Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lesli Anderson and Ilona Cathalan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi , Lesli and Ilona thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

One day in 2021 Lesli and I were out shopping for clothes (since we’re a mother/daughter team), and she told me that she’d dreamed about having a yarn shop since she was 12 years old. At that time I was trying to figure out how to support myself and my husband without working for a corporation, so I jumped on the idea! We talked for months about what we actually wanted to be. Yarn shop? Makers’ space? Just classes? How are we going to break the mold of yarn shops?
We decided ultimately that we wanted to be a yarn shop that focuses on our community and classes, with retail being a very small portion of what we do. We’ve stuck with that, but we’ve learned since being open that our focus is truly on getting people started in the world of fiber arts!
Frankly, several parts of starting a business fell in our laps. Our location was an easy choice, since Lesli had already spent 25 years in Showcase teaching private piano lessons. Lesli’s husband, being a wood worker, was able to make us all of our tables that we use for classes. My husband had a connection that was able to secure some racks for our product, Lesli had old shelving that she decided to donate to the cause.
The best part of our getting started story, and definitely our most-asked question, is how we got our name! Lesli’s brother was visiting in October of 2021, and we were all discussing what the shop’s name should be. We’d thrown around some dumb ideas, so my uncle jokingly said, “Why not The Ginger Cat?” You see, my husband and I had just rescued the cutest little 3-month-old ginger cat, and aptly named him Ginger. Lesli and I looked at each other and decided that the name was The Ginger Cat, and clearly Ginger would be our official mascot!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Lesli is my mother, so that makes me the daughter of our team! Lesli’s been knitting, sewing, cross stitching, and embroidering since she was 9 or so, and she taught me to knit and cross stitch as soon as I had true enough patience for it, which was probably around ages 9-11. Lesli grew up in a small town in the Colorado mountains that happened to have a knitting shop, so she made religious trips into town for yarn or supplies whenever she needed them, and that shop was what sparked the dream for her. Really I just tagged along.
Since the shop opened, we’ve both broadened our horizons by learning crochet, and Lesli’s started to learn spinning so that one day we can carry our very own brand yarn!
Our shop itself is very focused on beginners. If you don’t know anything about yarn, that’s what we’re here for! We offer classes for knitting, crochet, and sewing regularly, but also have specialty classes on an irregular basis. We do carry a selection of yarn, but we are way smaller than a standard yarn shop, so it’s a relatively small selection.
We also offer yarn winding (save your tears when that ball of yarn explodes, just bring it to us), commission knitting, blocking, and minor alterations.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

We are so big on community! We don’t charge for use of the space, so any time our people want to come in and work on their projects, they’re more than welcome to. We love the conversations that we get to have with the wide variety of people that visit with us, and love the camaraderie we’ve formed!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

For us, it’s always been word of mouth. We let our customers tell other people what they think we’re worth, and it’s worked out well for us! Building rapport with every customer that comes in has helped us tremendously. Connecting with other yarn shops in Northern Colorado (and beyond) has also been beneficial. We all send our customers to other yarn shops when we don’t have what they need.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thegingercatllc.wixsite.com/home
• Instagram: @thegingercatllc
• Facebook: Facebook.com/thegingercatllc

Image Credits
Brendon Cathalan, Ilona Cathalan, Lesli Anderson