Local Love: Yarn Kandy

Yarn Kandy, located in Little Rock

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS -- At the end of March 2020, when people still believed that the pandemic would be over soon and had grand plans for everything they could accomplish while being stuck at home, some turned naturally to knitting. And while Kandy White initially started doing a daily Facebook live, sharing a few pattern ideas and putting together yarn combinations, as a way to stay connected with her customers, it's now become a part of her routine.

"People used to feed off of what other people were doing at the table," says Kandy White, who's owned Yarn Kandy for 5 years. "The table" sits in the middle of the shop, surrounded enticingly by cubbies of colorful yarn and chairs usually filled with happy crafters, discussing their projects and life in general. Now the chairs are draped with samples from this morning's Live and the table is buried under yarn from the pairings Kandy has put together to recommend to her customers. She photographs the kits and shares them on her Facebook page, also setting aside new yarn to photograph so that she can add it to her new website. While social knitting is temporarily suspended, I'm definitely among those who have come in for a new project based on the kits she's shared.

Her enthusiasm, beautiful color pairings, and commitment to keeping her wares available to her customers have kept the business afloat, and she says she'll be keeping the website and the Live videos, although the pandemic has forced her to do all the things she never wanted to do. In store sales have overall continued to exceed online ones, a couple of customers coming in while I was there to choose a specific color in person. Mr Beasley, the shop yorkie, greets them with a wag of his tail and rolls over for a tummy rub. Some things just can't be done through a screen.

You can find Yarn Kandy at

Pavilion in the Park

8201 Cantrell Rd Suite 120

Little Rock AR 72227

shop online

and follow her uplifting posts

on Facebook and Instagram

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