Before moving home to Indiana, Erica Kempf Broughton was working on her Ph.D in paleoanthropology in England. She spent a lot of time knitting on her daily train commute and decided to join a local group as a hobby.

“I discovered I did not want to be an academic when I grew up,” she said, “I looked at what is was I was doing that I would want to be when I grow up, and the answer was fiber arts.”

Kempf Broughton named her business Nomad Yarns in 2010 because of her extensive travels before opening the brick-and-mortar store in Plainfield, Indiana. Eight years later, she mobilized the business in a box truck and gave the company name a second meaning.

Her husband, Dave Broughton, dyes the yarn and sits in the passenger while she drives the truck throughout central Indiana. They park at farmers markets and small business in towns that no longer have local yarn shops.

Nomad Yarns carries synthetic, animal-based and plant-based yarns. Nearly a third of the yarns on-board are hand dyed by Broughton.

Kempf Broughton said she has seen a wide range of customers, with the average being in their 30s and 40s.

“I’ve met some awesome grannies, but our primary audience- as a brick and mortar, and now especially as the truck- are a lot younger people,” she said.

Kempf Broughton said the one of the hardest parts of transitioning to a mobile store is making sure costumers know where the truck will be stopping each month. Nomad Yarns makes monthly stops in Bloomington, Terra Haute, downtown Indianapolis, and Greencastle.

With the recent closer of Broad Ripple Knits in October, Kempf Broughton said she is looking to add a Broad Ripple stop to the list next year.

The truck will be hibernating until March, but online ordering will remain available at nomadyarnshop.com