Mother-daughter duo save Duvall yarn shop from closure

Published 7:30 am Thursday, February 26, 2026

Duvall’s beloved yarn shop has been saved from extinction after a spontaneous purchase by a crafty mother-daughter duo.

Charlotte Spani (mother) and Brandy Eckman (daughter) formally took over Quintessential Knits in November. They purchased the shop from its original owner, Judy Quinton, and her business partner since 2023, Debbie Cizmas.

Quinton opened Quintessential Knits on her home property in 2012, and in 2014, expanded the shop to its current location at 26331 NE Valley St.

Since then, the shop’s presence and importance to the community has continued to grow.

The new owners are both long-time crafters — Spani her whole life, and Eckman for more than a decade.

But they never planned on owning a business, let alone together, let alone a yarn store in Duvall.

“It’s funny. I’ve had a lot of people ask me, like, oh, have you always dreamed of owning a yarn shop?” Eckman said. “And I’m like, that wasn’t even in my realm of what could possibly happen.”

The whole thing felt like kismet, Cizmas said. She and Quinton decided to retire last year to spend more time with their families. After a few potential sales fell through, they were on track to close the shop.

Two weeks before, Spani walked in to peruse the closing sale and found out the shop was for sale. Spani, who had recently left her job, called her daughter, who had also been unemployed and has a lot of retail experience.

One week later, the shop had new owners.

“It was meant to be,” Quinton said. “What they’re doing with the shop now is so cool. They put their own personality into it, but they loved the whole sense of community thing. They’re keeping that. It has the same essence, but it’s different. It feels fresher.”

Quintessential Knits has always had community at its core, known for its craft groups and events, both as a host and a participant. An important event for the shop is the Puget Sound Local Yarn Shop Tour, or LYS Tour. This year’s 20th anniversary tour is in May, and the shop will definitely be participating.

There are three weekly craft groups — two for knitting and one for spinning — which Spani and Eckman plan on growing.

They also hope to expand the shop’s online sales as well as in-store offerings. Though yarn will always be the shop’s “mainstay,” they said they’re interested in offering introductions to some other fiber arts as well, like embroidery.

For more information, customers can follow along on Facebook and Instagram @quintessentialknits or check the website, quintessentialknits.com, which will be getting a redesign in the near future.

Ultimately, the two women want to continue Quinton’s legacy of bringing diverse groups together over shared passions — something customers made clear they wanted when they thought the shop was closing.

“A lot of people have expressed not just gratitude about the store being open, but also gratitude about the knit group still being here and the spin group still being here,” Eckman said.

She added: “Being with the knit groups every week, two days a week, has really hammered in just how crucial it is for people to have this kind of community and be able to connect with each other and connect with something that is analog, that’s not digital.”

Eckman noted an unfortunate absence in today’s society of third places, defined as informal communal spaces away from work and home where people can gather and socialize.

Quintessential Knits strives to fill that gap.

“Being able to hold that space for people, I think, is really important,” Eckman said.