Jo-Ann Spera runs an accounting and financial advising office on Brighton Street. When she and her sister Cheryl decided to open a knitting café right next door, the family had a joke ready, she told Boston.com. "The joke in the family is this is a pretty expensive endeavor just to get iced coffee."

The endeavor is The Woolly Brew at 55 Brighton Street. Boston Restaurant Talk reported it open by October 1. It serves coffee and sells yarn, but it was planned around a big table in the back. That table fills a gap in when people can knit together in Belmont. The Belmont Public Library on Concord Avenue already holds fiber-craft groups, and most of them meet in the evening. The café opens at 6:30 on weekday mornings and closes at 5 p.m. Put the two schedules side by side and November has a place to stitch on most days of the week.

Why the café landed on Brighton Street

The sisters didn't start out looking at Brighton Street. According to Boston.com, they searched in April in Winchester, where Cheryl lives, and in Belmont Center. They found parking hard in Winchester and plenty of coffee competition in Belmont Center. Then, on a drive to work, Jo-Ann noticed a new mixed-use building next to her own office, with retail on the ground floor and apartments above. The landlord agreed to move its own rental office off the ground floor to make room.

The space is 1,347 square feet. The lease began August 1, and the shop sits beside Beyond Fitness, near Belmont High School. Construction also started in August, and crews had to move pipes and dig up the floor so the room could handle food service.

Spera told Boston.com that the stretch of Brighton Street between Pleasant Street and Fresh Pond had almost no coffee shops beyond a Dunkin'. She told The Belmont Voice she hopes to draw commuters and Belmont High School students. The 6:30 a.m. weekday opening suits both.

A room in thirds, built around the back table

The idea came from Spera's daughter, who grew up in Belmont and picked up knitting in college. Spera explained the appeal to The Belmont Voice: "A lot of kids in college are knitting now, because they're trying to keep off their phones." She added: "You can socialize and knit, but you can't knit and use your phone."

In April, Spera and her daughter traveled to Denmark and saw shops that combine coffee with retail. At one men's clothing store, a coffee bar inside the shop gave customers a place to linger. Boston.com reported that the trip also introduced the family to hygge, the Danish idea of a cozy, comfortable atmosphere shared with other people.

The floor plan follows that idea. The room is divided into thirds: the café counter near the entrance, "big, comfy couches" and work tables in the middle, and a larger table in the back for crafting, classes and community events. Spera described the goal to Boston.com as "alone together":

"That feeling of being alone together."

She meant a way to be around other people without a forced social event.

The suppliers are almost all regional:

• Coffee and tea: Snowy Owl, based in Brewster
• Croissants: Lakon. Boston.com reported that the bakery had never sold wholesale before and that Spera spent the summer calling until it agreed to try.
• Muffins: The Gingerbread Construction Co. in Winchester
• Whoopie pies: Chococoa Baking Co. & Cafe in Newburyport
• Yarn: Knitting for Olive, a Danish wholesaler the family met on the Denmark trip, and hand-dyed yarn from Toil and Trouble in Salem

There is also a give-and-take bin for leftover balls of yarn. The drink menu covers the usual espresso drinks, cortados and flat whites, plus chai, matcha and a Golden Milk Latte.

What a class at the back table looks like

The Woolly Brew calls its classes Sip & Stitch and lists them by skill level. The two dated classes on its schedule were both in October, so they will have passed by the time you read this. They still show the format. On October 26, a frequent customer named Suzanna taught beaded fingerless gloves at the intermediate level, $60 for one hour with yarn, needles and beads included. On October 28, a beginner class for ages 13 and up covered knitting a first hat in the round on circular needles, $65 for one hour with yarn, needles and a pattern included.

An intermediate prayer-shawl class with Margaret is listed with its date "TBD," and family and community events are marked "Coming Soon!" The owners have said they plan seasonal classes, including projects for making holiday gifts. Spera told Boston.com she would also like to hold evening movie nights after closing someday. The classes page is where any November or December dates will show up first.

Until movie nights exist, the café's day ends at 5 p.m. on weekdays and 2 p.m. on weekends. The library's fiber-craft calendar takes over from there.

The library's groups mostly meet after the café closes

The Belmont Public Library at 336 Concord Avenue lists four fiber-craft programs in November. Their times fill the hours the café is closed far more than they overlap with its counter hours.

Evening Knitting Club is for knitters, crocheters, quilters and other fiber crafters who want to share projects and socialize. It meets from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in Community Classroom–201, two hours after the café closes, and registration is requested.

Fiber Creatives is a weekly group for knitters, crocheters, quilters and other fiber workers. The library notes that it is not a class. It meets on Fridays from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the Waverley Oaks Meeting Room, and no registration is required. It is the one group that meets while The Woolly Brew is open, so a Friday can start with a croissant on Brighton Street and continue with an afternoon of stitching on Concord Avenue.

Unwind: Teen Yarn Club includes a crochet lesson and shared creative time in the Teen Room. It starts at 4:30 p.m., which works for the high school students the café also hopes to attract.

Craft: Wool Felted Fall Scene is a one-evening project where participants make a pumpkin or another fall-themed piece in Morrissey Hall–119.

November, day by day

This post goes up on Thursday, November 5, so the list starts the next day:

1. Friday, November 6, 1:00–3:00 p.m. Fiber Creatives, Waverley Oaks Meeting Room. No registration.
2. Monday, November 9, 4:30–6:00 p.m. Unwind: Teen Yarn Club, Teen Room.
3. Friday, November 13, 1:00–3:00 p.m. Fiber Creatives again.
4. Monday, November 16, 6:00–8:00 p.m. Wool Felted Fall Scene, Morrissey Hall–119.
5. Monday, November 16, 7:00–8:30 p.m. Evening Knitting Club, Community Classroom–201. This overlaps the felting session in a different room, so pick one.
6. Monday, November 30, 7:00–8:30 p.m. Evening Knitting Club, the last library fiber session of the month.

The Woolly Brew is open every day around those dates: 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Weekends are the café's alone, since none of the library's November fiber sessions above fall on a Saturday or Sunday. Both calendars are live pages, and the library's November calendar is the place to confirm a room or time before you pack your needles.

Getting to 55 Brighton Street

The MBTA's route 78, which runs between Arlmont Village and Harvard Station, stops on Brighton Street at Hittinger Street, Statler Road and Oliver Road. Comella's and Jon-Son Associates are on the same end of Brighton Street, and Beyond Fitness is right next door. A half-finished hat fits in a coat pocket on the ride, and the give-and-take bin is a good place to leave the yarn that never became anything.

Sarah's background is in art and design, and she pays attention to the places that give a town its texture, like a new back table on Brighton Street where people can sit alone together. If you have a Belmont spot you think belongs on that list, or you're curious how this corner of town is changing, Sarah Shimoff would love to hear from you. Let's Connect.