An older business in uptown Mount Vernon has a new name and new owners. Gretchen Lindenboldt and Wendy Dorn-Recalde have taken over Ben and Flo’s yarn shop, renaming it Wren and Purl.
The duo hopes to keep the amazing selections of yarn and fibers for crafters , among other products. They took over the shop at the end of May and officially opened their doors in mid-June.
Lindenboldt said the first month has been looking through their entire inventory of fabrics and yarns inherited, and organizing the different spaces of the shop into the rooms they want to use.
Dorn-Recalde said when her husband was looking to move the family to Mount Vernon after getting a job at Cornell College, one of the things that made her excited was that Ben and Flo’s yarn shop was right in the uptown.
“I could just see myself shopping here,” Dorn-Recalde said.
Dorn-Recalde said she is a experienced weaver, and had wanted to potentially raise sheep to harvest her own wool.
“I don’t have any sheep of my own, but I now have yarns that are made from lambs and alpacas, so that’s enough for me now,” Dorn-Recalde said.
Lindenboldt said when former owner Marty Mitchell was looking to retire, she started looking into owning the business and keeping the shop going.
The yarn store is one of the only full service yarn shops in Linn, Cedar, Jones and several surrounding counties.
The duo have begun work on an online shop to help cater to customers, offering to ship many of their yarns wherever they may be found.
The duo are also excited about the community this yarn shop will build. The shop holds crafting happy hours every Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. It’s a bring-your-own-beverage-and-craft-project affair, and looks to help build that community of crafters.
The shop also has a free yarn library, which collects small bits of yarn people have left from previous projects that others can pick up to use for their own future projects, on top of yarns from local and other vendors.
This fall, the shop will also start classes for beginning knitters and beginning crocheters. Dorn-Recalde has almost completed her qualification to be a crochet master crafts, and Lindenboldt is in the second year of a three year process of to become a knitting master. Combined, the duo has more than 60 years of knitting experience.
“I’ve been crocheting since I was 5, but I didn’t start out great at that hobby,” Dorn-Recalde said. “I attended a private high school and worked at the front desk for periods there in the winter, so crocheting was something I frequently did to help keep my hands warm whenever doors were opened.”
Wren and Purl is open Wednesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Their website is wrenandpurl.com, with an online store option coming soon.