Tariffs

Fiona Harrigan | 8.28.2025 11:25 AM

As President Donald Trump's tariffs make life less affordable and predictable for Americans, they're also threatening to make it less creative. American craft stores are struggling to keep up with ever-changing trade policies, which are making the foreign-made products they stock more expensive and difficult to access. Many foreign craft supply companies are now unable to ship to American consumers at all.

Dana Chadwell founded Chattanooga Yarn Company three years ago when she "saw a niche in the local market that wasn't being filled by the big box stores such as JoAnn, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby." 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 a successful venture "in both the business and community aspect" and "I'm truly living my dreams," Chadwell explains—but tariffs have thrown her shop into a world of uncertainty.

Over 90 percent of her stock has been affected by tariffs, Chadwell says. "Every supplier I have, minus one, from major to minor, has had a price increase," she continues. "Because the tariff situation has been so unpredictable…it has made long term planning impossible."

"I feel like I'm stuck in a reactive rather than proactive status," says Chadwell.

From aluminum knitting needles to printed garment fabric to bottles of oil paint, American crafters work with many materials that are 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

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