With tons of knitting and crochet inspiration in our books and regular chatter with our authors, one topic that often comes up is where do we like to buy yarn? We include some recommended suppliers in each of the books to help you out, but here we’ve collected some of our favourite yarn stores into one handy list. With recommendations from Nicki Trench, Fiona Goble, Laura Strutt and the CICO Books craft editors, here are our top 10 yarn stores...
Mrs Moon
Mrs Moon sell their own beautiful chunky yarns made from the highest quality, ethically sourced, superfine merino and baby alpaca which makes them incredibly soft for all the right reasons. Choose from the ‘Plump DK’, ‘Plump Super Chunky’ or ‘Fluff’ ranges which all come in a gorgeous selection of colours; from modern muted tones of peppermint cream, earl grey and sugared almond to brilliant brights such as raspberry ripple, marmalade and angelica. Ranging from £8 - £15.99 per ball, these are yarns for special knits and treasured crochet projects... though doesn’t that apply to them all?
Love Knitting
If you’re looking for a bit more of a choice in yarn fibre, colour and price, then you can’t go wrong with Love Knitting. Their wide range includes the ever-popular Debbie Bliss yarns with their beautiful textures and colours; the uniquely British and earthy coloured Rowan yarns, perfect for that heritage look; the bright and brilliant Cascade and Paintbox yarns; and much much more. Whatever the project, whatever your knitting or crochet experience and whatever your budget, you’re bound to find a yarn (or six) in this selection!
Wool and the Gang
A quick visit to the Wool and the Gang website or Instagram feed will make you realise just how trendy it is to knit and crochet! Their yarns range from ‘Crazy Sexy Wool’ and ‘Take Care Mohair’ to ‘Jersey Be Good’ and ‘Mixtape’ t-shirt yarns... it’s bound to put you in the crafting (or maybe even dancing!) mood. They have a modern range of colours to match their delightfully named yarns, including stylish autumnal hues (Cinnamon Dust is a personal favourite!) and delicate pastels, such as Lazy Latte and Bubblegum Pink. Now, who’s going to knit me a cosy cinnamon coloured snood...?
Erica Knight
Erica Knight offers a carefully considered collection of simple and sophisticated yarns, with a range of fibres for all of your different purposes and a beautiful choice of colours. ‘Passionate about innovation and heritage in equal balance’, Erica’s yarn includes ‘Vintage Wool’, ‘Studio Linen’, and ‘Gossypium Cotton’, to name just a few. The Mallard coloured ‘Fur Wool’ is simply stunning and I would LOVE a jumper knitted in her moody grey ‘Maxi Wool’, Chaos... who’s with me?
Love Crochet
Similar to the Love Knitting site, this is your go-to store for crochet yarns in a huge range of fibres, prices and colours. Choose from a number of great brands, such as Lion Brand Yarns, DMC, King Cole, and much more. If you’re new to crochet then this is a brilliant place to start your yarn collection and you’re bound to find a colour that will make your projects sing!
Blue Sky Fibers
In the same way that Wool and the Gang makes knitting and crochet a hip and trendy craft; Blue Sky Fibers makes it mysterious and moody with their beautiful lifestyle photography and elegant yarn selection. We just want to dive straight into those photos and wear one of the stylish knitted jumpers! Blue Sky offer a huge choice of fibers – from organic cotton and premium pure Peruvian wool to their own luxurious baby alpaca yarn – and all in a range of beautiful solid and multi colours.
Fyberspates Ltd
Fyberspates began as a hand dyed company and they still focus on colour and texture in their gorgeous yarns. Their ‘Vivacious DK’ and ‘Gleem Lace’ ranges include tonal hand dyed yarns in colours such as Deep Aqua, Slate and Copper Tones, whilst their solid colour ‘Scrumptious’ ranges are a Silk and Merino Wool mix, giving the yarn a beautiful sheen. This is the sort of store where the yarn inspires the project.
Hoooked
Hoooked is all about the ‘stylish re-use of leftover materials’ and there is a fantastic selection of t-shirt yarns in their Zpagetti range. Choose from solid colours, Zpagetti prints, and baby Zpagetti, which is perfect for small accessories. They also offer a lightweight recycled cotton yarn, RibbonXL, and a variety of unusual recycled textile yarns.
Deramores
You’ve no doubt already shopped at the UK’s leading online, award-winning knitting and crochet retailer, but we couldn’t really write this list without including them! Recommended as a supplier in most of our knitting and crochet books, you can find a huge range of yarn brands on Deramores, including some of those that we have already included in this list. They have over 100 of their own brand yarns too, which are brilliant value, ranging from £1.99 to £10.75 in price, and come in a gorgeous range of bold colours.
John Lewis Haberdashery
We’re all for supporting the indies and would recommend that you try the previous nine online yarn stores before John Lewis, but if you need quick delivery then John Lewis’ haberdashery is a good place to go. Stocking yarn brands such as Bergere de France, Debbie Bliss, Erica Knight and Wool and the Gang, you’ll find some high quality yarns here as well as the John Lewis own brand range and many more.
We love a good list on MAKEetc.com so if you have an idea of an idea of something that you'd like us to list then just drop us a line on info@makeetc.com and let us know! Otherwise, we hope you enjoyed this list of our favourite yarn stores...or perhaps we missed your all-time favourite? Why don't you tweet us to let us know!