On a fall morning, Jean Sullivan of Nantucket marched urgently into Newbury Yarns. “Have you heard? Curt Schilling’s wife is making Red Sox scarves!”
Amidst colorful patchwork shelves of soft pastel kid mohair, rose Jaeger natural fleece, and fluffy dyed blue wool, Newbury Yarns owner Aldrich Robinson patiently showed Sullivan combination after combination of skeins and exotic fibers from far flung locals like New Zealand and Japan to match the legendary baseball team’s colors.
As Sullivan left inspired to recreate the Schilling scarf, Kay Dann of California walked in eager for help in fixing her burgundy bamboo fiber shawl, its stitches tangled while she watched the World Series the night before.
Sports and knitting have always gone hand in hand for Aldrich Robinson, owner of Newbury Yarns, a new high-end specialty knitting shop on stylish Newbury Street. Born in Jamaica, Aldrich moved to England in the 1970s where she raised her two children while taking on part-time work designing and knitting the sweaters for the local cricket team. Emigrating to the U.S. and settling in Dorchester, MA in the 1980s, Aldrich decided her hobby of “making a garment with two sticks and a string,” could be profitable. Yet, the downtrend in the knitting industry and expensive store leases forced Aldrich to postpone her dream of opening a business.
That all changed with the recent industry boom. Celebrity knitters like Julia Roberts and Kathy Lee Gifford led the way with their stylish handmade scarves, conveying to multiple generations that today’s knitting circle is not your grandma’s sewing bee. The handicraft’s repetitive pattern has made it an attractive addition in multiplication lessons for elementary students and a soothing activity in counseling groups. Fiber manufacturers have replaced the meager selection of the 1960s with an abundance of unique novelty fibers of all textures, colors and sizes, meeting the growing demands of Generation Xers who now flock to knitting circles.
Encouraged by the industry upswing and determined to finally transform her love of knitting into a high-end specialty shop, Aldrich turned to the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE) for counsel. During a 6-week business planning course, Aldrich was introduced to CWE’s legal and marketing consultants who reviewed her business plan and legal contracts to help her find the perfect location. On July 3, 2004, six months later, Newbury Yarns opened its doors. “To know the industry is not enough, there’s so much more to business,” says Aldrich. “At CWE I found professional guidance I can go by, it’s like having a big sister.”
Aldrich encourages her Newbury Yarns clientele to partake in a full sensory experience while visiting - from touching and testing the fibers to learning how to make designer wearables in the shop’s evening classes. Knitters often sit at an antique table comparing projects and stitches by the natural light of a large bay window.
The most common conversation? “I get a lot of knitters that are into sports,” says Aldrich, “many customers purchase yarn to stitch just in time for the Red Sox or now the hot seasonal Patriots game.” And for a sports-savvy city, that means a never-ending demand for skeins of red, white, and blue.
Newbury Yarns is located at 164 Newbury Street, Boston, MA. Newbury Yarns can be reached at 617-572-3733 or
On a fall morning, Jean Sullivan of Nantucket marched urgently into Newbury Yarns. “Have you heard? Curt Schilling’s wife is making Red Sox scarves!”
