Locally spun: Alex Wheeler is the new woman behind Wasatch & Wool Yarns

If you’ve ever picked up a set of knitting needles or watched someone crochet, you realize you’re participating in something bygone. Not old-fashioned, not outdated—but ancient. People have been weaving and knitting for thousands of years, and somewhere in that rhythm of looping and pulling and creating, you find yourself engaged in human behavior that’s a bridge to our ancestors. We’re talking deep human connection that transcends “just a hobby.” Alex Wheeler understands this better than most, and she’s made it her mission to make sure Park City does too.

Wasatch and Wool Yarns, tucked into the heart of our community, is a gathering place, a creative incubator, and a space that Alex has poured her entire self into since taking over the shop in 2025. If you haven’t stopped in yet, consider this your invitation.

Alex’s story with fiber arts starts the way so many do: at her mother’s side. She was 12 years old, watching her mom crochet hats and bandages for leper colonies, when curiosity got the better of her. “What is she doing? Teach me how to do this,” Alex remembers thinking. And so it began.

She crocheted through her teens. At 18, she spotted her sister-in-law knitting. One lesson later, she was hooked (pun fully intended). Twenty-five years of knitting followed, and, along the way, she has become a devoted spinner, a lifelong learner, and a deeply passionate connector of people.

A Utah native, Alex grew up in Lindon—in the shadow of Mount Timpanogos—in a lively family of seven kids. She attended Southern Utah University, took a brief detour to Las Vegas, and promptly decided she was never leaving Utah again. “The mountains have meant so much to me growing up,” she says. “This is my place.”

Before Alex owned Wasatch and Wool, she was a loyal customer. She read every newsletter, including last spring’s, in which the previous owner, Margaux Kelleher, announced she wanted to retire and was looking for someone to carry the shop forward. Alex felt something shift in her chest. “My whole body tingled,” she recalls. “I just knew I needed to reach out to her.” 

Rather than overthink it, she met Margaux for coffee. The two women spent their conversation in tears in the best possible way. It felt right, and Alex took the leap.

Running a small business is no joke. Between ordering inventory, managing social media, navigating taxes, and building programming, it’s turned into something far bigger than Alex anticipated. She also maintains her full-time role at Bridge Investment Group, managing real estate development across the western US, and serves as president of CREW Utah (Commercial Real Estate Women), a three-year commitment she’s passionate about. 

All that work doesn’t dim the way she lights up when talking about the shop. “Getting to know so many more people in the community, the repeat customers that I get to know are not just people coming in to shop…they are friends.”

Community-builders usually have a pretty good story attached to them. Alex met her husband Andy through real estate; he’s an industrial broker who had already called Park City home for about 15 years before their paths crossed. Both sold their separate places, bought a townhome together in Lower Pinebrook, and rolled up their sleeves to remodel much of it themselves. Two people with construction and real estate backgrounds renovating a home together is either a recipe for disaster or a love story—for them, it was the latter. They married in May 2021, and somewhere between the ceremony and the honeymoon in Hawaii, they also acquired Winston.

Winston is a goldendoodle, the undisputed heart of Wasatch and Wool. He accompanies Alex to the shop, greets every customer with the enthusiasm that only a dog can bring, and has a particular talent for leaning into people until they pet him. “We’re definitely codependent,” Alex laughs. 

Alex and Andy share a love of the outdoors that fits neatly into their Park City life. It’s a full, happy existence. Then, Alex added a yarn shop to it. Why? Because that’s who she is.

As you walk into Wasatch and Wool, it feels like a living room. This is intentional; Alex opened up the back space specifically to create that sense of warmth. She’s also deliberate about the culture she fosters inside those walls.

“I am deeply, deeply connected to and believe that we need to have a space for everyone,” she says. “Regardless of age, race, [whether you’re] male or female.” And she means it. Her number-one priority, always, is making sure every single person feels completely welcome.

Alex remembers her own early experiences walking into yarn shops and feeling intimidated, convinced she would ask a dumb question or reveal how little she knew. She refuses to let this be the experience at her shop. “I want you to ask questions. I want to come in and get excited for you learning something new. There’s no shame in it; we’re all here learning, we’re all just exploring and getting creative.”

She’s also a firm believer in continued learning. Before buying the shop, she was a student in Tori’s classes—and still is. Recently, she completed a two-at-a-time sock class, a notoriously intricate technique she’d somehow never tackled in more than two decades of knitting. She holds up her unfinished cashmere-blend socks with a grin that says everything about why she does this. 

Ask Alex why fiber arts matter, and she’ll tell you about stockings.

Her great-grandmother spent years crocheting personalized Christmas stockings for the whole family. She passed away while the family continued growing, leaving half her grandchildren and great-grandchildren without one. Over the holidays this past year, Alex picked one up, studied it carefully, and made a quiet decision: She was going to finish what her great-grandmother started. Now, she’s replicating them for the rest of the family.

Back in college, Alex gave only handmade gifts. One year, it was soap and a washcloth; each present came with a handwritten note about a memory with the person she’d thought of while making it. “It’s not just gift-giving,” she says. “It’s really true, true connection to another person.”

This is the thing about sitting around a table and knitting together: The conversation flows in ways it wouldn’t anywhere else. During one of Tori’s classes, a customer paused at the end of a class and said, “We’re doing something that people did hundreds and thousands of years ago. It feels primal, ‘back to our basics,’ and we’re creating community while we do it.” Alex still gets emotional sharing this story.

One of the things she is most excited to share with customers is the full journey of yarn: from the animal, to the fiber, to the finished skein (pronounced skayn) in your hands. Last year, she announced a sheep-shearing day in Woods Cross with Honeybee Wool, where customers could watch the sheep of a local partner farm being sheared, examine their raw fleece, and connect with the two women who have been best friends for years and now raise sheep together. Alex is planning more visits to local farms to deepen the connection to our fiber.

She carries yarns with stories attached, including a vibrant line from a Minneapolis-based dyer who sources from a climate-beneficial farm in Shaniko, Oregon, where sustainable soil-practices and ethical animal care are central to the operation. “If you’re going to be making an heirloom garment and spending the time on it,” Alex says, “it’s an added bonus to understand where it comes from.” She’s a spinner herself, so on the horizon for her shop are spinning and natural dyeing classes. She’s also getting to know fellow yarn shop owners across the state and feels it’s important to bring in local dyers in service of supporting this community.

Every Tuesday, Wasatch and Wool hosts Prosecco and Purls, an open knitting night where anyone can pull up a chair and stitch alongside friends, old and new. Classes run regularly and range from beginner-friendly one-hour sessions to those with more advanced techniques, like beaded knitting and stranded colorwork. Ongoing community events include Stitch & Watch with Park City Library (mark your calendar for Oct. 20; Hocus Pocus is the featured film), as well as Christmas classes starting in the fall (watch for updates at wasatchandwool.com). And Oct. 1 is the shop’s one-year anniversary, so stay tuned for a party!

If you’ve been curious about knitting or crocheting but felt like you needed to already know something before you walked in the door, hear this: You don’t. Alex has built a place where the only requirement is an open mind and maybe a bit of curiosity. The rest will follow, one stitch at a time.

Wasatch and Wool Yarns is located in Park City at 1200 Iron Horse Drive, Unit A.