Crazy Girl Yarn Shop in Coralville opens doors for customers’ night out

Posted on Oct 20, 2009 by David DeWitte.

A bottle of Riesling wine sits on a table as women knit and talk during a knit-n-wine event at the Crazy Girl Yarn Shop on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009, in Coralville. The event, where knitters are encouraged to bring in wine or other beverage and talk to other knitters, is held Thursday nights from 6pm to 9pm. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Knit-n-Wine night at the Crazy Girl Yarn Shop in Coralville is when the knitters and crocheters let their hair down.

“We encourage them to bring a designated driver, and a designated knitter,” quipped Leslie Adrian, who opened the store in Coralville’s Clock Tower Square two years ago.

It’s not uncommon to see more than a dozen customers tote in bags of knitting along with bottles of wine, Thermoses of coffee or even a coolers of cold beer. They pull up a chair around a long coffee table, and join in the conversation.

“They love when new people come,” Adrian said. “When somebody new walks in the door, they want to know what they’re making and if they need any help.

“I don’t even have to do anything. They have kind of a sense of ownership, almost like this is their store, not mine.”

The social nature of knitting has become a key ingredient in the chemistry of Adrian’s three Crazy Girl Yarn Shops. Customers are invited to bring their knitting to the store, hang out and ask questions of the store’s expert staff. Pattern-making software allows the store to create custom patterns for customers, based on the size and features they want in their finished project.

A 42-inch TV monitor overhead displays views of customers with their knitting projects, further strengthening the bond between Crazy Girl and its customers.

Customers knit everything from lingerie to stuffed animals, Adrian said. Knit socks are enjoying strong popularity as are knit handbags that have been felted, essentially shrunken to tighten the knit fabric.

Adrian knows a bit about chemistry. She was a chemical engineer before opening her first yarn shop six years ago in Muscatine. The work left little time or energy for family, so she decided to open a downtown yarn shop when knitting seemed to be enjoying a renaissance.

The shop has a knitting area with a large coffee table and plenty of chairs. It is close by a coffee shop and a candy shop. Knitters can grab a coffee and a snack, drop in and work on their projects.

Customers sometimes assume the name Crazy Girl applied to Adrian. She denies it.

“I chose the name because I wanted to give this a feel that this wasn’t a lonely lady craft shop,” she said.

Adrian employs only expert knitters who like to be around people. They are available to advise any customer who walks through the door on knitting techniques, even if the customer doesn’t sign up for one of the store’s classes.

The formula worked so well that Adrian opened her second store in Coralville in February 2007, and a store in Cedar Falls, where she lives, last December.

The married mother of six spends part of the week in Cedar Falls, part in Coralville. The Muscatine store requires only infrequent visits.

The stores sell only high-quality yarns, the type not usually sold in discount stores, craft stores and fabric stores. Prices range all the way up to $57 for a single skein. The most popular yarn, Cascade 220, is pure merino wool sold in more than 200 colors.

The stores sell hundreds of stock keeping units of yarn, but so many yarns are available that it’s always a challenge to meet every need.

Adrian is working to build up her online business, which will let customers order products shipped to them, or allow them to pick up orders at their local store. She is also testing sales of Iowa-produced wines at her shop in Cedar Falls.

Adrian has been asked to open stores in Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities.

“I never say never,” Adrian said. “I didn’t plan to have three. When an opportunity for improvement comes up, I take it.”