Yarn store, Peninsula Flock Knits, opens in Burlingame

McNamara is owner Helen Leung’s husband. It’s Leung’s passion for knitting and unique, high-quality yarn that made Peninsula Flock Knits a reality.

People of all kinds have visited the store since it opened, but Leung said she’s particularly inspired by the influx of young, female knitters who are confident about their projects and interested in creating a larger knitting community.

The store has plans for creating intentional community spaces, including upcoming classes for beginners, trunk shows and summer knit-along projects to help facilitate just that.

“People wanted to come in and they liked what they saw, and they could come and knit together,” she said. “I’m really surprised — but not really — about the young knitters. Really young knitters.”

Leung’s interest in opening a yarn store was facilitated by family travels across Europe, where she and McNamara encountered high-quality, unique yarn producers from France, England, Scotland and beyond. Now, the store is introducing Bay Area customers to these unique skeins, and is one of the only sellers in the United States to do so.

“The farm-to-needle is really just inspirational, and it’s just a matter of touch, and how they have produced it, how they did the colors,” Leung said.

One producer, Wild Rose Farms, even includes the names of the sheep the wool comes from, she said.

“I feel like you know the sheep because you’re knitting with their fibers,” Leung said. “I think it’s really kind of a crazy obsession — but people just fall in love with the fact that they know where their source is from.”

For Leung, all knitting projects — from scarves to tank tops, henleys to sweaters — are a way to embrace community and learning a new skill together.

“What you love about knitting is the social part of it, the collaborative part of it, where people [are] being together and working on things together and sharing ideas and helping each other,” McNamara said to his wife.