At yarn boutique in downtown Lee’s Summit, knitters ‘nurture and sustain one another’

Tammy Garrison gave up practicing law in the 1990s after the birth of her children, but she found herself looking for a way to alleviate anxiety and fit in a bit of time for herself.

“I found a how-to-knit video from Walmart,” said the former attorney. “When the kids were napping, I would turn on the video and sit for an hour in my basement and play, rewind, play, rewind.”

That passion for knitting led Garrison to open a small business in Lee’s Summit six years ago. Since then, her downtown luxury yarn boutique has steadily grown by focusing on unique products, as well as connection and community, at Unwind Fiber Arts.

Garrison, who describes herself as having a Type A personality, said she decided to ignore her perfectionist side while knitting and allow herself to make mistake after mistake as she learned this new skill.

“It was so liberating,” she said. “Something at some point just clicked, and I fell in love with it. The more you knit, the deeper down the rabbit hole you go. You start buying really nice specialty yarn at fiber festivals or you go on vacation and you swing by the local yarn shop.”

As a knitter, Garrison realized she couldn’t always find the type of yarn she wanted to work with in the Kansas City area, and decided that a yarn boutique could be a good fit for Lee’s Summit.

The store has been at the same location, 207 SE Third St., since its opening, although it has expanded in square feet over the years. Initially Unwind Fiber Arts was also strictly a brick-and-mortar store without a web presence.

Garrison shared that she had planned to offer an online purchase site, and her goal was fast-tracked due to the 2020 pandemic shutdown. Now the website accounts for around 25% of Unwind’s sales, while also developing an international community of knitters.

Within the store, the boutique owner has worked to create a cozy, relaxing atmosphere that includes a large table where crafters can socialize, knit and crochet together. The table — which can seat up 25 people — has also resulted in a number of strong friendships.

“The thing that has surprised me more than anything and has been such a big part of Unwind is the community that has developed around the shop,” she said. “I know that there are people who are good friends with one another who did not know one another before the shop opened.”

Although running a business has its own ongoing challenges, Garrison said these interactions keep her going.

“Seeing how they connect and how they nurture and sustain one another — it makes it feel more like a mission than a job,” she said. “And that’s the thing that sustains me.”

During the pandemic shutdown, Unwind launched virtual social times for knitters and crocheters, later moving to the parks and eventually back to the store when businesses reopened.

“We were still able to build and maintain community during that super challenging time,” Garrison said. “There have been multiple studies that talk about how knitting and crochet help alleviate stress and anxiety. Having that repetitive motion with your hands, it connects with your brain, not unlike a rosary, that tactile feeling of doing the same thing again and again just takes the brain waves down.”

Now Unwind offers social opportunities several times a week at the store including Social Spinning on Mondays, Crafternoons on Tuesdays, Knit Night Happy Hour on Thursdays and Coffee and Craft on Sundays.

“People are invited to gather at the table and bring their stuff,” she said, “plus the table’s always available when the store is open. If someone wants to walk in and sit down and start knitting or crocheting, we have people do that all the time.”

Unwind also offers classes, including intros in knitting, crochet and spinning and next-level classes focusing on topics such as sweater basics and leveling up your skills.

Through its e-commerce site, Unwind has connected with knitting and crochet enthusiasts throughout the world and is enhancing this reach by offering retreats. Garrison recently hosted a multi-day retreat, held in downtown Kansas City, featuring eight presenters, a vendor marketplace and social making time. Around 150 people from throughout the United States attended the retreat. Garrison is planning a similar event in 2026.

“There’s so much creative inspiration that comes out of the retreats, and my goal was not just that the attendees would feel inspired and learn something new and take their making to another level, I wanted the presenters and the vendors to feel the same way and find connection and inspiration.”

The local boutique’s shelves include an assortment of knitting supplies, unique yarns such as yak and alpaca along with breed-specific sheep yarns and plant-based fibers.

“We specialize in hand-dyed and luxury yarn that is almost all produced by small businesses and almost all of those businesses are women-owned,” she said.

Known as indie dyers, these companies deal in smaller quantities — often from a specific breed of sheep — and use higher quality bases.

“They create their own recipes for the colors they want and the color combos,” Garrison said. “It’s like one part science, one part math and two parts magic.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.