A knitting pattern for a plush, huggable chicken has turned a small Inglewood yarn shop into a national small business story. The Knitting Tree, L.A. was named to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's 2026 list of Top 100 small-to-midsize businesses in America and named a Global Stars honoree, putting the shop in the running for the Global Stars award.
From Local Pattern to International Phenomenon
Owner Annette Corsino opened The Knitting Tree, L.A. in Inglewood and later created the quirky, colorful, stress-relieving chicken knitting design that has since taken on a life of its own, according to CBS News Los Angeles. The pattern first came out in 2023, and it has since become the subject of nearly 14,000 projects on Ravelry, per knitting.craftgossip.com. The same report notes the pattern still gets hundreds of visits a day on the crafting platform and is now available in five languages, a detail also reflected on The Knitting Tree, L.A.'s own site, which lists both knit and crochet versions of the Emotional Support Chicken.
Finished chickens made from the pattern have picked up playful names among crafters, including Tailfeather Swift, BritHenny Spears, and Chickolas Cage, the CBS report notes. Corsino has said simply that people should hug an emotional support chicken, a sentiment that seems to have resonated well beyond the shop's Inglewood storefront.
A National Honor With Long Odds
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said its Global Stars category honors businesses that have expanded across international borders and grown their global footprint over the past year, per the same CBS report. The category winner will take home $25,000, with the awards banquet set for October 20 in Washington, D.C. Shop owners have said their odds of winning stand at roughly one in ten, according to the outlet's account.
Building Community Beyond the Yarn Aisle
The recognition comes as The Knitting Tree, L.A. has worked to bring together a community of local knitters well beyond its signature chicken pattern. The shop hosts a biweekly Gen Z Knit Night that has drawn between 40 and 50 attendees since it began, according to The LA Local. The gathering's organizer pitched the idea to Corsino, who supported it, wanting something aimed specifically at younger crafters since yarn shops can skew a little older, the outlet reports. Emotional support chickens have been among the projects Gen Z knitters work on during those sessions, per the same account.
Beyond the twice-monthly youth meetup, the shop lists potluck social knitting sessions on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8 and Sundays from noon to 4, according to its website, and it invites customers to take a class or simply join in on the social knitting. Between the classes, the potlucks, and the Knit Night crowd, the shop has built a steady rhythm of gatherings around its needles and yarn long before the national spotlight arrived.
Whether The Knitting Tree, L.A. ultimately wins the Global Stars title in Washington remains to be seen. For now, the Inglewood shop is soaking in the attention its feathered, huggable creation has brought to a corner of Los Angeles not always associated with national business headlines.
