Asheville – October was mostly warm and sunny, but winter and the holiday shopping season are just around the corner. It’s about that time for customers to purchase new hats, scarves, and gloves, or maybe get some knitting supplies to make a special Christmastime gift for a loved one.
One shop folks may wish to check out is Asheville NC Home Crafts. Co-owned by proprietors Marie Hendrix and Judy Quinn, it specializes in yarns and fibers. Their website states, “We offer specialty yarns made from wool, angora, alpaca, mohair, and llama from locally sourced animal fibers.” The yarns come in a wide variety of unusual colors and textures, too.
In addition to yarn, the store sells natural and dyed roving, knitting needles, crochet hooks, and DIY craft kits. Then, there are the ready-made items like toboggans, sweaters, and children’s clothing. Some of the shawls have a crafty look, like something Mamaw might make; others look like they went straight from a precision industrial loom to an upscale boutique.
But they didn’t. Most items in the store come from animals raised by farmers in the Asheville area. The finished products are also handmade principally by local mountain crafters. Hendrix has over 50 artisans who provide her with handmade products to stock her store. “This usually isn’t their main source of income, but it definitely puts gravy on their potatoes.”
Unique gift ideas abound on the shelves, like super-comfortable, hand-painted bamboo socks. The “west wing” of their craft shop opened up a few years ago as the Asheville Hat Store, where Hendrix says, “You can find any style of hat that suits your mood or occasion.”
Hendrix said it warms her heart each time she sees a customer drop in her store. She said most of them come in looking for unique items with a local flavor. She loves sharing and interacting, while customers pretty much guide their own discovery. She maintains, “Our customers are the heartbeat of our business.”
Located in the historic Grove Arcade building downtown, Asheville NC Home Crafts has just entered what is normally their busiest season of the year. Unfortunately, foot traffic has been down considerably since, as Hendrix put it, “Hurricane Helene unleashed her devastation on so many Appalachians in our mountain communities.” She said it feels like customer volume is down by about 95%.
She recalls that as soon as internet service returned after the storm, she and others from the store were building up their website and social media accounts, posting information online about all their products, and trying to direct traffic to the virtual store. They wanted people to know they were open for business and that they could ship any purchases.
Hendrix has several women who spin yarn for her. She said sitting at the spinning wheel during the hurricane “was their therapy. ”When no one had electricity or even information about how long the outages were going to last, “they sat at their spinning wheel and spun their worries into yarn.”
She reflected a bit about how surreal the whole disaster had been. It was devastating, and yet it brought out the best in people. She has been humbled and amazed at “the thread of humanity and help that has been shown to us from people all over the United States, who are reaching out to help us here in the mountains of WNC.”
Soon, her business was being the beneficiary of random acts of kindness. She tried to describe the mixed feelings of experiencing the devastation of business losses and then sharing unspeakable gratitude when, for example, one of her suppliers donated hats that she could sell to give her business a boost. “It’s stories like that that show the true spirit and resiliency of the Appalachian people,” she said.
“With the power back on, the downtown roads and parking cleared, and the restrooms open,” Hendrix says the only thing that appears to be missing now are the customers. “We went into this business 22 years ago because we like people,” she said. She spoke a lot about “trying to find normal again” after the hurricane, and interacting with people face-to-face was a “missing part of our recovery.”
In a couple weeks, the Grove Arcade is going to be decorated for Christmas. The architecture of the building combined with expert holiday light displays has for years been first-rate in elegance and classic charm. Hendrix says, “It’s sure to make your local Christmas shopping experience a most wonderful time of year.”