Knitting together a community
For some people, winter weather means it’s time to stock up on groceries and dust off their winter coats. For Donna Higgins, it means she needs to buy more thick, wooly yarns.
Higgins is the owner of In the Making yarn and fabric store at 4232 Dolly Ridge Road in Cahaba Heights. Inside the airy shop are shelves piled with yarn, bolts of fabric, comfortable chairs and projects such as scarves and hats, made by shop employees, to show the potential in each skein of yarn.
“Birmingham kind of made it happen. The people here needed community,” Higgins said of her store’s beginnings.
Higgins started out in sewing rather than knitting. It was a hobby she shared with her mother, who was deaf, and was one of their main forms of bonding and communication. She continued to sew as she grew up, but after her children outgrew the age where she could make their clothes, Higgins turned to knitting.
“Within minutes I was like, ‘I’ve got to have this; I’ve got to have more,’” Higgins recalled about learning to knit.
In 2004, Higgins opened a shop in Cahaba Heights for sewing projects such as pillows and window treatments. She planned to just sell yarn “on the side,” but things didn’t quite turn out that way.
“Well, what happened was I never worked in that shop because I was selling yarn,” she said.
Eventually Higgins chose to make In the Making a retail shop for yarn and fabrics instead of a custom order workshop. They moved into their current building two years ago after a three-year building process. Much of the wood features and furniture inside are reclaimed from barns and other structures around the state.
Most of the yarns sold at In the Making are made of natural fibers such as wool, cotton and linen, and some are shipped from as far away as Ireland. Higgins also has her own line of yarn, Big Bad Wool, which she started in January 2015. It is spun in Peru and made out of merino wool and baby alpaca wool.
Big Bad Wool started because Higgins wanted more consistency in the colors available in the baby yarn section of her store. There are now two styles of Big Bad Wool in about 35 colors, and Higgins plans to introduce a new rugged, “hearty” yarn in summer.
“This was an interesting startup. Our baby section was just nothing more than a mishmash of various yarns that we could get from our vendors,” Higgins said.
Big Bad Wool is sold in other knitting and crochet shops besides In the Making, and Higgins said the soft texture of the yarn can make it addictive.
“I compare this to like a Sharpie cabinet at the art store, you know? It’s like, ‘I want one of everything,’” Higgins said.
It’s not the yarn selection that has made In the Making successful, Higgins said. The project support and classes they provide keep customers coming back rather than buying online or at a larger hobby shop.
“Because the community realizes how valuable it is that we’re here, they support us,” Higgins said.
Several employees at In the Making have worked there for a decade or more, Higgins said. They can help with knitting, crocheting and quilting projects and lead classes to teach new skills. Three staff members are also designers and will create original patterns customers can buy. One employee even started teaching customers how to spin their own yarn and weave.
“The community loves to knit what [store manager] Jamie [Thomas] might have designed,” Higgins said.
Their customers range from children and teens to new mothers and grandparents, who pick up needle art hobbies for a variety of reasons. But the unique mixture of what In the Making has to offer means that even with the growing popularity of online shopping, Higgins and her staff can count on customers continuing to walk in the door.
“We already have a community here, so we don’t need to seek one outside of it,” Higgins said.
Learn more about In the Making at shopinthemaking.com, and find out more about Big Bad Wool at bbwool.com. In the Making is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.