{"id":37437,"date":"2025-11-07T15:44:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T15:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/37437\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T15:44:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T15:44:16","slug":"the-common-thread-stitches-yarn-coffee-and-community-into-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/37437\/","title":{"rendered":"The Common Thread stitches yarn, coffee and community into one"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERBURG, Fla. \u2014 If you thought knitting was a solo activity, there is a new spot opening in St. Pete that\u2019s bringing people together over balls of yarn and cups of coffee. It\u2019s called The Common Thread<\/a>, and it\u2019s located in the Warehouse Arts District<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in the local coffee shops would kind of look at me weird when I\u2019d roll up and pull out a sweater that I\u2019m working on, so I just wanted a safe space to do that in and give that to other people too,\u201d said owner Shannon O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien took it upon herself to stitch together her own business right in her own neighborhood, combining fiber arts, coffee and community.<\/p>\n

WATCH: The Common Thread stitches yarn, coffee and community into one<\/p>\n

The Common Thread stitches yarn, coffee and community into one<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s becoming more and more prevalent to see these hybrid spaces because I think we are trying to stand out from online retailers and give people a reason to actually come in person, stay, hang out, make connections,\u201d said O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida doesn\u2019t have a lot of knitting shops, but there is a lot of knitters here in Florida so to have one here in St. Pete is wonderful,\u201d said Mary Ellen Greer.<\/p>\n

With more than 100 varieties of yarn available, Shannon says they aren\u2019t just making sweaters and scarves, they are making art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of it more as the next evolution, how do we keep this art relevant in 2025 and beyond and welcome in the next generation of Gen Z and Gen Alpha that love to make things with their hands,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cSo, I try to always have beginner-friendly classes and workshops where people have never picked up a hook or needle before. This is a place where there are no stupid questions. We will be your cheerleaders and walk you through your projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to their coffee, The Common Thread didn\u2019t have to go far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get our coffee from Look Alive Coffee, which is just around the corner here in St. Pete and it is delicious I wish people could taste it through the TV,\u201d said O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

You can tell the menu was designed for a needle worker, with drinks like the Yarnold Palmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s better than, ‘one iced mocha please, can I get a Sock Monkey please? ‘ Getting people to say that is just fun,\u201d said barista Jeffrey Williams.<\/p>\n

The official grand opening of The Common Thread is Sunday, Nov. 9, starting at 10 a.m., just in time for National Knit a Sweater Month.<\/p>\n

Shannon hopes to be a voice in the community for anyone with a dream of opening their own business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a parks and recreation degree, I\u2019m not an MBA, I just love yarn, and I love coffee, and you learn along the way and people come out of the woodwork to support what you are doing especially if you are leading with your heart,\u201d said O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Florida doctor’s fight for breast cancer patients denied insurance coverage gets Hollywood spotlight<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg plastic surgeon, Dr. Alicia Billington, was floored when she learned ABC\u2019s hit drama, “Grey’s Anatomy,” addressed the issue in a recent episode.<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida doctor’s fight for breast cancer patients denied insurance coverage gets Hollywood spotlight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERBURG, Fla. \u2014 If you thought knitting was a solo activity, there is a new spot opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[205,25665,596,18143,25666,202,204,203,199,201,200,3670,25667,25668,208],"class_list":["post-37437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-abc-action-news","tag-look-alive-coffee","tag-pinellas-county","tag-robert-boyd","tag-shannon-obrien","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-the-common-thread","tag-warehouse-arts-district","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}