String Thing Studio
“It’s a long, winding road,” says Felicia Eve, owner of String Thing Studio, when asked how she came to own a yarn store-slash-knitting and crochet workshop in Park Slope. She started her career as a podiatrist, splitting her private practice between Buffalo, N.Y. and Washington, D.C. for 12 years, before her husband’s job moved them to Brooklyn with their three young children. Felicia has since worked as a stay-at-home mom who ruled her Park Slope PTA; a director of development for Alicia Keys’ Keep a Child Alive, traveling to sites in Uganda and South Africa; and a fundraiser for several other nonprofits.
Then, a few years ago, her mother passed away. “It was a shock,” Felicia says. “She was only 64. And her thing was, ‘Be happy. If you can make a buck from doing something you enjoy, then do it.’”
A lifelong knitter (taught by her great-grandmother), Felicia had always been nagged by a persistent thought when visiting yarn shops: “What are they doing really well? And what would I do differently if I opened a shop?” Jolted by her loss, she put the latter question to rest, opening String Thing Studio in June of 2017.
A yarn shop may seem like an unconventional place to party, but once you’ve experienced the social atmosphere of String Thing Studio — which hosts an open, BYOB knitting and crochet party in its backyard every Friday from 5 to 8ish — it all makes sense. Felicia is like your cool, fun aunt you kiki with over a bottle of wine. Her staff and cultivated community are just as bubbly.
“I love to entertain; I love people,” she says of String Thing’s mood. “You shouldn’t feel intimidated like you have to come in here already well-versed. You’ll want to come and hang out and learn.” There’s definitely a class for you, from Crochet 101, to Advanced Knitting, to classes for kids, to individualized instruction that meets you where you are.
“What are they doing really well? And what would I do differently if I opened a shop?”
Or, you can just lose yourself in the shop’s plentiful yarn and crafting supplies. “I’m a confessed and professed yarn snob,” says Felicia, followed by an uproarious cackle. While she prefers more luxurious fibers — such as cashmere, angora and alpaca, several provided by Brooklyn indie buyers and dyers — she also offers an extensive collection of tactile cotton and refurbished yarn. “I had to find cotton that didn’t feel like rope, and I did!” she says.
Felicia’s shelves are packed with vivid options, ranging from $5 to $86. As for the benefits of knitting and crochet, she says: “It’s very therapeutic — most knitters you talk to will share that sentiment. And it’s a great unifier. You see people on the train, on the way to work, knitting. You pull out your yarn, and there's this kinship like, ‘I see you!’”
54 7th Avenue, 929-337-6130, stringthingstudio.com
