By Elin Headrick

Laughter comes from 11 women sitting together knitting. On the table sit pots full of tea. At the Village Yarn and Tea Shop in Shoreline, Wash., it seems like knitting and tea were meant to be done together.

Blanche Niznik exclaims, “A tea and yarn shop… I was hysterical. I couldn’t wait for them to open!” The second person through doors when the shop opened five years ago, Niznik has taken full advantage of the atmosphere, joining a knitting group that meets once a week. “We knit and have tea and scones. We are a close group – we have been through births, deaths, marriages, divorces, illness and bad house keepers,” she said.

While tea has been undergoing a renaissance in the United States, knitting has been enjoying its own resurgence as a popular hobby. Yarn and tea shops are popping up around the country. Owners of three such shops on the West Coast say they’ve found a winning combination, creating places where people want to come together.

Village Yarn and Tea Shop co-owner Deborah Barnes said the name was meant to “denote a small and encompassing place where you know everyone and a sense of place is created.” Co-owner Victoria Chase added, “We set out to start not just a yarn and tea shop, but to create a community.”

The choice to combine yarn and tea has brought both emotional and financial gains to the pair. Predominately a yarn shop, Village’s tea component generates about 10 percent of its profits. Barnes and Chase noted that preparing tea is labor-intensive, with dishes to wash, precise water temperatures to measure and desserts to prepare.

They said they search out quality teas; Village offers 60 loose-leaf varieties from six vendors. Barnes, a founding member of the Puget Sound Tea Education Association, works toward sustainable business practices. She strives to add more fair trade teas and educate tea drinkers about where tea comes from and whom it affects.

Barnes said, “Customers’ tastes are expanding. We continue to add more classics to our array of tea.”

Loop and Leaf in Santa Barbara, Calif., is a self-described place for fiber artists and tea drinkers to meet. The shop serves loose-leaf Foxfire Teas by the cup in a small tea room and has tins of tea and teaware for sale.

Owner Celeste Varner enjoys the tea part of her business. “It definitely adds a softer aspect, as well as giving the non-knitting companions of my customers something to enjoy whilst in the shop,” she said. “I even have a few customers who come only for tea.”

Varner said the tea portion of her business comprises about 12 percent of her profits. She hopes to expand in the future and possibly grow the tea side into a proper café.

Twisted, meanwhile, is after a relaxed vibe. It offers Portland knitters a place to knit, socialize and enjoy the 40-plus loose-leaf Adagio Teas. Customers are presented with an infuser and hot water machines, along with a steep time guide, to prepare the tea themselves.

Owners Emily Williams and Shannon Squire chose to add tea to their yarn shop because they found knitting and tea inherently soothing. Williams started knitting during a year studying at Oxford University.  “Every day at tea time, a group would get together to knit and drink tea and it was the most pleasant time in everyone's day. It just seemed right to have tea at our own shop,” said Williams.

Another reason they added tea is that they found it easy to present and have customers prepare.  “We are primarily a yarn shop,” said Squire. “The tea component is much more about atmosphere than profit. Tea is quick, easy and tidy to prepare while offering variety.”

As for the business, “having tea isn't really an end in and of itself; it's something that contributes to an overall relaxing, welcoming environment,” Williams said. Tea and snacks account for about 1 percent of sales.

She advised tearooms that want to add knitting to get involved in the knitting community and sponsor a regular knit night. “Try to join forces with a yarn store that doesn't have space for their own knit night. Knitters are just looking for excuses to get together!” Williams said.