Housed in a refurbished Woolworth’s building on the fringe of downtown Denver, Fancy Tiger Crafts sells a meticulously selected array of yarn, fabric, patterns, and accessories, much of which is produced by domestic artisans and designers. The store emphasizes education as well, hosting classes from Sewing 101 to Tunisian Crochet. You can even learn to make your own underwear.

Since 2008, co-owners Amber Corcoran and Jaime Jennings have cultivated a strong following of makers, many of whom gather around the shop’s custom 12-foot table to knit, stitch, and socialize. Meanwhile, through their travels, blog, and new online shop, the owners have put Fancy Tiger on the international map, pushing their community-building mission beyond the limits of a brick-and-mortar store.

On your website, you say the world would be a better place if more people made things by hand. Explain.
Amber: We live in an age of disposable, mass-produced things. Crafting is an opportunity to make something out of great materials with the intent of keeping it around. More and more people have a desire to make something themselves.
Jaime: Not just with crafting. People are canning, making their own cheese, raising bees and chickens. 

How does your store design reflect that drive?
Jaime: When we moved to this location in 2012, we wanted a bigger space – our store is 4,000 square feet – but we also wanted to create an inspiring space, where people can come in and say, “I want to knit that sweater or sew that top.” And if they don’t know how to do it, we can help.
Amber: We also wanted clean lines, and to create a relaxing, beautiful experience.
Jaime: Skylights were also hugely important to us, because natural light is really helpful when picking out yarn and fabric.
Amber: And most of our lights are full-spectrum LED to show the true color.

How have you managed to make 4,000 square feet feel cozy?
Jaime: We wanted to incorporate elements of a schoolhouse and a farmhouse. The large signs on the walls have that feel. They’re hand-painted by Eric Johnson, a second-generation sign painter and illustrator in Loveland, Colorado. All the soft things in the store – fabric and yarn and samples we’ve sewn and knit – as well as warm tones of the wood floors and several old-timey furniture pieces – add to the coziness. People come in and just knit at the big community table or set their material on it as they shop. 

Where did you find this giant wooden table?
Jaime: We know a furniture designer, Morgan Briskey of Elemental Design, who made it with wood from a previous renovation job. He made most of the furniture in here.
Amber: He made the table at the front of our store from old boxcar flooring. There are other salvaged and reclaimed elements, as well.
Jaime: We found the windmill for our ceiling fan at Big Country Windmills, a salvage yard in Maxwell, Nebraska. The cheesy faux fireplace belonged to the previous owners. They were going to throw it away! 

But it nicely anchors your community crafting area. What’s the story behind the giant hot-pink deer with huge antlers?
Jaime: We commissioned that from a local crochet graffiti crew, Ladies Fancywork Society. We wanted a statement piece on our big back wall. 

You sell a vast range of yarns, including your own label. You also carry fabric, tools, and treasures like the polished stone buttons tagged as “Handmade by Tom in Lakewood, CO.” How do you select suppliers?
Jaime: We used to sell yarns from bigger companies, but they would send sales reps who didn’t even knit. We were just small to them. Then we met a farmer at a trade show who raises sheep. She runs Imperial Stock Ranch in Oregon. She wanted to know what we do and where her product would be going.
Amber: She is so passionate about what she’s doing.
Jaime: Now we have personal relationships with most suppliers. Some sell only to a small number of stores, so it’s them choosing us. Sleep Season Goods, by Megan Mahaffey, is our favorite local one. She does amazing hand-dyed yarns and roving. 

What do you look for in yarn?
Jaime: We want high-quality products produced in a socially conscious way. We really love single-breed yarns, and we like supporting cottage industries in various countries. We want to provide a nice variety of different weights and fibers.
Amber: The color range of yarn also is important to us, and how a yarn will look when it’s knitted.
Jaime: There are yarn companies that don’t make yellow. We won’t buy it. We don’t think a product looks good on display without a yellow or gold. 

You have ventured abroad to explore other craft cultures. How have your travels influenced your crafting lives?
Amber: We’ve traveled to Iceland, the Shetland Islands, and most recently, Estonia. In Estonia, they have a real appreciation of their craft traditions, which you can see from the museums to the street, where they sell the same kind of hand-knitted mittens they have been making for hundreds of years. These experiences inspire us, and we use our blog to inspire others. 

Your blog is extensive, with features on new products, events, and crafting ideas.
Jaime: We want to show people what we and other customers are making. It helps to see the patterns sewn up on a human body and see the fabric or yarn being used.
Amber: We also launched our online store in the fall to make Fancy Tiger more accessible to people who don’t live in Denver. In the past, when we did a new product post, we would have followers worldwide calling or emailing, wanting that item. 

It sounds like you’ve been successful in cultivating community, not only locally, in the store, but also on a much broader scale.
Jaime: Through our blog and our travels, we’ve created this broad awareness of Fancy Tiger; we know because people comment on the blog. They ask us all the time to open a Fancy Tiger in Chicago or Portland. So much goes into this one shop – I don’t know how we’d do another. 

What’s next for you?
Amber [laughing]: Jaime and I talk about someday having a motley herd of sheep where each one is different. 

How many types of sheep are there?
Amber: There are so many. There’s one type that eats seaweed. It lives on the rocks of North Ronaldsay, a Scottish island. We love sheep. When we visited Iceland in 2010, we saw how sheep mean everything to the culture.
Jaime: The sheep graze free-range all summer over there. In the fall is sheep sorting day, when they herd all the sheep back to the farms before winter. Everyone helps – and Amber and I got to help. You grab a sheep by the horns and match their tag – say it’s 75 – with the pen labeled 75 and you drag the sheep to the pen.
Amber: The sheep don’t like it and sometimes they get away, but you just grab another one. Anytime we get to cuddle sheep or meet sheep, we’re all about it. 

Kelly Pate Dwyer is a freelance writer in Denver.