Tight-knit friends start online yarn business

BY TAMMY MCKILLIP
Correspondent

PHOTOSBYTAMMY MCKILLIP Above: Debbie Friedlander-D'Angelo (r) and Kaye Lewis, co-founders of DDKYarns, Hazlet, share a love for knitting and a new Internet-based yarn business. Below: DDKYarns specializes in custom ebony knitting needles and fine imported yarns. HAZLET - Life is very mysterious, and sometimes stumbling onto the wrong path for a while can lead you to your "dream come true."

That is what happened to single mom Debbie Friedlander-D'Angelo, of Hazlet, who was forced to leave a high-stress job in the corporate world six years ago when she became disabled. Now, she's doing something she had always dreamed about.

"I've always wanted to do this, my entire life," she said of the fine imported yarn business she co-owns with Hazlet knitting buddy Kaye Lewis. "I have more yarn in my house than most local yarn stores do. It's so tactile. It's beautiful. You can create things, from the stupidest little thing to the most glorious sweater. You watch it coming off your needles, and it's such a rush."

Friedlander-D'Angelo said she first met Lewis about a year ago, when she joined a knitting group after losing her foot due to diabetes complications.

"We decided to start up the business over coffee one day at Barnes & Noble. We just started talking, and she says, 'What do you think? Should we do this?' And I said, 'Yeah. Why not?' It was that basic."

Lewis, who is a musician, said she had been knitting since she was a little girl, but she only decided to open the business, DDKYarns (Distinctively Different Knitting Yarns), after joining the online-based Yahoo group Stitch-N-Knit¿ which meets on Tuesday nights at the Holmdel Barnes & Noble coffee shop and Wednesday nights at Borders in Eatontown.

"I stopped knitting for a long time, and when I started again, I realized how much things had changed over the past 25 years," she said. "I decided I needed a little help with some of the different kinds of yarn and instructions and stitches they have now, so I went to the Web and started looking up yarn groups. And lo and behold, I found a group that meets right here in Holmdel.

"The first time I met Debbie, she was just so helpful, so wonderful, and she knew so much about knitting. We had a very similar background, and we became friends very quickly. The whole group is wonderful. We have such a camaraderie. You know, we sit and talk about knitting and complain about our husbands and [brag about] our families. It's a wonderful thing."

Lewis said that the original plan was to have a knitting store, but the rents in the area were prohibitive, so she and Friedlander-D'Angelo decided to open an online business that offered fine yarns and knitting needles, as well as many of the amenities of a local knitting shop.

"We wanted to have something that's a bit different," she said. "If you talk to a beginning knitter, their big frustration is of not being able to understand knitting instructions or patterns and actually being able to learn the stitches. They can go to a knitting store, and they can buy needles or a crochet hook and yarn, but they just sit there and look at it and can't figure out how to do it. So Debbie and I decided when we had a store, we were going to give lessons, and it was going to be for free.

"We offer free patterns on our site, and we're adding new things all the time. We plan to have a blog and a forum where anybody can ask any questions that they have, but in addition to that, once you've learned to knit a little bit, and you decide you want to make a sweater, there will be a form for you to fill out on our site to tell us what you would like in your sweater. Debbie and I will be able to design it for you, and if you buy the yarn from us, you can have the pattern for free."

Lewis said that each of the patterns would be custom designed with the knitter's individual size, style and specifications in mind.

"If you tell me … my arms are a little bit shorter, and I would like to have the sleeves hit me right at my waist, rather than below my hips, and I would like it to be a V-neck, rather than a crew-neck, we can help you design that. We can get you the pattern you want, and you can knit exactly what you would like to knit. Most Internet knitting sites don't offer that."

In addition, Lewis said DDKYarns imports one-of-a-kind ebony and rosewood knitting needles from India, which they sell for $19.95 a pair.

"Ebony and rosewood are two of the finest woods that you can get to make knitting needles," she said. "Most knitting needles today are made out of metal or cheap wood, and they're not pretty to look at or cost a lot of money. We have many with mother-of-pearl tops on them. We purposely pick a different top for each of the sizes so that at a glance, you can tell exactly what size knitting needle you're picking up."

Friedlander-D'Angelo said that the company buys fine yarns from all over the globe, but that they try as much as possible to support industry in the states.

"Anywhere there's good stuff, we're going for it," she said.

She would love to have a physical store location at some point. In the meantime, she hopes that the online company will cater to a global market, since unlike many online companies, DDKYarns is willing to ship anywhere, as long as the buyer pays for postage.

For more information on DDKYarns, go to www.DDKYarns.com or call (877) 328-YARN.