Children of the ’80s and ’90s may recall obsessing over Guess jeans and all things Benetton, and rolling their eyes at the hand-knit sweaters their grandmas sent for their birthdays. It turns out those grandmas were cooler than we knew.
Lately, the backlash against fast-fashion and the quest for authenticity have brought the fiber arts—hobbies such as knitting, quilting, crochet and embroidery—roaring back into the mainstream. Celebrities from Demi Lovato to Ryan Gosling have reportedly taken up knitting to relax, and countless others have picked up some form of needle and thread to stave off anxiety.
The homespun aesthetic has become runway fashionable, too. There are knitting cruises sponsored by Vogue. Ravelry, a web community for knitters and fiber artists, claims to have more than 9 million registered users. During the most recent election cycle, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s fashion-designer daughter, Ella Emhoff, a prolific knitter, gained prominence as an icon of “weird girl style.”
All of this is welcome news for Carissa Englert, owner of TINT Makerspace in Falls Church. A former research analyst with a background in psychology and sociology, she opened her colorful fiber arts studio on West Broad Street in 2019—in part, to give yarn and textile aficionados a place to play.
Yes, the shop sells boutique fabrics and quality yarns (including mohair from Italy and merino wool from Uruguay), but much of its traffic is locals stopping in on evenings or weekends to learn the art of, say, Japanese sashiko stitching, punch needle rug hooking or visible mending. Englert teaches some classes herself and brings in outside instructors for others.
The clientele isn’t just retired folk. “I have young guys coming into the shop who have seen tutorials on YouTube or TikTok,” she says. “They’re sewing shirts. They want to embellish something they thrifted or make a cosplay costume.”
Though TINT’s workshop offerings do include basics such as Knitting 101, Englert says her mission isn’t simply to teach a skill. It’s to help creative people discover their own style.
“As a kid, I wanted to be an artist, but I can’t paint or draw,” she says. “I love color. I would steal little pieces of tissue paper from the art room in elementary school. But I didn’t go to art school, so for a while I thought I couldn’t consider myself an artist. We all choose different mediums.”
Personally, her preferred aesthetic isn’t overly precious. She’s partial to raw edges, big-stitch quilting and “left of center” tertiary colors. “I dislike doing anything exactly by the pattern,” she says. “I recently found this iridescent metallic rainbow sweatshirt material and made a corset top with exposed seams, so it looks like a shearling jacket.”
That’s definitely not something you’re likely to find at the mall—although you may well spy a young person in the food court knitting their own version of bespoke happiness.