Knitting Supply

There are all sorts of sources for knitting supply out there, from your local craft shop to the seemingly countless numbers of craft shops, discounters and wholesalers on the Internet. Where should you go for which supplies and how do you know you’re getting a good deal? Here’s a guide to knitting supply from one who has shopped for more yarn than she cares to admit.

The vast majority of knitters love supporting local merchants. Shopping locally is so popular among knitters that you’ll often run across the acronym LYS—meaning local yarn shop—on knitting message boards and websites.

Your LYS is the perfect place for window shopping. If you want to touch samples to know how a yarn will feel against your skin, your local yarn shop is the best place to visit. If you’re looking for help with a project, want to know the best kind of needles to use with a certain kind of yarn, or are just looking for something beautiful to add to your stash, the LYS is the perfect knitting supply home base.

The only disadvantages of going to an LYS are that the selection is usually not huge, so you may not be able to find a specific yarn or notion that a pattern calls for, and they are often more expensive than larger shops or Internet retailers.

I have to admit that I’m guilty of buying a lot of my yarn from a crafts superstore. Convenience is a major factor here: it’s less than a mile from my house. I also tend to knit a lot of my everyday kinds of projects with Lion yarn, which they have a good selection of.

The mega stores have gotten better in the past few years. Selection has improved, and the quality is great for the usually lower price you pay at one of these stores. They usually have large selections of each type of yarn, so you can find enough of the same dye lot to complete a large project (stores big and small can also order a large quantity of the same dye lot if you don’t see enough on the shelves).

The main disadvantage of shopping at a mega store is the lack of high-quality, high-dollar knitting supply like you will fins at your LYS. You won’t be able to find alpaca, angora or other special luxury yarns at a mega store. The fanciest needles you’ll find are likely to be bamboo, and the store probably won’t stock all sizes of needles that you might need. Also, the staff might not be as experienced with knitting as the staff at your LYS. Some stores are better than others at hiring knowledgeable staff, but that’s true with any business.

There are huge numbers of knitting supply stores on the Internet, selling just about any kind of thread you can imagine. You can even in some cases buy directly from the manufacturer, which will get you a much better deal than you could get at your local shop.

The main advantage of the Internet is that you can find almost anything if you look hard enough. Cost is usually lower on the Internet, too, because you can shop around for the best price of a certain brand, knowing that the yarn itself is the same no matter where you buy it from.

The main disadvantage of getting your knitting supply, particularly yarn, from the Internet is that the whole transaction takes place on a screen. You can’t really see the fibers, you can’t touch them, and the color on your monitor could cause you to buy yarn that is wildly different in reality from what you thought you were getting.

Thankfully, most Internet retailers have reasonable return policies, so you can return any yarn you don’t like in person. Dealing with online customer service can be slow and frustrating, again, depending on the company. The good news is many Internet knitting supply retailers have real shops somewhere, so if all else fails you can call them to get your problem straightened out.

I’ve done a lot of shopping online for yarn and other knitting supplies, and for the most part it has been a very enjoyable experience. The one complaint I have with most knitting retailers I have purchased through is that they don’t give good shipping estimates.

That’s probably because shipping usually is done via the U.S. Post Office rather than FedEx or UPS, which would allow for easier tracking of packages. But an e-mail when the package is shipped doesn’t seem unreasonable. If you’re ever asked for your opinion of an online shop’s service, let them know you’d like better shipping estimates.

That said, here are some of my favorite online knitting supply merchants.

• Yarn Market has a solid collection of brands, from Berroco to Debbie Bliss, Rowan to Zitron. It’s easy to browse yarns on this site by brand, fiber content, texture, color and gauge, which is very cool when you’ve got an old pattern designed for yarn that is no longer available. A needle finder lets you search their wide selection of needles by brand, type (circular, straight, double pointed, etc.) and material (including bamboo, metal, coconut palm, rosewood and more). Many projects are also available for purchase.

• Knit Picks was the first place I even bought yarn online and I still love it. Knit Picks has a wonderful selection of private-label yarn and offers a wide range of patterns. Some patterns are designed specifically for the yarn, but the site also offers recommendations for using their yarn in patterns published in books. Price is the big incentive for shopping at Knit Picks. The yarns are high quality and much cheaper than similar yarns you could buy elsewhere.

• Hello Knitty is a fun site with interesting patterns and a good collection of boutique yarns.

If you’re looking for a particular yarn, plug the brand into your favorite search engine and see if you can find the best price. And if you’re really trying to save money on your knitting supply, hit an auction site. You might have to spend a long time waiting for the exact item you are looking for, but this is a cheap way to get lots of great knitting supply items.

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