Who we are

Custom Design Studio

Lindsey opened Yarnia, Portland’s only DIY yarn shop, in February of 2008. Originally inspired by her favorite yarn shop in Montreal, where she lived from 2002 through 2006, she returned to the West Coast where she researched like crazy, designed spreadsheets galore, found a cozy little spot tucked away under the stairs on a soon-to-be-booming stretch of Division Street, and started her own version of the “make-your-own-yarn-store” that she fell in love with in college, just four days before her 26th birthday. After eight years of fervent knitting, she decided to open this one-of-a-kind yarn shop in Southeast Portland, as a creative and affordable way for knitters and crocheters alike to achieve exactly the yarn they want for a project.

She is also the proud co-organizer of the Urban Craft Uprising, Seattle’s largest indie craft show, eleven years strong. If you’ve never been to one of these amazing biannual Uprisings, you absolutely must come up to Seattle for the next show (always the first weekend in December, and the last weekend in June), and check it out!

The fusion of crafting, getting to work with creative people, and getting to run not one but two unique local businesses is pretty much all she could ask for. Living in Portland, she spends her free time biking, thrift shopping, crocheting, running in the rain, enjoying local microbrews with friends, camping, trying to keep up on her food blog, experimenting with fermentation in all its forms, knitting, and taking a minute to appreciate a really good cup of coffee.