I recently flew to Maine to enjoy a few days with my daughter and son-in-law. While driving around a loop road tour on Desert Island at Acadia National Park, we did a double-take when we passed the sign on a house for a gift shop that said, “Linda’s Handknits.” My daughter, who is a crochet enthusiast, said to her husband, “Turn around! I have to go there.”
An older woman sitting by the entrance greeted us as we walked in. Without looking down at her hands and knitting needles, she chatted with us. As we looked around her shop, filled with knitted garments interspersed with sewn items, carved ducks, and antique treasures, she told us her story.
She loves to knit, and she used to put a few of her handknit items in her brother’s antique store. He told her he was moving and that she would have to find a new place to sell her wares, so she decided to open her own shop. She couldn’t find a suitable location, so she decided to build one on her own land. Her husband was an experienced boat builder and bird carver, so they had the skills needed for the project. She went to the town office, and they told her she couldn’t expand to the back of her land because that is where the well is, she couldn’t expand to the front because of the septic system, to the right was a right of way, and to the left was her sister’s house. “Then we will have to lift up the house, and build underneath it,” she told her husband.
Her husband said, “No, that can’t be done.”
“What do you mean?” Linda replied, “Sure, it can. They do this all the time.” After making a few calls, they found someone who could do the work. Local workers began the project in September 1984 by lifting the house and filling in the foundation. While the contractors were working, Linda and her husband pre-built the walls. Once the contractors were done, they finished the first story quickly. “Fernandez Gift Shop: Linda’s Handknits” was opened on November 9, 1984.
Linda’s shop has been in business for forty-one years. She loves everything about it. She loves walking downstairs and going to work without even leaving her house. She loves that she can knit while she is working. She knits every single day of the year. And she loves the variety of people she meets at her shop. “Every once in a while, a famous person will come into my shop,” she said. “We have done some work for Billy Joel. We designed a custom vest for his wife, and my husband built a couple of boats for him.”
In 2022, Jen Hatmaker, an author, influencer, and podcaster, found Linda’s display of goods at a craft fair in town and bought a sweater with a lobster on it. She posted it on her site. “A week later, people were running up my driveway, and my phone was ringing off the wall,” Linda said. Jen Hatmaker’s endorsement of Linda’s lobster sweater resulted in 137 sales.
Linda’s biggest seller is her custom-knit Christmas stocking. She started making them in 1989 and has sold 3,087 to date. Each stocking takes a day and a half for Linda to knit. Her most unusual stocking is one of the space shuttle that was commissioned for an astronaut in Dallas, Texas. She is booked through the first week of April in 2026.
Linda’s passion for knitting started as a young girl when she used to hold the skeins of yarn for her great-grandmother while she spun it into a ball. “But she didn’t teach me how to knit,” Linda said. Years later, Linda’s sister started her with the basics. “I’ll teach you how to knit a scarf,” she offered.
“I decided if I was going to learn, I would learn how to knit with four needles and do big projects,” Linda said. And that is what she has done.
Linda encourages everyone to learn how to knit. “It is easy,” she said. “All it takes is two sticks and a strand of yarn to make anything you want.”
I may not be picking up knitting needles any time soon, but Linda’s passion for the craft and her perseverance to find a creative solution for opening her shop have inspired me. Not to mention that she managed to create the job she loves and has stuck with for over 41 years!
Linda’s business flourishes even though she does not have a website or any social media accounts. She does not even have the internet. You can call her to place an order at 207-244-7224.
