngest attendees are around 24, while the oldest is 88.

“We run beginner’s knitting maybe every two to three months, because it is a little more extensive than crocheting, and every time, it sells out very quickly,” she said. “It’s not necessarily young people who are taking those classes either. It’s some people whose mother used to knit and they want to get into it now. The ages definitely vary. But there is definitely a young maker following.”

Pandemic impacts

During the early days of covid-19, nearly three years ago, Debbie Jacknin, co-owner of Songbird Artistry in Lawrenceville, found herself driving all over Pittsburgh delivering embroidery patch sticker kits to customers. The crafters would then log on to a Zoom class to learn from her how to put their kits together.

Those Zoom classes are no longer held, but other craft classes, including fiber arts classes, at Songbird are regularly booked solid, she said. The social aspect appealed to people, especially during quarantine.

“Even though I was teaching the class, it takes very little instruction to figure out how to do it,” she said. “Really, what we were doing was hanging out and talking. We were going through this crazy time, and at least we had people socially to be with.”

The embroidered sticker kits she started selling during 2020 are still a hit, she noted.

“It’s kind of a cooler craft for some because it appeals to young people, who love stickers,” she said. “Each kit comes with about three or four or five different options, and it comes with two-sided tape. You can cut it out, use the two-sided tape, and stick it on something.”

Yarns by Design also saw “a slight influx” in customers during the early part of the pandemic, Belmont said.

“We had to shut down like every other store, but people were definitely knitting,” she said. “After we brought classes back, that was huge. People really responded really well to that. Other than it being a warm winter, our classes still remain extremely popular, and pretty much always fill up every time we run them. It’s definitely stuck.”

In Jacknin’s opinion, the community part of fiber arts is what brings people back for project after project.

“If you think back to the sewing circles of the past, I think what made those things so successful is yes, you were creating something, but it also gave you a time to socialize,” she said. “We all have stuff going on in our lives, and there is something about a craft and using your hands that allows you to just relax a little bit.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)