When Toni Ridella’s mother suggested that she open a yarn shop in the empty half of her Forbes Road duplex, she was skeptical.

She liked the idea, but wasn’t sold on the location: “I thought, ‘Who’s gonna find me in Forbes Road?’”

Nevertheless, the avid knitter took the plunge and opened Raggz Fiber Art in the tiny former coal patch in Salem Township in 2011. Thanks to GPS and the Steel Valley Yarn Crawl, an annual showcase of area yarn shops, the customers have come.

Ridella specializes in natural-fiber, hand-spun and hand-dyed yarns, many of which are made by area artisans. Although she also has made her own yarns, she doesn’t currently have any for sale.

The shop’s three rooms are a riot of color, jam-packed with batts and skeins of yarn, along with supplies for knitting, crocheting and needle and wet felting.

In 2017, Ridella added artisan-made gift items, such as wall hangings, felted sheep items, soaps, socks, jewelry, slippers, gnome homes, wearables, sheep pins, farm-themed tea towels and bags.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review Skeins of colorful yarns available at Raggz Fiber Art in Forbes Road.  

Pre-pandemic, Ridella offered regular classes in knitting, felting and spinning — which she hopes to resume when conditions allow.

She also shares her enthusiasm by hosting the Raggz Fiber Festival, a vendor sale and showcase held twice yearly since 2015 at the Delmont Volunteer Fire Department.

The next festival will be held outdoors from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. April 24 at the fire hall, 2360 Route 66.

The festival features purveyors of specialty fibers for spinners, weavers, knitters, crocheters, felters and other crafters who use fiber. It also offers demonstrations of spinning and other techniques.

Information on the upcoming event is available on the shop’s Facebook page.

Chubby Knitters

The heart of Ridella’s business just might be the work table in the back room, the regular gathering place for the Chubby Knitters, a group of yarn and fiber enthusiasts who stop by to work and socialize whenever the shop is open.

“It’s like ‘Cheers,’ everyone knows your name,” Ridella said. “It’s like therapy — we talk about everything, and there’s always food.”

Newcomers of all ages and all ability levels are welcome, and a more-the-merrier vibe prevails, she said.

Prior to the pandemic, Ridella also would plan monthly lunch excursions to area restaurants.

“I’d put a sign on the door saying, ‘We’re meeting here,’ and people would just show up,” she said. “The first one was in Derry at Chef Dato’s Table, and I think 50 people were there. We had the whole room.

“What you have here is more like a community,” she said. “This place just gives you what you need.”

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review Members of the Chubby Knitters gather regularly at Raggz Fiber Art in Forbes Road.  

Ridella’s love for knitting started when her children, now 40 and 37, were young. Despite the demands of motherhood, she found time to develop her skills.

“They were good. They slept a lot, and I didn’t need much sleep, so I’d be up late at night knitting,” she said. “I always liked the old ways; I canned and did things like that.”

Ridella and her husband, Tom Ridella, moved to Forbes Road from Pittsburgh in 2001. They bought a farm at the east end of the village, where they raise sheep, goats, chickens and beef cattle.

Ridella is a former secretary for Delmont borough and Salem Township. Tom is a retired machine shop owner.

“(The farm) was his dream, not mine, but it grew on me,” she said. “Our plan was to become more self-sustaining.”

She has had wool made from her own fleece, but isn’t doing that right now.

Most of her knitting efforts currently are put into making samples of patterns she sells in the shop.

“People want to see what it’s going to look like,” she said. “I never get to knit what I want.”

Except for socks.

“My kids like socks, so I make a lot of socks.”

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