Walk into the Knitter’s Edge in Bethlehem and you immediately find yourself immersed in a colorful world.

The store on West Broad Street bills itself as the largest yarn shop in Pennsylvania, specializing in fine yarns, along with such things as needles, hooks, books, magazines and wool wash. It offers classes for both the beginner and advanced knitter or crocheter. Co-owner Amanda Evans says customers come from all over the country, but the Knitter’s Edge primarily serves enthusiasts from the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.

Like many small businesses, the Knitter’s Edge has been preparing for the potential effects of tariffs on its prices. So far, several Lehigh Valley companies said they haven’t faced many adverse impacts or had to pass costs on to their customers, but they continue to try to get ahead of any problems.

According to The Washington Post, knitters and crocheters are dealing with a recent tax repeal of low-value imports by the Trump administration.

Parcels worth less than $800 are now subject to an additional 10% to 50% levy depending on the tariff rate of the country of origin. Because of the uncertainty, several countries have suspended deliveries to the U.S. Some of them are prime exporters of yarn, such as Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Evans said the Knitter’s Edge has yet to see any major changes in prices.

“We have been stocking up on products before prices are impacted,” said Evans, who co-owns the shop with her mother, JoAnne Turcotte. “Luckily, most of our vendors give notice and we have been placing large orders so we can keep prices the same through the season. Honestly, a lot of the price increases we’ve seen have been in line with yearly price increases.”

Evans said many of the Knitter’s Edge’s vendors have absorbed costs, which also helped keep prices down.

Other small businesses that serve the Lehigh Valley — from pretzel makers to game designers — have noticed changes in recent months, and are trying to keep up with them.

“We’ve been fairly lucky, in that the tariffs we have experienced have been pretty minimal,” said Misty Skolnick, co-owner of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels with her father, Jerry, who founded the company in 1988. The pretzels are made in Lancaster County and sold at locations in the Valley, including Whole Foods Market in Lower Macungie Township.

“I think some of our labels have increased in price, our boxes have increased in price,” she said. “When we get those price increases from our suppliers, they don’t necessarily indicate that they’re from tariffs. So if our flour goes up a little bit … it’s a little bit unclear. We did have a price increase on our chocolate, again, from tariffs or other factors such as the general rising cost of things … so it’s a little bit unclear.”

So far, Skolnick said, the company has yet to pass costs to customers, though it has had to absorb a 10% increase in wheat prices.

“My dad’s and my approach is, don’t buy into the hype until you get a letter from your supplier saying your pricing is changing,” she said. “If you buy into the panic, you will have anxiety over things that may or may not happen. I think it’s very important to be aware of what’s going on and understand what’s going on, but to change your business on hypotheticals, we try not to do that.”

Evans said the Knitter’s Edge also gives customers domestic options, carrying several American-made products such as Appalachian Baby and Feederbook Farm.

“We love supporting other small businesses,” she said. “Many of our vendors are showing new yarn lines sourced from American mills.”

In an interview with The Morning Call earlier this year, Lehigh University economist Ahmed Rahman said consumers will feel the effects of tariffs as companies pass the cost to them. He called the tariffs a “fluid” issue with frequent changes in rates and policies.

“We sort of forget that a tariff is just another way of saying a tax, and the consumer still bears a lot of that burden of the tax,” Rahman said. “But it’s not a tax that you see, it’s just prices that go up and it’s indirectly through this. So it’s an inflation tax. The government might be getting some revenue, but rest assured, it’s just another way of taking money from your average citizen.”

Avi Setton and his wife, Tanya Basu, co-founded Le Fou LLC, a company that designs and sells table games. The South Whitehall Township business has produced the card game Picky Eaters, where players compete to feed five guests the tastiest meal. The game also has expansion packs.

Made in China, Picky Eaters is sold online after being successfully funded via the online site Kickstarter. Le Fou has about 1,000 customers, with about 62% in the U.S.

Setton said Le Fou is “doing well” and is expanding, working on a second game called Monarch and diversifying into filmmaking. The film “The Big Break” is in post production. He said the company has been working toward “a big launch” for Monarch, but it has been postponed.

“Hopefully it will launch soon, but the industry has really taken a hit, and so we’re sort of trying to wait it out and see if it’s going to get any better,” Setton said.

He added that while it was hard to draw a direct line to tariffs, the Chinese company Le Fou worked with, Panda, made some strange changes.

“Immediately after tariffs were announced, the person that was our contact there for years was suddenly gone,” Setton said. “He was replaced with someone new, and a couple months later, that person was replaced with someone new. The entire manufacturing process is consistently delayed for no real clear reason.”

Setton said shipping companies have raised prices up to 25%, which he thinks is an attempt to recoup lost revenue.

“I don’t think people really realize how much a process like this costs for shipping,” he said. It’s easier to come out ahead when customers buy multiple items in a single order. The margin is a lot smaller when the order is for just the base game.

“There’s really no way for us to predict margins,” said Basu, a former Morning Call reporter. “As a small business, that’s very difficult. I think that ultimately that is problematic, because even if tariffs were placed and they were kept, or we had some sense of exactly what the amount would be, that would be something we could work with. It’s changing so often and with such variants, that it’s very difficult for us to be able to have that sense of stability.”

Skolnick said small businesses have to make hard decisions about keeping steady profits or alienating customers.

“You just have to keep pushing forward,” she said. “It’s always concerning to think about your product increasing in price for your customers, because ultimately that affects sales. So it’s not that we are oblivious or turning a blind eye to it. We hate raising prices. We don’t want people to be priced out of enjoying our product.”

Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.

Originally Published: October 17, 2025 at 7:00 AM EDT