We had the good fortune of connecting with Cassandra Allen – Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cassandra, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
What a great question!

Looking back, when I started years ago, I really did not think of it as pursuing an artistic or creative career. I am a retired litigation paralegal. I worked for trial lawyers for 33 years and then before retiring, I opened brick and mortar.   Prior to my retiring I was obsessed with yarn! Lol! I just couldn’t get enough of fiber arts! Just the idea of having a skein or hank of yarn, and being able to turn it into a fabric, garment is simply mind-blowing to me.

In the beginning, I literally was pursuing what I loved. I had been diagnosed with lupus. And when I began to pick up my hook and yarn again after having not crocheted since I was in high school, I just couldn’t put it down! The joy and peace of mind was very beneficial in my recovery.  No more trial deadlines!  I absolutely love creating, and when I look back, I have always been an artistic person. I loved to make things, I enjoyed scrapbooking, and putting gifts and things together for people as presents. The packaging within itself was a gift just by itself. I love to make things look pretty!

What should our readers know about your business?
Yarn Shoppe Denver is comprised of a few different categories. The first one is simply the name yarn shop. We sell local hand dyed and handspun yarns by indie dyers like me, as well as some fabulous, manufactured yarns. The emphasis here is to introduce the indie dyers including myself to the world. Because of the location being in the central business district of downtown Denver Colorado, we receive a lot of international knit and crochet travelers who are great customers and they love yarn.  We are a travel destination for them.

The second category for my business is classes. We specialize in knit, crochet, and pattern reading classes as well as special projects. Our customers who sign up for classes are mostly adults, coworkers, best friends, mother and daughter, as well as children.

The third category would be our travel concierge department we are the official travel concierge for knit and crochet experiences in multiple cities including downtown Denver Colorado. When you go to our website you can view the locations as well as the pricing. We absolutely enjoy knitting and crocheting out in public. I find it so relaxing to be able to check into one of my favorite hotels get comfortable grab a yarn project, go down to the lobby and just sit and crochet and relax, people watch, and enjoy the vibe and the environment around me. The atmosphere is awesome!  I feel so relaxed and totally confident. I like to pass that along to customers who sign up for travel concierge knit and crochet experiences. We are always in such a rush, rush got to have it yesterday world, and to be able to sit for a Friday or Saturday night staycation or get away to another city, and sit and knit, stay and crochet… priceless. After all, wouldn’t you like someone else to make your dinner, clean up the dishes, have your room completely clean, and just relax? It works for me!

Often, customers ask me how did I get to the point where I have my own yarn shop? I must say that I am finally an author.  I just finished penning my first book!  OMG excited!  This is for those who are passionate about their craft, skill and knowledge in a specific discipline, and is a really good resource to learn how to create their first brick and mortar business.

In the beginning, I guess I never really intentionally planned it, to be honest. I just hosted a large fiber arts event. I invited a lot of people, advertised it in local papers, and people showed up! It was huge! Women came in with projects that they were working on, they sat down and were able to sit and knit and visit with each other and crochet. I had vendors who were all about selling their handcrafted designs.  We had a blast! After that time, the general manager of the mall was so impressed she asked me did I want to have my own yarn shop? Wow. I had not thought about that. So today here I am. I’m not in that mall any longer but I am in downtown Denver. I’m absolutely loving it! And so do my customers. I can’t begin to tell you how many of them look at me Square in the face and say to me “Thank you for being here.”

Then of course, I always thank them for their business. Because if we’re not for their business, I would not be here! Has the road been easy? The majority of the time, I would say pretty smooth. But there have been some major challenges, the biggest one of course was the Covid Pandemic. I would come downtown and there was nobody down here. It would be me and a few homeless people and some guy jogging down 16th Street Mall!  Also during that time, there was the George Floyd protest, and there was a lot of destruction to downtown. It was a very difficult time to get through. For all of us. The parking meters were completely full of parked cars because the city turned off the meters. However, there were No people. Folks who lived downtown in apartments and condos, I guess discontinued paying for their monthly parking and just parked their car on the street at a meter because they could leave it there for several weeks. It was a very long time. I felt like I was in a Will Smith movie. Eventually, there was an article in 303 Magazine, as well as the Denver Post Newspaper about black owned businesses in downtown Denver and of course there I was. That helped with my online store. After that, slowly but surely more people started coming to downtown as far as the employers and their employees working in the high-rise buildings. The Colorado Convention Center began having scheduled conventions, hotels began having more guests checking in, and meetings and conferences. However, it is still Not 100%. But I’m happy and thrilled to be back!

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned during my time as a small business owner, is that you really have to think outside of your box. And you literally cannot listen to the negative people! I never will forget watching a presentation that SCORE had of a business consultant.  He was telling all of us small business owners what we needed to do to keep our businesses afloat and our doors open. I will never forget it. He said that shopping in brick and mortars and retail stores was over. Shopping was only going to be online. When he said that, I knew he was completely wrong. Sometimes you have to just sit and wait. We live in a world of people who enjoy connecting with other people. So, of course people want to get back out and connect with other people, go to the grocery store, the shopping mall, movie theaters, go to retail brick and mortar stores and shop. You have to learn to have patience, have really good discernment skills, and you need to allow God to order your steps. That is the biggest thing right there.  Faith.

The biggest thing for me that is super important as a small business owner, is for consumers to kind of step out of their box meaning, instead of going to all of the big box retail stores on a regular basis, spend some of your time, energy, effort and money in a locally owned small business. You will receive much better customer service, and over here, we will treat you like family because we believe in hospitality. And you may learn a few things that you didn’t know before. All of which, will enhance the quality of your life. Yarn Shoppe Denver is all about great guest experiences. When you read my Google reviews, they are about the experiences, how the customer felt when they were here.  How we made them feel, while they were here. That is truly important to me personally. I want you to have an experience that you normally do not have anywhere else while yarn shopping. And I believe at the end of the day that’s what makes us stand out from others.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’ve already been here and done that! For me a great time for myself and a best friend to hang out would be to hop on a plane and go to Vegas! Girl’s trip! Most people think of Vegas as crazy busy, chaos. I am all about memberships, and my memberships allow me to enjoy VIP levels that normally you would not have.  To be able to enjoy your environment in relaxing surroundings and just people watch is wonderful. To be able to have the experience of the specific hotels, restaurants, shows, and fabulous resort life along with my yarn and crochet hook, is just a phenomenal experience. I see Vegas differently than most people see it. And the last time I went with one of my best friends to Vegas not too long ago, she said “Thank you for showing me Vegas like I’ve never seen it before.”

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The biggest shout out goes to my Faith, and God to continue to order my steps. The next big shout out definitely goes to my family! My wonderful husband, DeForest, and our amazing kiddos, Gabriel and Taylor. They have been such a tremendous help along the way and have put in a lot of their own personal time, energy, and effort helping me to look absolutely great! I literally could not have done it without them.

To my wonderful customers and followers:  Stay tuned, I am just getting started.  CAB

Cheers!

Website: https://www.yarnshoppedenver.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yarnshoppe_denver

Other: Google Business: Yarn Shoppe Denver (720) 473-2598 https://maps.app.goo.gl/6aqzh3rfTKZyoZdX7

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.