Knit one, purl two ... then buy the store
New owner acts on impulse and takes over at Carriage Yarn shop
BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer

Owning a yarn store is a natural segue for Cindy Apfelbaum, a knitter since childhood. She is the new owner of Carriage Yarn and Boutique, Ocean Township.

She set out to find yarn for a sweater, but Cindy Apfelbaum came away with much more.“I came in looking for a ball of yarn and wound up buying the store,” said the new owner of Carriage Yarn and Boutique in Cobblestone Village in Ocean Township.

Around the time Apfelbaum showed up at her store, Marian McGlone had been contemplating winding down, 40 years after founding the business.

“I was looking for yarn to finish my husband’s sweater, and we got to talking,” said Apfelbaum, a Wanamassa resident and community volunteer. “I never planned on owning a business. It must have been meant to be. Marian and I seemed to click. I was in the right place at the right time.”

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As fate would have it, on Sept. 10, Apfelbaum will hold a grand reopening at Carriage Yarn on West Park Avenue complete with a “yarn cutting” by the mayor.

At 88, McGlone had been thinking about retirement when Apfelbaum approached her, she said.

“She came in and asked me if I would sell the store. I didn’t have it advertised,” McGlone explained in an interview this week. “It was time that I retired and my husband and I could spend more time together and travel.”

McGlone opened Carriage Yarn in 1966 in Allenhurst. After a fire destroyed her business and four others in 1970, she moved the yarn shop to Asbury Park.

“When Cobblestone Village was built I moved there 19 years ago,” she said. “The business grew over the years; it grew from nothing.

“We were known for beautiful handmade things. I had four or five excellent knitters and I took orders for ski sweaters and we shipped out of town.

“I really enjoyed my people; that’s what I’m going to miss. We had quite a following. Even when people moved away, if they came back to Monmouth County, they would come and see me.”

“She had no one to take over,” said Herta Letsche, Oakhurst. Letsche has been a fixture at the shop for 18 years, helping customers who need coaching and knitting the shop’s beautiful baby garments.

“When people buy yarn, I help them out,” said Letsche, a native of Germany who has been knitting since she was a little girl.

“She will teach Continental knitting,” said Apfelbaum, who plans to add classes for novice to experienced knitters.

Generally reticent, Apfelbaum was at a loss to explain how her quest for a particular yarn led her to become a business owner.

“I’m normally not like that; it’s something out of the ordinary for me,” she said. “I don’t quite know what inspired me.

“I’ve always been a person who likes to knit and crochet,” she said. “It was like, ‘Gee, I wonder if she’d be interested in selling,’ ” added Apfelbaum, who has been the bookkeeper for a moving company in Long Branch for more than 11 years. “I’ve never owned a business before, but it was such a cute little store and I was ready to make a move. I thought it was time. I talked to my husband; he said I should do it.”

Apfelbaum returned a week later and asked McGlone if she wanted to sell.

“I almost fainted when she said yes,” she recounted. “Herta told me she had three or four offers but said, ‘I think I’m going to give it to Cindy.’ ”

For the time being, Carriage Yarn will continue to be open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Apfelbaum said she is surveying customers to determine whether hours need to be adjusted to include after-work evening hours.

She will preserve the store’s old-world charm, a result of the traditional handmade sweaters and knitted items available and the one-on-one help offered, but plans some updates.

“We’re yarn-oriented, and I will add more yarns. I’ll get more of the specialty, fashion yarns,” she said. “I’ll try to get yarns in here to spark the imagination of knitters so someone can say, ‘Wow, I can see that as a shawl or a sweater.’ ”

With the enthusiasm of someone who’s been a knitter since she was 10 years old, Apfelbaum illustrated by pointing out skeins of yarn in vibrant colors and trendy textures like suede and crystal yarns.

“I want to bring in more of the specialty yarns,” she said, “and natural yarns, which come in extraordinary colors.

“We’ll keep the mainstays you have to have, people always look for them, but add yarns that are just stunning.”

Letsche will continue the timeless tradition of knitting baby sweaters and matching hats for preemies to toddlers. Several experienced knitters will continue to produce ready-made and custom-knit sweaters, scarves and other items.

Plans also include adding a sofa, chairs and a table to sit at to provide a social setting for knitters.

“If they just need a quiet place to sit and knit, this is home,” said Apfelbaum. “Knitting is quite social.”

“If you want to make friends, just sit anyplace and start knitting,” added Letsche.

While expanding the shop’s inventory, Apfelbaum said she will continue to emphasize quality yarns which, she noted, have risen in price. Still, knitting handmade garments continues to be a bargain as well as a labor of love with a skein of baby yarn at $4.50, or worsted at $5, and a vest can be knitted with 2-3 skeins.

In addition to yarns, the shop stocks a wide assortment of accessory items like needles – the vogue now is bamboo needles ($10.95 a pair) that don’t clink, crochet hooks, tape measures, markers, yarn bobbin, and patterns that will customize instructions.

Far from being a lost art, knitting is enjoying a resurgence, Apfelbaum said, due to the excitement inspired by the vibrant colors and textures of new yarn varieties.

Letsche also credits fashion magazines like “Vogue Knitting,” which are also available at the shop. “They have kept up with the fashions,” she noted, “and many designers are showing lots of knitted garments in their lines. The gypsy look is in now with lots of layering, and a lot of times it includes something knitted.

“For a long time, people knitted garments out of necessity,” she observed.

“Now it’s out of enjoyment,” added Apfelbaum, who is still somewhat perplexed by her decision.

“As excited as I am, I’m scared to death at the same time,” she admitted. “It’s a new chapter in my life.”