Like a song that transports you to another moment in time, my heart began spinning on my first visit to one of Opelika’s newest shops on 8th Street, Yarnhouse Studio.
Skeins of yarn loomed like color wheels against a backdrop of shelves, drawers and cubbyholes, visually textured with baskets of wool that were ready for dyeing and spinning, bolts of beautiful, 100 percent cotton fabrics, weaving looms, a gentle breeze of delicate, homespun shawls for sale, instructional books and illustrated collections (the sort of books where every page can seem like a work of art and an invitation for the imagination to come and play), some very unique, framed textile art and displays of all the tools one would ever need for creating and crafting anything from the natural fibers found at Yarnhouse Studio.
Cary Curtiss, owner, along with her mom, Anne Sockwell, brought their love of teaching and working with fiber arts from Austin, Texas. For many years, Anne and her husband, Sam, lived in Birmingham, working and raising their three daughters, Cary being the eldest. The family enjoyed getting to know the Lee County area when Cary attended Auburn University, where she met fellow student, Ashley Curtiss, who later became her husband. (Ashley now teaches chemistry at AU.)