Lisa Whitfield opened her yarn shop to bring people together.
For Ewe, on the second floor of 181 W. College St. in Oberlin, provides a unique space for knitters and other crafters to work on their creations and also offers items from small dyers and underrepresented groups.
“I wanted to open a shop in a particular kind of way that hadn’t been done before,” Whitfield said, noting that her April 2022 opening occurred almost exactly 10 years after her father’s death. “I treat all customers with the same enthusiasm.
“No one ever comes here and feels weird.”
Whitfield made it her mission to create an inclusive shop after hearing stories from crafters of color who were treated indifferently or even suspiciously in other yarn shops.
Steps such as not offering a warm greeting, assuming a Black shopper would not buy anything or only showing the cheapest selections solidified her belief that another option was needed.
Whitfield said her drop-in craft groups include seniors from rural Medina, LGBTQ students from Oberlin College and everyone in between.
“I have all kinds of folks, and we let the knitting and crocheting bring people together,” she said.
A professional viola player, Whitfield grew up in Philadelphia where her grandmother was a talented seamstress.
Although her grandmother taught her to crochet at a very young age, it was a chance encounter on a bus and, later, the loss of her mother that wove knitting firmly into Whitfield’s life.
While riding a bus home from the sixth-grade, Whitfield sat next to a lady who was knitting.
Noticing Whitfield’s fascination, the lady pulled out some spare needles and scrap yarn and provided a first lesson.
Whitfield never knew her name or saw her again.
“This lady and I had never met, and she changed my life,” Whitfield said.
After knitting off and on while living in New York City for many years, Whitfield took up her needles again while sitting with her dying mother.
“I was knitting at my mother’s beside when she passed away, and it really stuck this time,” she said, noting that after a year, she had completed 52 separate projects. “I didn’t really pay attention to the fact that I was grieving, so I went back to knitting.
“It was sort of the sunlight in this dark time for me.”
Whitfield and her husband, John Congdon, an Oberlin College graduate, moved to Oberlin in 2008 when he began working for the college.
After the year of projects in 2017, Whitfield began to pay more attention to the crafting community and the more she learned, the more she realized the community needed For Ewe.
“There are lots of ways people of color are not seen,” she said, noting she strives to include yarns, patterns and other products created by people of color or queer designers. “I wanted those folks to come in and see themselves represented on the wall.
“It’s important to me that we be seen as part of the thriving community. It’s important to a lot of people.”
Since crafting helped her through the loss of her mother, Whitfield offers a regular Crafting Through Grief and Loss group via the Zoom platform.
All are welcome regardless of what they are grieving or what they are crafting.
Whitfield also offers classes, lessons, emergency help and appointments with “fiber doctors” — experts who can untangle works in progress that have gone awry.
For Ewe will participate in the Heartland Yarn Adventure beginning July 28.
The 10-day, four-state yarn crawl includes 68 shops.
In September, the shop will be part of the Northeast Ohio Yarn Discovery Tour.
“I’m excited about the potential to get on the radar,” Whitfield said. “Buying yarn and making things with yarn are two different hobbies. I like both kinds of people.”
For more information on the upcoming yarn crawl, classes and more, visit www.for-ewe.com.
