“The heart of YTFC is our community… We have an area in the shop with couches where anyone can come and bring their project, and meet others within the community.”
Businesses and non-profit organizations regularly open and move in Saskatoon. Today the StarPhoenix talks to Brittany Betker who opened Yarn Therapy Fibre Crafts on Faithfull Avenue on Aug 1.
Betker, who has knitted and crocheted since she was very young, originally started gathering groups together to knit and crochet as a way of dealing with COVID-19 isolation in 2021. Things took off from there, and she turned a lifelong passion for her art into a store. Betker says she has made her store a place for like-minded people to gather, to enjoy one another and to work on projects together. She is thrilled about the community that has already developed there in the short time since her opening.
Q: What is Yarn Therapy Fibre Crafts?
A: We are a small local yarn shop with a large focus on community. Yarn Therapy Fibre Crafts offers brands that have previously not been available in Saskatchewan and are popular among trending designers and pattern writers. We also offer a growing list of classes in various fibre arts, such as knitting, crochet, Tunisian crochet, felting and more. Our classes are for all levels, so no matter what your skill level, we will have something for anyone who wants to learn.
But the heart of YTFC is our community. My vision for my business has always been providing a space where crafters felt welcomed. We have an area in the shop with couches where anyone can come and bring their project, and meet others within the community. Every Saturday we have our Stitchin’ Together group from 12-2 and it has been amazing how busy it has been.
Q: What is your knitting and crocheting background?
A: I’ve done crocheting my whole life. It was that thing we did at grandma’s house when we went on sleepovers back to when I was about 7 years old. Knitting fell pretty close after crocheting. I kind of just fell down the rabbit hole. My grandma was a crocheter and my great aunt was a knitter.
Q: How did you start your business?
A: I began organizing knit and crochet community gatherings two-and-a-half years ago in the park by my house as a way of dealing with the isolation from COVID. A lot of people showed up and people just kept coming. It grew quickly into offering classes, organizing community groups, and hosting charity classes and making baby hats for the hospital. I was selling out 15 spot classes with a wait list within a week of posting. So I started renting out spaces at different places throughout the city like the Leisure Centres and retail spaces. It took off in a way I was not expecting.
I was trying to find yarn brands that I want to work with, but yarn was getting difficult to bring in. Really as a joke with my sister around Christmas time, I said it would just be so nice if I had my own store and I could fill it with the stuff I wanted to use. Then I realized that If I could have my own yarn store, I could have the brands I wanted and I could teach in it. Everything really clicked into place organically. It was kind of one of those things that was meant to be.
Q: What makes Yarn Therapy stand out?
A: When I started planning for this place, the first thing on my list was there needs to be a place for people to feel like they can come together and gather. This craft is such a social thing. So I have couches in the front, in the heart of the store. The couches are full all the time. I call it my open couch policy. It’s always open as long as the doors are open for you to come in and work on your projects. It doesn’t matter what level you are or what you’re doing, this is kind of like a home for you. It’s not just a store, it’s also the community hub, the community gathering place.
Q: What products do you sell?
A: We have your main big manufacturers like Lions Brand and Bernat. They came from Walmart and Michael’s and that kind of thing. But we are also getting hand-dyed and brands that are different fibres and different colours. We have brands like Knitting for Olive from Denmark that is really hard to find here in Canada. We are Knitters is from Madrid. Jamieson and Smith is a yarn from Scotland. I’ve got products in here from all over the world.
My goal for this place was to fill it with Saskatchewan yarn. That is going to be coming here hopefully once Fibre Festival season slows down. I’ve got Canadian dyers like Arcane Fibre Works and Biscotte Yarn and Pine & Purl. These are all independent Canadian makers that are available here, and hard to find otherwise in Saskatchewan.
Q: What classes do you offer?
A: I still teach my knitting and crocheting classes and now I have instructors coming in to teach things that I don’t teach. I’ve got others teaching Tunisian crochet and 2D and 3D felting classes and other crafts. We teach knitting classes and crocheting classes from beginner to project classes.
We’re offering a learn how to do a crochet pumpkin for Thanksgiving. We’re going to be doing a charity workshop where we will knit and crochet little orange sweaters for Truth and Reconciliation Day and we will send them to UBC. I do a lot of Charity stuff like that. I did one where we make a blanket for Ronald McDonald House where you learn how to make a granny square. Then you leave the square and I sew it together. You get to learn the skill, but then the project that you make gets to go to something good.
I want to run another baby hats for the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) to help fill up their cupboard again. I did one last year and it went really, really well. People were making hats in the class and people came and dropped off a whole bunch.
Q: Do you rent space for others to teach classes?
A: Yes. I rent the classroom out to other people if they’re kind of in the same boat that I was struggling to find some place to host a class that they want to teach at an affordable rate. I love being able to offer this space to people who are starting out like I did.
Q: You have a special gathering time on Saturdays?
A: On Saturdays from Noon to 2 p.m., I have my Stitchin’ Together group. That’s the set time when you can come in and know that there are other people going to be here. And we are packed. We bring the chairs out from the back to the front with a big circle of people. It’s really an inspiration for people to walk in and see the place full, with others working on their projects. It doesn’t matter what project you’re working on, or whether you’re advanced or a beginner, everyone gathers in that same place and then you can learn from and enjoy each other.
Q: How did you decide on the Yarn Therapy name?
A: This is what I did to keep my hands busy. If I have a free moment to turn my brain off, this is what I do to shut down. This is my therapy. And when I hear other people’s stories, they say it’s also their therapy. For a lot of people, it’s how they connect themselves, it’s a passion, it’s their own personal form of therapy. The community itself is its own therapy.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Yarn Therapy Fibre Crafts
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