Dana Chadwell founded Chattanooga Yarn Company three years ago. She envisioned “a place to find fine yarns for hand knitting and crochet, and a place to build community around yarn crafting.” It’s been successful—but her shop is now enveloped in a fog of uncertainty because of Trump’s tariffs.
From knitting needles to garment fabric to bottles of paint, American crafters work with many materials produced abroad. That has left them particularly vulnerable to Trump’s trade war. Imports from Europe currently face tariffs of 15 percent, and while sky-high tariffs on China are currently subject to a 90-day pause, they still stand at 57.6 percent, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Worse still, Trump has done away with the de minimis exemption, which allowed goods valued at under $800 to enter the U.S. tariff-free.
Over 90 percent of Chadwell’s stock has been affected by tariffs. “Every supplier I have, minus one, from major to minor, has had a price increase,” she says. “Because the tariff situation has been so unpredictable…it has made long term planning impossible.”
Exclusively stocking U.S.-produced materials isn’t an option for most craft stores. “Tariffs impact American-made yarns as well,” pointed out Fibre Space, a yarn store in Alexandria, Virginia. That’s because “American-made goods still rely on materials made in other countries.” Yarn “is an agricultural product,” observes Chadwell, “so certain crops and certain livestock produce the best fiber in very specific climates that aren’t necessarily” found in the United States. Meanwhile, “needles, notions, doodads, [and] bags…can only be produced at much higher prices” here.
Now that the de minimis exemption has expired, even small orders of goods are subject to country-specific tariffs. Several European shippers, including DHL, Britain’s Royal Mail, and France’s La Poste, have announced they will temporarily pause shipments to the U.S., “citing ambiguous policies and the need to establish brand-new logistics systems,” reported NPR. Danish, Swedish, Italian, and Austrian postal companies have also halted U.S.-bound shipments.
Tariffs prevent all sorts of voluntary transactions that shape lives and culture in big—and often inconspicuous—ways. That means shops that won’t be started, gifts that won’t be made by hand, and hobbies that won’t be taken up. And more immediately, tariffs are punishing business owners who want to help Americans fill their lives with more creativity.
“We feel like we have no control over our fates,” says Chadwell. “There is a point at which tariffs will simply put us all out of business no matter how well we manage our shops.”
This article originally appeared in print under the headline “Knitters Need Free Trade.”
