The Store

In 1994 Lori Nowochin opened up The Crafty Lady in the basement of her parents' hardware store. "I've always wanted that name," Lori said. "People tried to talk me out of it. They said it was boring, or that it wasn't politically correct. Yet they have a hardware store where the jingle is 'home of the handyman'."

In the beginning The Crafty Lady carried a little bit of everything. Pom-poms, felt, styrofoam balls, and paper mache forms filled the store. She specialized in nothing and had just a small selection of yarn.

But like us all The Crafty Lady evolved as crafting needs changed. When decorating with wood became popular, she carried wood products and tole painting supplies, and when needlework became the rage she bumped up the cross stitch supplies.

In 2000 The Crafty Lady moved out of the basement and into the light. Her parents owned the building behind the store, but after careful consideration it was decided that it was unusable. They tore it down and built one that fits right into the city scene. You can't tell that it isn't as old as the other heritage buildings in the downtown core. An apartment was created above the shop and Lori lives above her business.The commute to work is very short.

Crafts go in and out of fashion and Lori has been able to keep up with the changes. When she first moved to her new location she carried, only about 25% wool, 25% art supplies (tole painting was huge), and the rest were basic craft supplies.

This is how wide the store is.

And this is how deep it is.

Now, fifteen years later, tole painting isn't popular anymore, the dollar stores carry the basic craft supplies, and Lori has become an expert knitter and a knit wear designer.

We have been known to lose our heads.

At the age of 21, The Crafty Lady is more focused on doing one thing very well while still supplying some basics in a handful of other crafts. Now the focus in on yarn for knitters, crocheters and weavers. We also carry basic needlework, beading, quilling and pergamano supplies as well as a few things like felt, glue and elastic for bracelets.

Beads! Beads! Beads! And this is
just the packaged ones.

A cozy place for our knitters night. You'll
also see Lori here designing new
creations. Margaret and Anna hang
out here too.

A full line of DMC embroidery floss.
This is not the floss for your teeth.

So what has Lori planned for the future? Who knows, but it will be awfully hard to tear her away from knitting now. She is  a knitting machine! She is planning to open up an online store this year, so stay tuned on that.

Rowan. Rowan. Rowan on the river.
Oh stop groaning. I couldn't help
myself.

By the way, we don't carry knitting machines. We like doing things the old fashioned way around here.

Dishcloths! Of course we have dishcloth
yarn.  Hey, if you have to wash dishes
by hand, you should do it in style.

We welcome customers from all over. We even have a regular customer from Ireland. Now there's a commute to go shopping.

Babies deserve the best. 

 Located halfway between  Calgary and Edmonton, we are in a perfect location for those  road trips - we love road trip  ladies!

Knitters Pride and Knit Picks needles.

And more knitting needles.

 This is one place you have to  see. So come on down, or up, or sideways, depending where you live and say hi.

    

Ewenice!  

The staff here love our jobs and it shows.

Posted by Anna Maria Junus (happy employee who thinks this store is pretty awesome.)