Spin-A-Yarn: A Shop Woven Into the Patchwork of Edmonds Merchants

Over the past few decades, many businesses in downtown Edmonds have come and gone. Anyone who’s lived in Edmonds long enough to remember Old Milltown as a bustling antique mall can likely name a handful of stalwart shops that have held out through recent economic shakeups.

For Sandra Miner and her sister Jill Johnston, their family owned Spin-A-Yarn is one of the successful few. 

“My mother and father and I started the shop in California,” Miner explained. “We were originally from Ballard, but when we were looking to move back up to Washington, we saw that there were already two yarn shops there, so we decided to bring it to Edmonds.”

The torch was handed to the next generation when Miner’s father died and her mother found the job too difficult as she aged. According to Miner, she is the artistic one. She also paints beautiful, while her sister is left-brained and takes care of the bookkeeping and other analytical aspects of running a business.   

“My grandma taught me to knit when I was a teenager,” Miner recalled. “I would knit in spurts. One week I would be knitting like crazy and the next week I wouldn’t knit at all, and then the next week I would be back at it. Once you know how to knit, it can be addicting.”

Clearly, others in Edmonds agree.

Although Spin-A-Yarn has moved locations (it used to be housed in a shop on Main Street), its still offers high quality yarn, knitting supplies, needlepoint canvases, supplies for making Latchhook wool rugs and classes for knitters of all levels. Miner orders yarns from 30 to 60 different companies from around the world.

“I like doing things my own way,” she said with a laugh when referring to running the shop. “We don’t make a lot of money, but it doesn’t matter as long as I can keep a roof over my head, which in the past few years has been a little difficult.”

But somehow they have managed.

There is a vibrant knitting community in Edmonds, and in the past few years with the downfall of the economy, many people have returned to the craft, knitting their own sweaters, scarves, hats and other items of clothing. On the bottom level of the Victorian house where Spin-A-Yarn is currently located, there is a little space with a table where people can come in, sit down and work on a projects, meeting other knitters in the process.

One thing Miner prides herself in is the fact that her and her staff will help with knitting problems for free. If people find themselves stuck on a project, or need help with a stitch, all they have to do is bring in their piece, and one of the friendly staff members will be glad to offer help and suggestions.

And as for the yarn bombings in Edmonds, where anonymous creations are wrapped around light poles and the such? Miner claims knowledge of the offenders, but innocence of the act.  

“I can’t take credit for that,” she said with a youthful smile and a laugh. “I know who did it, and it’s not connected with the shop. I’ve thought about it, but I don’t have time to do extra stuff like that … if I had the time, it could be dangerous.”