About Us

Hi! I'm Nicole!

I founded Black Sheep Craft Shop in 2025 as a passion project during a particularly difficult part of my "day job" career as a lawyer and compliance professional.  A knitter for over a decade, I dabble with crochet, embroidery, cross-stitch, and other fiber arts as well. In recent years I'd recognized symptoms of ADHD and burnout in myself and was spending what little spare time I had doom scrolling. I had self-cared my way out of community, and needed something in my life that was just me -- not connected to my career or to being a caregiver. 

While opening the shop, I had plenty of opportunities to articulate what was calling me toward this project. I've always felt a deep emotional connection to ways craft connects us all -- in both space and time. Fiber arts have deep roots in every culture and nearly every family tree. It's often passed down by our elders (often but not always women) and at many points in history it's been one of the limited pathways for women to imbue art into the otherwise very practical obligations of their days. It's also been a form of activism and resistance. In today's fast fashion and digital economy, it's a political and economic statement to make something by hand. 

While community is a big piece of what I try to share at the shop, the products I offer are carefully curated to offer beauty, whimsy, and a good dose of snark and humanity. Most of the yarns I source are natural fibers and not superwash-treated because they are sustainable and their characteristics are true to the fiber they're made with (often wool). I have also sought out some quality vegan yarns for anyone who cannot or does not wish to use animal fibers, and do have a small selection of yarns that are superwash wool or that contain synthetic fibers, as every fiber has its place and value. I'm not big and I don't carry every type of yarn you might want, but I'm proud of what I do offer and happy to share information about what could be best for your next project, even if that means sending you to another local yarn shop that may have what you need when I don't!