For the past 10 years, Jeanetta Osterhoudt has run Sybil’s Yarn Shop, which her mother, Sybil, started 45 years ago in Milford.
She celebrated her one-year anniversary in her new location at 43 Pioneer St. in Cooperstown on Sept. 23 thanks to the generosity of hundreds in the fiber community, she said.
“In the new location, we have a lot more foot traffic,” she said. “It has made a huge difference to my bottom line.”
For nine years before her move to Cooperstown, she operated Sybil’s Yarn Shop at 65 S. Main Street in Milford in a standalone commercial building she owned. A fire destroyed her building and three others on July 18, 2025.
Emilie Rigby, owner of Rigby Handcraft, also at 43 Pioneer Street, spearheaded a fundraiser which raised more than $17,000 to help Osterhoudt rebuild her business. Rigby is a fellow knitter and spinner.
“She is a very talented artist,” Osterhoudt said.
This seed money allowed Osterhoudt to open her a new yarn store next door to Rigby’s shop just two months after the fire. She did not need to wait for an insurance company settlement. Previously, Rigby Handcraft occupied both spaces.
“I couldn’t have done it without the fiber community. We are a close-knit community, pardon the pun,” Osterhoudt said.
She used the money raised on her behalf to pay a deposit plus several months’ rent on the new retail space and paint her logo and business name on the store windows.
“One of my biggest cheerleaders, Judi, offered me her wrought iron tables and chairs,” she said. Judi Henrici is one of her two part-time employees. She and her husband spraypainted them hot pink. “I went with pink on the windows too, she said. “It’s eye catching.”
Her Milford yarn shop was twice as large as her current location.
“At my old shop, I had a big table,” she said. “I could sit about 15 people at the old shop, and every Thursday it was full. And it wasn’t just because I had beautiful yarns. It was because people were coming together around that table and forming fast friendships.”
“They were the people that were there for me … hundreds of people came out and supported me,” she said.
“It was humbling.” Osterhoudt said. “It rejuvenated me.” She srealized that she was providing a space and a service that people valued, she said.
Sybil’s Yarn Shop received the New York Small Business Development Center Phoenix Award on Aug. 4. The award honors the adversity she overcame to come back stronger, she said.
“I am really grateful to Michelle Catan for nominating me for the Phoenix Award,” Osterhoudt said. Catan is a state senior certified business advisor.
The yarn shop still offers classes, which are listed on the company website. Osterhoudt holds her classes in rented conference room space in the 25,000 square foot complex called Cooperstown Co-Works at 6 Doubleday Court.
For the first time ever, Osterhoudt is offering a bus trip to the state Sheep and Wool Festival on Sunday, Oct. 18, in Rhinebeck. The festival runs from Oct. 15 through Oct. 18 with more than 300 vendors. The festival, which has been running for more than 25 years, attracts 32,000 to 36,000 people annually, she said.
“There is something very satisfying about creating something by hand,” she said. “There’s a whole generation of people that never learned how to sew or knit.”
“I learned to knit at four or five years old from my mom,” she said. Her mother predicted she would never be a knitter. When Osterhoudt was 13 or 14, her mother was knitting her a sweater and she asked if she could help. She was hooked ever since.
She completed a master knitters program during an internship in college. After college from 1998-2000, she worked at the Farmers’ Museum, now known as Fenimore Farm & Country Village. “I worked in wallpaper staining. On my breaks, I learned spinning,” she said. She spun sheep’s wool into yarn.
“About half of the yarn in my shop is locally sourced,” she said. That includes hand-dyed wool, hand-spun wool and locally-grown, but mill spun yarn.
“Wool is a natural, recyclable product that can go into the landfill and not hurt the environment,” she said.
“Knitting and crocheting, along with other fiber crafts can be a very solitary craft,” she said. After COVID, people longed for connection, she said.
She said she has noticed that 10- to 25-year-olds are learning to knit and crochet by watching videos on YouTube and TikTok and taking classes.
For more information, visit www.sybilsyarnshop.com.