Unwind with a skein at Cottage Yarns

On each aisle, a price sheet hangs for customer’s ease. However, prices, material, gauge and length of all available yarn is also at the tip of Mulgrew’s tongue, who has plenty of knowledge and recommendations to share with customers. 

This is what keeps customers coming back.

“They’re happy with my selection and they like to pick my brain, and I love that,” Mulgrew said. “That’s what I’m here for. I’ll give you a 10-minute tutorial or walk you around the store.” 

Located in a former church, the yarn shop has been in continuous operation since 1966, and its current owner is just the shop’s third. Mulgrew, a South San Francisco resident, took over the business 25 years ago and is looking forward to keeping the crochet and knitting trades alive. 

Word of mouth has worked in keeping this small business alive, Mulgrew said, but a resurgence in “do it yourself” culture that resparked during the pandemic and a recent crocheting trend has given the shop all the more business. 

“You have the same clientele, but you get new clientele every day,” Mulgrew said. “Newbies, I can set them up with a ball of yarn and a crochet hook for under $20 so if they really hate it, it’s not a huge commitment.” 

Crocheting has gained popularity on social media, partly due to a movement away from fast fashion in recent years, as well as its realized therapeutic benefits. Mulgrew noted that there are many lessons to learn from crocheting, and it’s an ideal opportunity to relax your mind by busying your hands. 

“It’s a forgiving process,” Mulgrew said. “It’s easy to go back, I spend more time going backwards sometimes than going forwards. If you aren’t happy, go backwards and try again.” 

Nearly all the samples throughout the store displaying what can be done with a skein of yarn, with the silky feel on display, are made by Mulgrew, who first learned to knit in a home economics class in eighth grade when she lived in Minnesota. 

Mulgrew was working in biotech for most of her career, in Seattle and Foster City, but after having her daughter in 1998, she knew she wanted a change of pace and to operate her own business. After meeting the former owner Mary Lou Mott, Mulgrew began working in the shop a couple days a week, learning all she could about each type of yarn, and took over when Mott retired in 2000. 

Although she does about five-peoples worth of jobs operating the business — with her husband's help since he retired eight years ago  — Mulgrew said it never feels daunting. And still, she gets in her recreational knitting often while listening to Giants’ games on the radio. 

“To me, it’s not hard work. I grew up on a farm, I chopped wood in the winter, gardened every summer,” Mulgrew said. ‘To me, this is luxury, I’m not in an office building. This is my dream.” 

Mulgrew always wanted to own her own business, and grew up in a family full of crafters — her father was a carpenter, her sister works with stained glass — and appreciates that she gets to have a place to go every day.

“This gives us a reason to leave the house and have something to do,” Mulgrew said. “I don’t plan on retiring any time soon.” 

The shop is entirely based in its brick-and-mortar shop, but shipping can be coordinated by phone. With visitors to San Francisco, Mulgrew said plenty of people come to the store on a whim and end up ordering from across the country because they know Cottage Yarns’ selection.

“They want to take care of small business, just like we do when we go out and eat, we try to find the mom-and-pop stores,” Mulgrew said. 

Keeping the business in person entices people to come in, ask questions and build a community, Mulgrew said.

“We try to keep it small, quaint,” Mulgrew said. “I never wanted to move, even if we had the option to go to a larger place, I think it would be too commercial, and I like the quaintness.” 

Mulgrew’s husband Leon now joins her each day and helps customers, though he admits his knowledge on yarn is nowhere near as much as his wife’s. 

“I know a few dozen yarns maybe, at most, but I’m kind of getting the hang of it — inventory here is a nightmare,” Leon Mulgrew joked.

After Mulgrew obtained the lease, she and her husband redid all the lighting, shelving and exterior touchups themselves, an ethos that runs through both their business and how it is run. 

Since the pandemic, and even more recently, Mulgrew has noticed an increase in young people getting interested in the crafty practices. 

“Even 9, 10-year-old kids, they make crocheted animals for their buddies,” she said. 

To get any materials you could possibly imagine, the shop is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and is located at 607 W. Orange Ave. 

Though Mulgrew does not offer her own classes, she always recommends anyone who asks to check out the South San Francisco Public Library which offers courses Thursday evenings for beginners. Those looking for a place to knit or ask questions can also visit the library every other Saturday morning.  

Although crocheting or knitting may begin as a solitary practice to clear one’s mind, Mulgrew said when it expands to a community-building experience. Customers often enter the shop in groups, coming from their common workplace or neighborhood to get ready to craft their projects together. 

From friends meeting up in a coffee shop weekly to “stitch and bitch” sessions, Mulgrew said seeing the bonds formed around yarn brings her joy. 

“I love seeing that kind of community, because that’s going away,” Mulgrew said. “What I really like about knitting and crochet, you can meet in groups, you can visit or you can chat.” 

ana@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106