Julie Schafler Dale, who in the early 1970s founded the influential Manhattan store Julie: Artisans’ Gallery, said Ms. Feldman’s shop had been “a magnet for these young women who were interested in using yarns to create innovative new forms and wearable pieces.”

“That was key in sustaining what people were doing at that time,” she added.

Ms. Feldman also wrote books offering instructions, images and encouragement to readers to work beyond the constraints of standard patterns. “Crochet: Discovery and Design,” published in 1972, was praised in The New York Times for going “beyond baby booties and into ideas that could turn into works of art.” A follow-up, “The Crocheter’s Art: New Dimensions in Free-Form Crochet,” was published in 1974.

“She did want to teach people the basics and then encourage them to go off on their own: to be creative and ‘don’t be afraid to try things and just see what your mind can conjure up with your crochet,’” Gwen Blakley Kinsler, founder of the Crochet Guild of America, said by phone.

Image Ms. Feldman’s book “The Crocheter’s Art” was published in 1974. She wanted, one commentator said, “to teach people the basics and then encourage them to go off on their own.” Credit... via Feldman family

Delores Pitt was born in Chicago on Feb. 23, 1929, to William and Serene (Davis) Pitt. Her father was a kosher butcher, her mother a seamstress. Both parents were immigrants, her father from Poland, her mother from Hungary. The family moved to the East Flatbush area of Brooklyn a few years later.

The household was frugal, but even as a child Delores was creative and resourceful. When Delores was about 10, her mother considered buying a Halloween costume to be a frivolous expense, so Delores created a makeshift Tin Man ensemble using aluminum foil from the kitchen. She also learned to crochet as a child.