ALTAMONT — The Spinning Room — long a gathering space for the pursuit of fine handwork and the sale of fine yarns — has changed hands. Deirdre DeSantis has passed the yarn to six pairs of experienced hands.

“Most of us started out as customers,” said Yvette Terplak, one of the six partners.

Terplak, a retired Altamont teacher, was there for the genesis of the shop, which occupies the bottom floor of a Victorian building on the corner of Maple Avenue and Main Street in the heart of the village.

Referring to the two women who founded the shop 13 years ago, Mary Oates and Susan Hillard, Terplak said,  “Mary and Susan and myself and three others began knitting together about 25 years ago. All of our kids had sheep at the Altamont Fair. We started spinning their wool to knit with. Everybody said, ‘We need a good yarn shop.’”

The women weren’t impressed with the kinds of yarn available in chain stores. “Mary and Susan decided to start a business,” recalled Terplak. “I was still teaching but I’d fluff yarn for Mary.”

Oates and Hillard opened the shop in 2003; Hillard sold her share to Oates in 2005; Oates then sold the yarn shop to Liz Cassidy in 2008; and, in 2011, Cassidy sold it to DeSantis.

“When Dierdre told us she was going to sell…we didn’t want the shop to close,” said Terplak. “No one wanted to invest all the money.”

Lisa Bates, one of the partners, recalls how the group-ownership idea unfolded. She is a member of The Knowledgeable Knitters Group, founded by a teacher as a study group for advanced knitting techniques. The group members were “so sad the store was for sale,” said Bates and they began talking about what to do. One of them knew of a group-owned knitting shop in Watkins Glen.

Bates went to the shop in Watkins Glen, in central New York, the next week, talking to the owners for several hours, and then shared with others what she had learned.

“There were a lot of emails,” said Nancy Cobb, one of the Spinning Room partners. Gradually, six committed women emerged.

Bates attended a “boot camp on how to be an entrepreneur” and was joined by Kathy Loegering, another of the six partners.

“We learned what we didn’t know,” quipped Bates.

The six partners took ownership on Aug. 1. “We’ve only been doing this a month,” said Terplak. “We’re learning. We set up a managerial system; we each have different roles.”

The group is continuing to maintain the shop’s website and newsletter. Terplak’s role is to keep track of the teaching schedule.

A grand-opening celebration week is scheduled for Sept. 15 to 21. The six partners Bates and Loegering of Delmar, Cobb of Schenectady, Heike Geisler of Cobleskill, Mari DeSess of Guilderland, and Terplak of Altamont — will be on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 15.

The Spinning Room will continue to be a place to socialize and learn as well as to shop, said Terplak.  “We have many teachers,” she went on. “I teach wet felting.” The technique she teaches can be used to make items ranging from hats to bookmarks, she said, adding, “I’m a dabbler.”

Knitting, crocheting, and spinning are all taught at the shop. “We get students of all levels,” Terplak said. Fees are charged to pay the teachers. “The shop gets a small percentage,” said Terplak.

She also said, “People drop in for help.”

Every Wednesday evening is set aside as a time for women — “We’ve had one or two men,” said Terplak — to come to the shop to knit and talk.

Since many elderly knitters didn’t want to drive at night, another drop-in session was started for Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m. Knitters in that group come from as far away as Amsterdam, Round Lake, Clifton Park, Berne “and further up the Hill,” said Terplak.

“Some go out to dinner afterwards,” said Terplak, noting they most often dine just down the block at the Home Front Café.

On Tuesday, the six partners gathered in their shop, working away on their projects as they met to discuss business. The newly painted walls were made bright by cubbies full of yarn in every color in the rainbow.

“We have a cross-section,” said Cobb. Customers making baby clothes often prefer acrylic, she said, because it is washable. But the shop also stocks yarns made of cashmere, yam, baby alpaca, silk, and bamboo.

Some of the yarns are dyed locally — by Periwinkle Sheep and Peace, Love, and Yarn. Terplak displayed two soft balls of roving made by Jane Lyman.

“This comes from local sheep,” she said.