Lisa Long learned how to knit at a Del Taco 15 years ago. At that point in her life, her routine was a long cycle of working, cooking dinner, studying for her degree, and falling asleep in the early hours of the morning. She needed to reactivate her creative brain.
“I called a friend of mine who knit, and I said, ‘I have got to use the other side of my brain again. I forgot what it’s like,’” Long told the Sun. “So, she met me at Del Taco with knitting needles and yarn and taught me to knit. I never looked back.”
A crocheter since childhood, Long said she picked up knitting pretty quickly. She describes herself as a lifelong learner, constantly reading books and watching videos about new knitting techniques.
Join the yarn folks
Stop by the Old Orcutt Yarnery (350 E. Clark Ave.) Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Learn more about classes at oldorcuttyarnery.com or by calling (805) 862-2171. Visit centralcoastyarnshophop.com for details about the upcoming Central Coast Yarn Crawl. See tips and tricks on YouTube or Instagram @oldorcuttyarnery.
After realizing there was a lack of yarn shops in Santa Barbara County, the knitter researched what it would take to open one. Long’s husband was still working, but she was retired and wanted to occupy her time. She found just the right retail space in Orcutt and moved in four years ago. The Old Orcutt Yarnery was born.
An Orcutt resident since 1988, the owner has built an even stronger community by running her shop. She hosts classes and workshops for all skill levels, but one of the biggest events is the Central Coast Yarn Crawl coming up from March 6 to 8.
It’s the third year of the crawl that leads knitters from Cambria to Simi Valley and everywhere in between searching for passport stamps and raffle prizes. Eight shops will open their doors to the scores of avid craftspeople.
“We’ll have hundreds of people in here that weekend. It’ll be crazy,” Long said.
“Yarn people” love finding new shops everywhere they go. A bundle of yarn, called a skein, is often Long’s travel souvenir. When most knitters go into a new store, they ask for something they can’t get anywhere else. The Old Orcutt Yarnery owner has the perfect answer: custom yarn colors.
Two and a half years into the business, Long expanded the shop by more than double the square footage. The grand reopening came in August 2024, marked by a new line of custom yarn hung on the walls of the extra retail space.
A Canadian-based dyer colors Long’s line by hand. The skeins have names like Lompoc Flower Festival, Space Force, Guadalupe Dunes, Poppy Field, and Santa Barbara County Fair.
Every yarnery has its own “flavor,” too. Long feels hers is a cozy, homey shop with old furniture and windows lined with stained glass from the house her mother-in-law grew up in. The Old Orcutt Yarnery has a wraparound porch where visitors can sit and work on their projects, weather permitting.
It’s been a relaxing venue for Long’s drop-in woolgathering sessions on Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon and Sundays from noon to 3 p.m. There are also stitch and sip events on the first Wednesday of every month from 5 to 7 p.m. Disguised as work sessions for the hobbyists, the events are more like social gatherings because Long didn’t open the store for the sole purpose of selling yarn.
“I’ve met so many great people. So many people from every background, every walk of life, everything,” Long said. “This is a place where, whether we agree on things or not, whether we come from the same background or not, it doesn’t matter. We all love yarn.”
One of the people Long met at the shop is Tracy Syslo, who came in to buy skeins and attend workshops. She’s been knitting since she was a kid. Eventually Syslo started working at the Old Orcutt Yarnery.
It feels good to spend time with people who like the same things, Syslo said, and she rarely has a customer with a negative attitude. For the most part everyone is happy to visit.
Syslo and Long knit a lot of the sample garments hung around the Orcutt Yarnery, and they wear their handmade clothing, too. Samples inspire knitters.
“Buying yarn is a really tactile experience. You want to touch it. You want to feel it. You want to see the colors in person,” Long said.
With a wide variety of yarn, needles, and accessories, there’s a price point for every knitter. That doesn’t mean a sacrifice for quality though, which is a top priority at Old Orcutt Yarnery. Good yarn feels soft and easy to work with.
“Junk yarn, you’re fighting it all the time,” Syslo explained.
Learning how to knit is frustrating enough without having to battle the yarn for success. It’s like committing to a new language. Once a knitter knows how to read patterns, the hardest part is over.
“I always tell people when you learn how to read it and you learn how to fix mistakes, you feel like you have a superpower,” Long said. “You don’t have to be afraid of making mistakes because you know how to fix it.”
Reach Staff Writer Madison White at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in March 5 – March 12, 2026.