Shop Profile: Knit With Attitude

There sure seem to be a lot of great yarn and haberdasheries in North London! Our next shop profile is of Knit With Attitude - a fun shop located on Stoke Newington's high street that takes great pride in their eco-conscious wool offerings.

How would you describe your shop's atmosphere in three words?

Welcoming, bright and colourful.

What makes you different from other yarn stores?

Knit With Attitude specialise in yarns and accessories that are ethical and eco-friendly. Many of our brands are specifically linked to projects that are empowering poor communities helping them gain financial independency. Also we support sustainable production locally and carry a large selection of 'Made in England' yarns.

What is the most popular type of yarn or product that you carry?

The organic yarns like Eco-Alpaca, Eco-Wool and Pure Milk Fiber are my all time best sellers. 

What expertise or classes do you offer to your customers?

We take a lot of pride into our expertise and abilities to guide our customers. All questions are welcome, and none are regarded as 'stupid'. There is a lot of joy in knitting and we try to make sure that everyone visiting us discover that.

We offer a wide range of crafty classes suited for all levels. We have of course knitting and crochet workshops, but also Lino Printing, screen printing, book binding and doll making to mention a few.

We also have a wine and knit evening, the second Thursday of every month.

What is notable about your part of town/your location?

Stoke Newington is known for being a village within London and has its very own sense of community. If you're looking for the usual high street shops and major chains you won't find them here. The area is filled with small independent shops, cafes and restaurants. Those living in Stokey are very proud of the area and put a lot of effort into maintaining it's uniqueness.

Shop Profile: The Village Haberdashery

Our next shop to be profiled also serves more than knitters and crocheters. The Village Haberdashery is just that - a shop filled with beautiful fabrics and notions for quilting and sewing, in addition to their wonderful yarns! If you're one of those all-round crafters then you'll appreciate all the possibilities that this new West Hampstead shop offers!

How would you describe your shop's atmosphere in three words?
Inspiring, happy and friendly

What makes you different from other yarn stores?
 The Village Haberdashery is much more than a yarn store - we provide supplies for crafters who knit, crochet, sew, quilt, embroider and more! For knitters, our stock includes a mix of popular and hard to find yarn brands as well as the needles, hooks and notions you need to complete your project.

What is the most popular type of yarn or product that you carry?

Milla Mia Naturally Soft Merino is a top seller among our customers. It is affordable, machine-washable and comes in fun colours!

What expertise or classes do you offer to your customers?
We offer a wide variety of classes for a range of crafts and skill levels. For knitters, we offer both ongoing workshops to learn or hone techniques as well as classes around projects such as knitted tea cosies and baby shoes.

What is notable about your part of town/your location?
West Hampstead is a lovely part of London, full of nice restaurants and shops. It's also very easy to get to on the Underground, Overground and Thameslink rail lines.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about yourselves, your shop or your yarn?
We love to inspire our customers to try something new so we fill our shop with bright, colourful and inviting products. You can't help but smile when you walk into The Village Haberdashery!

Shop profile: The Handweavers Studio & Gallery

At Great London Yarn Crawl HQ we're also spinners and weavers in addition to being knitters and crocheters - and we recognise that many of you are too! So we're thrilled to have The Handweavers Studio be part of our first year. They have a terrific space filled with colour to inspire anyone who enjoys working with fluff and string!

How would you describe your shop's atmosphere in three words?

Inspiring, inviting, colourful.

What makes you different from other yarn stores?

A huge range of yarns and fibres available in quantities from small to large, including lots on cones ideal for machine knitters and lots of fine yarns for lace and crochet as well as weaving and machine knitting.

What is the most popular type of yarn or product that you carry?

Apart from merino tops in 100 colours used by felters, our mercerised cotton is extremely popular because of it's lustre and huge range of colours.

What expertise or classes do you offer to your customers?

We offer learn-to-weave and learn-to-spin workshops, also weekly weaving classes and workshops on different weaving techniques including tapestry weaving.

What is notable about your part of town/your location?

We're only five to ten minutes' walk from Finsbury Park station (zone 2) , and are also on lots of bus routes.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about yourselves, your shop or your yarn?

Almost everyone who comes for the first describes it as Aladdin's cave!

Shop Profile: Prick Your Finger

The next shop to be profiled, Prick Your Finger, is a delightfully quirky gem that we were happy to discover near Victoria Park. It's packed with lots of British yarns and oodles of creative energy!

How would you describe your shop's atmosphere in three words?

Everything you touch at Prick Your Finger is made with love, including the walls! Our yarns tell stories. If a yarn un- expectedly jumps out at you, we like to find a map for your new knitting adventure. Our shop is a library of patterns, a laboratory of color, a mill with workers, and a dance floor with a crochet disco ball, a record player and big speakers.

The shop is run by Rachael Matthews and a team of creative helpers.

What makes you different from other yarn stores?

Prick Your Finger happened primarily because we are interested in people, nature, and the process of making. We are committed to UK based and artisan yarns, because it gives us a sense of home, and increases our relationship with our environment. As artists, we are concerned with the impact that textiles has on the planet, and we love to explore how textiles nurture us as individuals and as a community.

A variety of classes in the shop, and opportunity for private lessons. Projects outside of the shop, introduce textiles to a broad range of people. The gallery window presents the work of local and international textile artists. 

What is the most popular type of yarn or product that you carry?

Badges that say 'Moths are Wankers'.

What expertise or classes do you offer to your customers?

Beginners knit and crochet, colour work, textured knitting, darning, tatting, sock and glove workshops, workshops with visiting artists, private lessons.

What is notable about your part of town/your location?

Prick Your Finger is behind the Museum of Childhood, and opposite a great vegetarian cafe called the Larder. We have two popular pubs opposite with real ale and we are a 5 minute walk from Vyner Street, and many other modern art galleries. We are near the newly restored Victoria Park, with a cafe and a boating lake.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about yourselves, your shop or your yarn?

We are inspired on a daily basis by our customers. Customers teach us so much about the generation of ideas and reasons for making. Prick Your Finger is a hub for people with the condition 'creativity'! We love your energy, and want to celebrate what you do next!

Shop Profile: Loop

Our next shop to be profiled likely needs no introduction. Loop has been a fixture of London's knitting scene for many years and especially since they moved to their larger space in Islington's Camden Passage. Their online presence keeps knitters outside of London well-stocked too!

How would you describe your shop's atmosphere in three words? 

Warm, inspiring, friendly.

What makes you different from other yarn stores? 
Loop sources gorgeous knitting and crochet supplies from all over the world as well as vintage haberdashery. We specialise in artisan and natural fibre yarns that not many other shops have.

What is the most popular type of yarn or product that you carry? 
Hand-dyed 4 ply yarns for lace knitting. We are the European Flagship shop for Brooklyn Tweed and Quince yarns. Loop also has the honour of stocking Wollmeise yarn.

What expertise or classes do you offer to your customers? 
Everyone who works at Loop is an excellent knitter. We have a huge range of classes from beginners to advanced with many visiting teachers from around the world offering master classes.

What is notable about your part of town/your location? 
Islington is bustling and Camden Passage is incredibly charming with antique markets on Saturdays and Wednesdays and lots of independent shops around.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about yourselves, your shop or your yarn? 
We look forward to seeing you all!

Shop Profile: (A cozy little) Nest

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be profiling each of the shops that are participating in the Great London Yarn Crawl. First up - Nest. A charming little shop tucked away in North London's Crouch End.

How would you describe your shop's atmosphere in three words?

Friendly, inspiring, cozy.

What makes you different from other yarn stores?

We aim to welcome people with open arms, whether they be newbie knitters or super experienced. We love yarns and are passionate about natural fibres, however we do not aim to be exclusive and stock a range of products to suit all budgets.

What is the most popular type of yarn or product that you carry?

Recently our BC Garn raw silk yarns have been really popular - they are a great alternative to wool or cotton and great value. Malabrigo is always popular for it's fantastic colour combinations and our Rico lines fill the need for good quality basics.

What expertise or classes do you offer to your customers?

We offer a range of workshops through the year - most in demand is our Learn to Love Sewing Up course - so many knitters loathe sewing up but with some time and practise it can be very satisfying.

What is notable about your part of town/your location?

Crouch End is a lovely leafy part of north London. It is well known for is wealth of independant shops and cafes. You can easily spend an afternoon browsing the shops before taking in some tea and homemade cake - our favourite cafe is The Haberdashery.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about yourselves, your shop or your yarn?

Don't forget that we also have a weekly knitting group on Mondays 2-5pm, it's a great way to meet other knitters and share ideas. We have a super cosy 'snug' area and we also serve our own homemade cakes!

The Who

Are you all anxious to know what lovely emporiums we're going to be sending you to in September? Rest assured that we have visited each shop, and are sure you'll enjoy them all!

There are eight participants in this year's yarn crawl:

Handweavers Studio & Gallery
I Knit London
Knit with Attitude
loop
Nest
Prick Your Finger
Sharp Works
The Village Haberdashery

Over the next few weeks leading up to registration, we'll be posting profiles of each shop so you can get an idea of what is available. We're thrilled that these lovely folks have joined in for the inaugural GLYC, and we're looking forward to seeing them in the autumn!

Meet our charity

Part of our goal in putting on this event in the autumn is to give back to the community. There are a couple of ways we see that happening. The first is by bringing together knitters/crocheters/spinners/weavers and giving them an opportunity to explore new shops and make new friends. The second is by donating to a local charity, specifically one devoted to helping women and children. As both of us are women with children, supporting organizations that help those in need is an important thing for us. 

After researching the various London-based women-focused charities around, we've decided that any net profit from this year's event will be donated to Refuge. In their own words:

"Refuge opened the world’s first safe house for women and children escaping domestic violence, in West London, in 1971. Since then we have grown to become the country’s largest single provider of specialist domestic violence services. On any given day our national network of services support over 2,000 women and children. Our life-saving and life-changing services empower women to rebuild their lives, and support children to overcome their traumatic experiences. Refuge is facing unprecedented financial pressure – which is why we need support more than ever before. Thank you to all at Yarn in the City: The Great London Yarn Crawl for your continued support. For more information visit www.refuge.org.uk."

We hope that enthusiastic participation by all you fiber fanatics out there will mean that we can send a chunk of change to Refuge at the end of the day. Thanks so much for your support for such a great cause!

Save the Date! Yarn in the City: The Great London Yarn Crawl is Coming!

Welcome!

We're extremely proud and excited to bring this event to London's thriving community of knitters, crocheters and other fibre artists.

Are you ready to pet some yummy yarn? Then please sync your calendars and devices and save the date:

Saturday, 21 September 2013

Our small - yet mighty! - numbers will explore a fine selection of yarn and haberdashery shops across the city and wrap up our day with pints and prizes at the after-party.

If we also confound everyday Londoners as we work on our projects on public transport between stops on our tour, that's just a bonus!

Watch this space as we post more details about the event over the coming weeks, and be sure to subscribe to the blog (just mouse over that unobtrusive black bar in the upper right hand corner of the blog to enter your email address), to make sure you never miss an update from us.

And if you have questions, or comments, please be sure to let us know! You can always reach us at greatlondonyarncrawl at gmail dot com. If you're on Ravelry, come on over to our group and join the conversation. We're looking forward to seeing you all soon!