My Favorite Places To Order Yarn Online

Because there are no good yarn stores near where I live here in Florida, I shop online for my yarn.  I’ve had to discover good yarn by reading reviews and discovering what expert knitters are using.  And by simply taking a chance and buying unique yarn. (Yarn shown is Miss Babs, Yummy 2-Ply fingering,” Sorcerer”)

As time has passed and I am knitting more, I have found some additions to my list of favorite online shops.

Click on the titles below, which are links the shops.

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Four Purls (LYS)

Four purls is a local yarn store here in Florida, but they sell online. They are located in Winter Haven which is in Central Florida. It’s quite a drive for me, so I have never been to the store. However, I do visit their Yarn Truck when it comes to the East coast. How fabulous is that?

Four Purls yarn truck travels the state of Florida to share yarn with those who don't have yarn stores close by.
The Four Purls yarn truck visits New Smyrna Beach in April 2019

They don’t travel around in summer because of the heat (they set up outdoors), so I must order online, and that experience has been quite good. Shipping is Free for U.S. orders over $49 (as of this writing). Emma’s Yarn is some of my favorite yarn ever and I have made the Dewdrops shawl and Sun-Kissed shawl with Emma’s Yarn. She offers bright tropical colors, which are perfect for us Florida knitters. Shipping is super fast – I’m just a couple hours away!

I like the fact that I am supporting a local store. One day I would love to visit the Four Purls shop.

Wool & Company

I can’t remember how I came across Wool & Company Fine Yarn but they are a favorite place to shop for two BIG reasons: They offer FREE U.S. shipping on any size order, and they will wind the yarn for FREE!

Their shipping is fast and the yarn is packaged in pretty dotted paper, like a gift to open! It’s the little things… and you can see below I got a free little stitch marker as well! (Miss Babs gives gifts like this too.)

Wool & Co. offers a wide selection of great yarn. It’s my favorite place to order Mohair because they will wind it for me! I once asked them to wind 2 of the 7 skeins of Shelter I purchased and discovered they wound all 7 for me! So customer service is above and beyond, IMO.

yarn store wool and company
Polka dot packaging

Yarn.com

The link takes you to “Webs” which is a site full of various types of yarn.  This site also lists reviews by purchasers which I’ve found to be very helpful, and they have free patterns to try.  They offer yarn discounts for certain types of yarn, according to how much you buy.   When you see the blue icon and “webs discount” on the yarn page, the discount applies.  Depending on how much yarn you buy, get either 20% or 25% off.  That is a nice discount!

Shipping can take a while and often color selections are limited.

Thumbs Up: Good discounts, big selections, and sell yarn of all prices, so you can find cheap yarn here.

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Purl Soho

This site has some very pretty yarn for sale, some of which is their own brand.  I’ve bought and used the Worsted Twist to make a scarf and hat.  It is beautiful yarn.   They offer many wonderful free patterns (this is great for any beginner knitter) and wonderful knitting tutorials.  However, often the types of yarn which can also be found on other sites is a dollar or so more expensive at this site.  They don’t give regular discounts, that I’ve seen, but do offer free shipping if you spend a certain amount of money – $110 at the time of this writing.  They will wind the yarn for you, but I don’t know if there is a cost.

Thumbs Up: Unique Yarn and Color Choices, Free Patterns & Excellent video and picture tutorials. Allow comments from readers / buyers.

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Miss Babs

This site offers gorgeous hand-dyed (in Tennessee) yarn.  They will wind a skein for you at a cost of $3.00 per skein.  I used this service for a 1750 yard skein!  This site has named yarns such as “Wild Iris” and “Babette” and I only recently figured out what that means.  The “Wild Iris” label means the color is not repeatable and when it’s sold out, it’s gone.  “Babette” means more will / can be made.

I love the yarn I’ve purchased, and they have sent little gifts with a couple of my orders – a few stitch markers, and a tiny sample of some yarn.  Also they sent a nice thank you card with info on how to reach them if I have questions or need help.  I love to feel appreciated, and tiny touches like that do the trick.

I have knit a Mystery Knit-along Shawl and the Bays Edge Shawl and Fine Sand sweater with Miss Babs yarn.

Thumbs Up: Beautiful & unique yarn and nice product images. Sell partial skeins for small projects / color needs.

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Jimmy Beans Wool

This is a fun place to shop for yarn. Their product views are nice on this site, showing 2 or 3 images, with close-up views. In fact, that is how I found this yarn site. The Webs site, mentioned above, often has only one (not very good) image of yarn colors. When I first signed up, I got a discount coupon for a following order – I always appreciate discounts!

Thumbs Up: Great Images of Yarn & Good Sales & Fast Shipping!

Beach bunny variegated yarn purchased at Wool and Company where the skein was wound for free.
Hedgehog Fibres “Beach Bunny” sock yarn from Wool & Company

The Woolly Thistle

I’m adding The Woolly Thistle as a favorite shop for online ordering of specialty wool yarn imported from the UK, Scotland, Scandinavia, and other far off places. The shop is located in New Hampshire (which definitely caught my attention) and I recently purchased some wool and a book from them (because it’s about NH crafters). Check out this store (and her podcast) if you like to do stranded colorwork with nice wool. Shipping is free if you spend over $99 and it is F A S T!

By Hand book and yarn from The Woolly Thistle shop
My order arrived!

June Knitting Projects Currently in the Works

Easy knitting projects in the works and on my needles in summer.

I have to keep track of what I am knitting so what better place than here on my blog. It may not be of much help to any readers, but maybe it will inspire someone to knit something.  I’m listing them in June, and certainly won’t be done with them in June!

No matter how hard I try, I can’t finish a project before I begin at least one, two or three more. I get bored easily so picking up the same knitting every time I get the urge to knit, won’t work.  So I end up with a number of things going on at once.  Most knitters are this way I imagine.

But, I tend to forget what pattern I am working on.   When I pick up something to work on, I have to scrounge around for the pattern to remind myself what I’m doing.  (The Ravelry site is a good place to do that too, if you don’t have a blog.)

Now I will be keeping my current projects listed here, and will update to show the finished products with notes, advice and whatever I’ve learned along the way.

I won’t begin any more projects until July (Says Who?)

Project 1:   Estrellita Blue Hat with sparkle yarn from Miss Babs -estrellita. I am making up this pattern as I go.  The yarn is pretty, but a bit stiff feeling- not as soft as I’d hoped.  It’s because of the sparkle I suppose.

knitting a blue hat
Ribbed hat in Estrellita sparkle yarn
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Fingering yarn.
CO 120+1 = 120 total (use extra stitch to join only)
K2,P2 around and around for a fold up brim.  It seems small.  Might have to be for a young girl.
Next? Not sure what to do now. I may add stitches to make a slouch hat, or use bigger needles and add another yarn to blend with this one. I’ve never done either of those things, but I may try something new. This could get me into trouble.

Project 2: Spring Green Shawl in fingering yarn from Miss Babs – Katahdin, light fingering.  This is a huge ball of yarn with 1750 yards!  I paid $3 for them to wind it for me.  Totally worth it!

Diamond pattern spring green shawl
Diamond pattern spring green shawl

I keep messing up the diamond pattern design, but I don’t want to frog this item. I have already ripped back to a lifeline, and that wasn’t pretty either. Read My experience using a lifeline to see what happened.

I’m also using the i-cord edging to make neat edges.  This shawl will take a while to finish.

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I’ve decided to just keep going even though the pattern is messed up in places. The shawl will either be for me or my daughter, and neither of us will inspect it too closely. She may never even notice the mistakes.

Project 3: African Gray rectangular shawl using the Terrace Wrap free pattern at Purl Soho.  Using the Dutch Knitting Stitch, which is simple, but this long, rectangular wrap will take a while to finish.  At first I wasn’t happy with the way it curled, but I will continue and hope it flattens when I block it.

Also, I will not have enough yarn of this color to finish, so will have to incorporate another color at some point.

Terrace wrap shawl in african gray
Terrace Wrap shawl in African Gray
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Project 4:  White Hat & Scarf in “natural” Rasta yarn – which will be a gift.  This will probably be what I work on most.  Will be similar to the previous hat and scarf pattern in Arco Iris Rasta yarn.  I’ll be following the Churchmouse Fisherman’s Rib scarf free pattern, and making the hat similar to the one done in “Arco Iris” color.  This yarn is a already a favorite of mine.  It knits up quickly, and is so soft!

Malabrigo rasta yarn in natural color
Malabrigo “Rasta” bulky yarn in color “natural”

How to do the Fisherman’s Rib stitch, also called K1B (knit one below).

My Experience With Using a Lifeline While Knitting

I knew nothing about lifelines in knitting until not long ago. I thought, “what a great idea”. Often I will not attempt a difficult pattern simply because I know I will mess it up eventually, and then what?

Now I know that I will not have to undo all my hard work and start over completely – if I do the lifeline correctly.

The Craftsy site has a page about using lifelines, but I have some other information to add.

First of all, choose a place where going back to pick up the stitches will actually work.

I’m not a very experienced knitter, but I am trying to get better by trying new and bigger projects. I ordered some beautiful “Spring Clover Green” fingering yarn from Miss Babs with the intention of making a rectangular shawl.

big skein of spring green yarn
“Spring Green” Katahdin fingering yarn from Miss Babs – Bluefaced Leicester Wool – 1750 yards

For this shawl project (which is a pattern mostly made up by me, and I will share at some point) I am following a diamond stitch pattern which goes on for 12 rows.  I decided to add a lifeline after the 12th row.

Sure enough, I messed up about 4 rows later, so I decided to go back – rip out stitches to the lifeline – and go from there.

NOT SO EASILY DONE…. The stitches at my lifeline row were so intertwined that I couldn’t follow the lifeline and pick up the stitches….!  I got a tiny crochet hook to try to pull the stitches into place and painstakingly edged my knitting needle along the row.  It took forever!  I nearly threw the entire project into the front yard. The cost of all that nice yarn stopped me…..

The row was such a mess I couldn’t continue the pattern from where I left off, so I did a couple rows of garter stitch and then added a new lifeline. Because this lifeline is on a continuous knit stitch, it should be easier to pick up the stitches if I have to go back.  I’ll move the lifeline up as I get further along in the project.

It messed up my pattern, but the diamond design will now be separated by a few rows of garter stitch.

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Darning needle with floss gets pulled through the stitches

Dental floss is one of the suggestions to use when creating a lifeline. Whatever you use it needs to be easy to see and easy to remove. And make a note as to where you placed the lifeline so you can continue the pattern accordingly.  On the first row above the lifeline simply ignore it and knit the row as the pattern says.  Leave it there until you get further along.  Pull out the floss or yarn and create a new lifeline.

Be sure the yarn or floss is long enough to hang out both ends of the needle so you don’t lose it while knitting.

adding a floss lifeline to my knitting
Pulling floss through my knit stitches to use as a lifeline

lifeline knitting
Be sure to pick up every stitch with that lifeline

Have some of these needle tip covers for to prevent stitches from slipping off. You’ll get a lot of use out of them, believe me.

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Use an end cap so the stitches don’t fall off

I have continued on with this pattern but I am still making mistakes. Since I plan to give this shawl to my daughter, or keep it for myself, I may keep going and see how it goes. I’ve put so much work into it already and I love the yarn color.  Once it is blocked, I think it will look pretty.  I have to learn about blocking.

Missing Yarn Shops and Farm Stands and Unique Crafters

Alice Blue shop
Little shop on School St. in Peterborough NH

New Englander’s are known for their ingenuity. So many independent crafters live in the area, they have formed the  League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. This is a group of individuals who have been identified as superior craftsmen and chosen to be part of this prestigious group. They have a collective show every summer at Mount Sunapee.  I never had a chance to attend, but have seen their wares in fine shops in the area.

When I lived in New Hampshire, it was easy to find handmade items, farm stands, unique gifts, home decor, and beautiful yarn shops. People in the area seem to live and breath the arts.  Just down the road from me was the famous MacDowell Colony.

Artists and Crafters Galore

My next door neighbor was a member of the League and made pewter items in a little shop next to his house, which had once been an Inn. I became friends with his wife and visited his shop once. It was a very small shed located at the side of the yard, filled with all the tools he needed to bring his ideas to life.  I have a little pewter turtle made by him.

At the end of my road was a man who did glass-blowing. Another woman raised rabbits and used the fur to spin yarn. My son’s third grade class took a field trip to a fellow student’s farm to see how sheep were raised to supply wool for knitting. I bought all the plants for my yard from a local farm, in that same town.  And if you wanted a handcrafted basket, head over to the Peterborough Basket Company.

I mention only a few of the many crafty places located close by.  It was a wonderful place to live, and shop if you had the money to enjoy these things.  The atmosphere of the area was quaint and peaceful.

Now That I Am in Florida Once Again

In 1979 I looked forward to moving to Florida.  In 2016 I did not.  I knew what I was in for, times 10.  In my opinion Florida goes downhill year after year.  Grrrrr…… For now, I’m talking about crafts, and specifically yarn arts.

I’ve taken up knitting again, but I must purchase all my yarn online. In order to discover which types of yarn I like best, I have to buy lots of different types whereas, in a shop, I could see the colors and feel the yarn before purchase.  I may even get some much needed advice!

Although I live in a highly populated area, I can’t find a single place close to me to buy a hand-dyed, home spun skein of yarn.  We have Walmarts and Michaels Craft Store, which do not carry that type of yarn.   I keep hoping I am missing something and will stumble upon a cute little yarn shop somewhere that simply doesn’t advertise online.

Yarn Stores Closest to me:  The Knitting Patch and Knit, both in Longwood. There are others in the same general built up area of the state that I try to avoid visiting.

I miss being able to drive to a store and shop for something unique, or pick out beautiful yarn myself. Florida is not conducive to crafters. That is not to say there are none, but this is a big state and I’m not about to drive an hour (through horrendous traffic) to get to a yarn store.

I miss my home and all the talented people who readily share their artistic abilities in the form of their creations. In New Hampshire many artists can make a living doing what they love best.  They’ve carved out a little niche for themselves and made it work.

As I sit here in an air-conditioned house, I pick up my needles and latest knitting project, and dream of home.