As the Founder of The Mountain Thread Company, Katherine Lile and her family did some soul searching in 2015 and decided to leave New England to return to Western North Carolina and turn her side-hustle into a full-time craft business.

“I knew Blowing Rock was a destination town,” Lile said. “Visitors here are interested in crafts and useful things that are locally-made to bring home as souvenirs and gifts. It’s also a place where I can connect with other crafters and makers.”

Sewing has been a part of local family traditions for many, according to Lile. She said many women pass this skill from generation to generation, and it can focus on thrifty ways to use up scraps of things. “Material from curtains can turn into a skirt, and material from a skirt can turn into a quilt,” she said. “It’s like telling stories with each of these little bits, and we are incorporating that in a new way with a nod to traditional basketry and Appalachian tradition. This technique of finding ways to form vessels using what we have feels close to home.”

The rope used in The Mountain Thread Company’s baskets is unique. Lile said she went on a hunt for the perfect rope for her baskets and nothing was quite right. After learning more about rope and its fiber content and construction, she learned different types of rope are very industry-specific. She reached out to a NC manufacturer, and now has the perfect rope custom-made for her.

Lile said she knew from the beginning she wanted to participate in her own local economy and culture, and using a NC manufacturer is one of the ways she keeps her product-making close to home. She said some of her fabric designers are located in WNC as well, and the cotton used in her rope is US-grown and milled.

“It’s about as local as we can get in the global textile industry,” she said. “Local may mean different things depending on the items. Keeping our sourcing local may mean that we can’t have everything we want in the store, but that has helped us to keep our focus on what it means to have a local touch.”

The exploding tourism industry in WNC’s High Country has helped her company to grow rapidly in recent years. Lile said she has definitely seen an uptick in foot traffic, and that since August of 2020, the average number of people walking through the door “shot through the roof.” She said her online business has also grown since the beginning of the pandemic as more people began feeling comfortable ordering things online.

“By April of 2023 I had already purchased a million feet of rope from my manufacturer,” Lile said. “In 2022, it took until September to reach that mark.” While much of that rope is used by her and her team for their baskets, she said she also ships her rope to other makers around the country and assembles DIY kits that allow people to make their own baskets. She said this combination is adding up to about 10 miles of rope per week.

The Mountain Thread Company ships kits and rope to all 50 states regularly, and Lile said her baskets have traveled to places like Scandinavia, China, Iraq, and several countries in Africa. While she would rather have everyone come into her Blowing Rock store in person to see, touch, and feel her baskets, she said she is happy to share a little part of her craft and WNC out into the world.

The TDA and the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce have been big supporters of her growing local business, according to Lile. She said many independent businesses exist because they each have their unique niche and lots of local support.

“Blowing Rock is a great, creative place that does a great job of attracting tourists,” Lile said. “Some of these independent businesses on Main Street have been here for 40 years or more. There are a couple of franchises, but it’s mostly people doing their own thing in a place that they love, and it’s a great community to be a part of.”