In the last 5 years I’ve lived in 3 states. With all that moving, it’s been difficult shopping for yarn at local shops. I love supporting small businesses, but inevitably many brick and mortar shops have turned to online shops for their survival. Not all my online yarn purchases are from small businesses, but I do try and search them out.
Here’s a few of my recent online yarn shopping finds, all of which have been fantastic for service and selection!
Simply Sock Yarn Company
The Simply Sock Yarn Company has an extraordinary selection of fingering weight, sock yarns. But, I found them when I was looking for Malabrigo Rasta for some chunky hats. This is not just a sock yarn store! Sure, most of their inventory seems to lean toward the teensy yarns, which I love, but they also have plenty of heavier weight options as well.
I ordered both sock weight yarns and bulky weight yarns from them prior to Christmas and was thrilled at how quickly my items were shipped out. A huge winner in my book for a relatively small business.
Bonus: The photos on their website were very accurate for the yarn I received!
Wool and Company
Wool and Company has the most elegant and sophisticated website I’ve seen for yarn! Okay, so that might not matter much to everyone, but for someone trying to build a website worthy of your time, let me tell you it’s no small accomplishment. It certainly makes the online shopping more fun when it all looks so pretty. I wish I was close enough to the Chicago area to go wander around their storefront.
I purchased my Lettlopi yarns from their store… along with a second sweater quantity of Cascade 220 and some Cascade Heritage for socks (see those here). Wool and Company has all sorts of yarns available and in stock ready to ship. Like Simply Sock Yarn, my order arrived less than a week after purchase. I’ll admit it, I’m Amazon-trained to expect my items super-fast and I was not at all disappointed.
Bonus: Free ball winding if you’d like, and several brands are an extra 10% off if your total purchase reaches $100. Very easy to do with the wide selection they offer!
Must Stash Yarn
If you’re looking for self-striping sock yarn that will knock your socks off (pun totally intended), I highly recommend Must Stash Yarn based in Texas. Stacie is the owner/creator and after a few interactions with her over special circumstances for my order, I can tell you this company really cares about their customers. I felt so ridiculous asking for my order to be held since I messed up the dates and would be between addresses when it shipped, but I got an email back within minutes full of kindness and understanding. This is what we all want from businesses but it’s rare to receive and definitely worth noting.
On to the yarn… it’s spectacular. Colors are vivid and uniform, stripes start and stop in some magical way with no bleed-over between colors. The yarn base is the perfect balance between slippery, squishy, soft and tough enough to last. I really can’t say enough about Must Stash yarn. If you like stripes, this is the one to get!
Bonus: The 100g skeins come in 2-50g hanks with identical colors, so you can make a perfectly matched pair without any waste. Brilliant!
Knitting for Olive
As much as I admire bright and colorful yarns, there’s just nothing like the perfect neutrals. For that, I recommend Knitting for Olive based in Denmark. It’s gorgeous yarn and though there are many vivid color options, I think they really shine with their neutrals. So much so that it can be hard to choose which one I want. Their website has an awesome feature where they show complimentary colors if you need some help. I currently have a sweater quantity of DK and Mohair waiting for me to cast on. The yarn is so scrumptious, I squeeze it every time I dig in my stash. I can’t wait to get it on the needles and share how it knits up!
Bonus: Free international shipping is available on your first order. My order from Denmark to the US only took 2 weeks, which is pretty incredible if you think about it.
And for Bigger Shopping Options…
Wool Warehouse is phenomenal. Their service and shipping is great (from UK to US for me) and their selection includes loads of dreaded acrylic that is sometimes just necessary. Notions and fabrics are available too. My favorite part of Wool Warehouse is the vast array of colors available, and they sell a bunch of Drops yarn which is fantastic and highly underrated, in my opinion. Try out Drops Karisma and you’ll see what I mean!
A close second is Laughing Hens. Another UK based company and again, fantastic service. Their selection is smaller than Wool Warehouse, but if you’re looking for Regia Merino Yak (and let’s face it, we all need more of that in our stash) Laughing Hens is the place to look.
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