About Us

Brooklyn General Store is tucked away on a sweet block West of the Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill neighborhoods and North of  Red Hook.  This commercial block on Union Street used to be a thriving shopping block for all types of foods and goods.   Brooklyn General’s home within the Old Frank’s Department Store is a throw back to that era, with its preserved floor to ceiling shelves, rolling ladders and classic old wooden floors.  The vintage interior is not reproduced, just uncovered, cleaned and painted.

Brooklyn General Store was created in an effort to provide the highest quality materials to a community of devoted artists and craftspeople and to promote making things by hand through inspiration and education.  Not only is it a place to feast your eyes and hands on glorious colors and patterns and textures but it is a place that respects and honors a time when a trip to the country store was a way of life.  It is a place where a quick trip for a yard of fabric or a skein of yarn turns into an hour of sharing, teaching, inspiring and encouraging all the amazing and creative makers that are also out for that quick trip to the General Store... 

Following its mission to promote all things handmade, Brooklyn General offers a wide variety of classes in knitting, sewing, quilting, felting, spinning, rug hooking and embroidery.  Classes are limited in size in order for students to have ample individual attention.  Studio time with our fantastic BERNINA classroom machines is also available. BrooklynGeneral.com was created to share our carefully picked goods with all the creative souls outside of Brooklyn, NY.

Makda Amdetsyon, Lou Dekter and Brendan Kenny

Your amazing multi-passionate Makers here to help you find your next project!

Carlene Avalone

Carlene has been working at Brooklyn General since February 2018. She loves knitting shawls, sweaters, and summer tops. There are more than 47 owls in her bedroom in the form of incidentally acquired paintings, needle-pointed pillows, and figurines.

Catherine Clark

Catherine has been knitting and sewing since the age of 5. She has grand ideas and follows through on most though she may take the scenic route at times because she can't stop making. Her favorite music is Western Swing, Joni Mitchell and all the folky, bluesy, raspy, deep and rich love sick songs there are no matter what genre. In addition to knitting and sewing, dancing and singing are her favorite things to do. My favorite color is where blue meets green...when it is hard to tell where it falls. Followed by a rich magenta, earthy yellow and denim blue. Basically, stick me in a Renaissance fresco painting and I'll be in heaven. Catherine is the founder and owner of Brooklyn General. She is also a Midwife and has been working to serve the women of Brooklyn for 25 years.