Wool and Honey is celebrating 24 years of business in the quiet yet bustling town of Cedar, leading to a prosperous life and opening its doors to the Leelanau wool-loving public.
Liz Neddo is the fourth owner of the wool business. She has been operating it since 2014. It all started with an interest in natural dyeing and learning how to knit. She also loves shopping, which makes a retail space even more enjoyable.
“We really like doing local yarn and U.S. wools from U.S. companies. That’s how we’ve branded as unique homegrown dyers,” she said. “The things that we love around here, the area, the beauty, going to the beach, all of those things tie into the natural fibers and knitting of our makers.”
The hive of Wool and Honey is the center of it all down in Cedar.
Wool and Honey’s focus is on thoughtful companies who add to their quaint storefront. Wool and Honey has prided itself in surviving in winter months, which has led them to staying open year-round.
“We would launch things in the winter months and then we had to have savings and things taken care of to make a yarn shop work in Cedar,” Neddo said. “All of those things were planned ... when the shutdown happened, we already had all of our winter promotions and things going.”
Liz and her family have battled through plenty of adversity in recent years. Her oldest daughter, Cecily, had childhood cancer. Cecily was diagnosed with a brain tumor in January 2023 and is now in recovery.
“When things got really hard with cancer, I was gone a lot and also didn’t want to see people. When I started getting back into being here, I thought it was going to be too hard or I didn’t think I could do it,” Liz said. “It was all the customers that made the difference. They came and hugged and cried with me and brought flowers and meals ... It’s an amazing community to be with all these makers.”
Cecily just hit a year of finishing up treatment, and they are still battling the waves of trauma. The road will not be easy, but they are fighting regardless.
“She’s lost a lot of peripheral (vision) ... reading and scanning across is harder and there’s a little delay,” Liz said.
Cecily will be starting physical therapy and occupational therapy to help with her eye. Cecily was part of Dig Abbey, a fundraiser hosted by Leland High School volleyball.
Neddo admits that she has a new lens on life after watching her daughter go through that, along with a rough pregnancy with her youngest daughter, Felicity. Liz recently turned 40, and she feels like the lessons of the first 40 years will help in the next 40.
“The new lenses on life are pretty wonderful ... we don’t want drama, done with drama,” she said. “I went through the first 40 years of my life and went through traumatic things with both of my girls, and I got that out of the way. I’ve got my life lessons. I’ve hit good strides through life and gone through some tough stuff that I feel extremely prepared for the next 40.”
Every Thursday night, the local knitting community welcomes people to knit at Bohemian Beach at 7 p.m.
“To be able to sit there, see the sunset, feet in the sand, listening to the waves, is just rejuvenating and soul-filling, and sitting there stitching along, laughing with friends,” Neddo said.
Neddo remembers when they had a big event a few years back where there were 200 knitters on the beach. Talk about a scene.
Wool and Honey is busy finishing up large orders and preparing for a trunk show in July with visiting natural dyers.
“It’s constantly a creative explosion. It’s just how to fit it all in. There’s always something new every week showing up,” she said.
Wool and Honey will be starting a knitting club in July that hasn’t been operational for the last year and a half. This will happen every Saturday, and Zoom is an option as well. Neddo also hosts one-on-one appointments and group events.
Neddo says knitting, at least in her opinion, has grown in Leelanau County since COVID because more people are focusing on learning a skill to slow down and practice. As well as wanting to make items with local sourcing. Wool and Honey’s yarn is described as novelty.
The crafty store carries dozens of types of yarn, including yarn by weight. Wool and Honey even has local Alpaca yarn that Liz says is beyond special to use. They also carry kits, bags & notions, photos, and many other artistry items.
“We’ve got gals that come that spin and some that do crossstitch, so we like to mix it up. And not all of us are versed in all of it, but it’s nice to have,” Liz said.
