Everett yarn shop specializes in ‘eye candy’

EVERETT — Shopping at Great Yarns! is meant to be a colorful experience.

Just ask owner Fontelle Jones.

“Color is our world,” she said.

Bright, dark, pastel, jewel and many other colorful tones are part of the specialty yarn for sale through five rooms of a white house at 4023 Rucker Ave. in Everett. Finished projects including hats, sweaters and scarves are carefully placed near displays of different types of yarn to help shoppers envision their own creative knitting or crocheting project.

“We’re selling vision and that’s why when we walk around this store our focus has always been about models and samples and those things that inspire you,” Jones said. “Anyone can sell you a ball of yarn but we’re here to inspire. We’re here to make sure you’re successful.”

Success is something Jones knows how to achieve. She opened Great Yarns! three decades ago in the same location where it is today. She remembers latching onto the idea of opening her own yarn store in 1984.

Jones said she was “an extremely enthusiastic new knitter” at the time who quickly became tired of driving to Seattle for quality yarn. She was at a nearby grocery store when she noticed a for rent sign on nearby house. Jones made a phone call that led to the opening of Great Yarns! on Sept. 15, 1984.

A few renters were already living in the downstairs part of the building back then, Jones said. She didn’t have enough yarn to fill the main floor so she sublet one of the rooms. That setup lasted for about a year before the upstairs renter was able to move downstairs and her shop took over the entire main floor of the home. Jones bought the building and another piece of property behind it more than 15 years ago.

At the start of her business, sales representatives told Jones that a shop like hers wouldn’t survive in Everett but she didn’t listen. Jones kept a yarn selection that appealed to a large shopper base and added more fashionable, interesting, and higher quality yarn with every little profit she made. Her business grew.

“It’s just evolved and my customers have absolutely supported that evolution,” Jones said. “Some of those sales reps have since come back and said they wouldn’t have believed it.”

Great Yarns! has largely grown through word of mouth, Jones said. She purposely sought a broader customer base 15 years ago when she started participating in trade shows across the country. She’ll be part of six shows this year, including one October 9-12 in Hartford, Connecticut.

“We have a far broader based customer than just our physical location,” Jones said. “There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t ship out of state and often out of country. It’s great fun for us.”

Jones also enjoys offering creative yarns for her customers, including those exclusively made just for her shop, called Firecracker and Lightning Strikes. A blue and bright green yarn in the Lightning Strikes line is named 12th Man.

Another thing that makes Great Yarns! unique is that it’s a full service yarn shop, Jones said. In addition to selling a variety of yarn, needles, hooks, buttons and more supplies, the store also offers knitting and crocheting classes, finishing services, and a mending service.

Barbara Pykonen of Arlington has been shopping at Great Yarns! since it first opened. Her trip to the store on Sept. 18 was to stock up on yarn for future projects.

“I used to work in Everett so I came here daily,” she said. “It’s like eye candy.”

There’s always a project in progress for Wendy Gilpin, the shop’s office manager. That same day was no exception as she worked to knit a Seahawks-inspired hat in between answering questions from customers.

“We’re just family,” Gilpin said. “Even Fontelle’s friends have become friends of mine. I love it all. It’s just a lot of fun.”

An especially fun part of every year at Great Yarns! is when teddy bears are donated by WARM 106.9 FM. Volunteer knitters dress the bears in handmade outfits before they are sent off to Camp Erin, a bereavement camp for children and given to children receiving hospice care. Great Yarns! volunteers dressed 165 bears this year.

“I’ve been here for almost 12 years and I don’t remember a year when we have done less than 100 bears,” Gilpin said.

Giving back to her community is important to Jones. She serves on the Puget Sound Kidney Centers Foundation Board of Directors, on the Providence Hospice and Home Care Foundation, Snohomish County Board of Trustees, and on the Camp Fire Snohomish County Board of Directors.

Jones is very involved in the growth of hospice care in Snohomish County, is philanthropic and full of energy, said Ken Clay, Providence Hospice and Home Care Foundation president. “She’s very outgoing and very friendly,” he said. “She’s just a very easy person to get to know and very welcoming in her business.”

Longevity was never really part of her original business plan, Jones said. She wouldn’t continue operating Great Yarns! if she didn’t enjoy it. An official anniversary celebration is yet to be determined, Jones added.

“It will be a celebration for my customers,” she said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be here.”

For hours and more information, call 425-252-8155 or go to www.greatyarns.com.