Local yarn in England and Wales

In Keswick you want to try to find some Herdwick Wool- the local breed of sheep.

My first thought would be a shop called Needles and Pins on Keswick Main Street. They don't seem to have any internet or social media presence but as far as I am aware still exist. I'm not scheduled to be in Keswick for a week or two so can't immediately check for contact details (or if they still exist!!) for you.

Also try the Rheged Centre at Penrith- there is an hourly bus from Keswick to Penrith which calls in at Rheged (maybe do that on your way into Keswick from Conwy. If doing that take the 20 minutes past each hour bus from Penrith Station, 50 past from Keswick- the other one at 50 from Penrith/20 from Keswick doesn't officially stop there (but might set you down at Stainton Road End if you ask nicely). That happened to me the other week when someone caught the wrong bus.

My other thought would be to contact Made in Cumbria for ideas- https://madeincumbria.co.uk/

One last idea, and I'm being cheeky here, is to contact the Yew Tree Farm in Borrowdale for ideas, They are great proponents of Herdwick Sheep (probably the best place around to eat Herdwick lamb) and were visited a number of times by Prince (now King) Charles-https://borrowdaleyewtreefarm.co.uk/

I apologise to them if that is a forward suggestion, but who knows, it may work

I found my way into this knitting shop in London -- https://loopknitting.com/en-us

Hi, isn31c-- Thanks for another round of helpful suggestions about wool and potential shops. :) I chuckled at your idea for contacting Yew Tree Farm, but I agree it would make sense for them to know, or to know someone who would know. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for Needles and Pins when we're wandering about Keswick. I just checked google maps, and it was still there whenever they last took pictures of the street. Thanks again!

Thanks, VAP! I just checked out their website, and the shop looks lovely! Our time in London might just get a bit busier... :)

I got a positive ID on Needles and Pins in Keswick too. 78 Main Street.

VAP's recommendation for the store in Camden Passage is a good one. Camden Passage is a cute little street for shopping in Islington.

If you want London tips, my local wool (yarn) shop is Wild and Wooly. I'm not a knitter so I've never been in, but their window displays are always very creative.
https://www.wildandwoollyshop.co.uk/

The Lost Sheep Company and Trefriw Woollen Mills are both near Conwy. I visited both while my husband played golf at Conwy Golf Club.

GerryM-- thanks for the confirmation on Needles and Pins and for the London recommendations. :)

Katheryne-- thank you for the Conwy-area recommendations. The Lost Sheep Company looks like exactly what I'd been hoping for! And it seems an easy bus trip from where we're staying. I'm putting it on the list... and making sure to have plenty of space in my bag. :) Thanks again!

As an experienced knitter, one piece of advice I would give you as you describe yourself as a 'fairly new and enthusiastic knitter', is to plan your purchases a little bit before your trip. What I mean is that you might see a yarn you like and think, 'oh I will buy a couple of balls of that', but when you get home you can't find a single pattern that requires just a couple of balls of whatever it is you've bought!

I have been caught out that way buying yarn on trips and am now a bit more careful in thinking about projects before I travel. For example, I like to knit socks. So if I pick up a couple of balls of sock yarn on a trip I can usually be sure it will make a pair of socks and have maybe enough left for some wrist warmers.

I might look at a hat pattern and see what weight of yarn and quantity it requires so that if I see some suitable yarn while I'm travelling I can buy it with confidence that it will fit a project when I get home.

Sweaters obviously take a lot of yarn and I would never buy that quantity of yarn on a trip as it could be a very expensive mistake when I get home and find there's no sweater pattern I want to knit which requires exactly that yarn in that quantity.

My advice would be to buy relatively small quantities of yarn for projects you know will work out. Or to buy a pattern and the yarn to knit it at the same time.

I found this place in Hereford and this one in Hay on Wye

When I first read the headline, I thought of a different definition of "yarn:"

a long or rambling story, especially one that is implausible.
"he never let reality get in the way of a good yarn"

Especially this:

Ripping Yarns

I chuckled at your idea for contacting Yew Tree Farm, but I agree it would make sense for them to know, or to know someone who would know.

Not necessarily. Many farms raise sheep and especially lambs for meat, and it looks like this particular farm is known for its meat. They might sell their wool for a bit, but wool does not generate much income. The meat is what provides most of the income for them, especially in the UK where mutton is eaten much more than the US. So they may not know of local knitting shops, as they probably either outsource the shearing or sell it wholesale. I don't know if it's true in this case, but that is the case with many sheep farms.

As a local who knows the long term history of Yew Tree Farm ever since the disaster of Foot and Mouth, I am aware of a lot more of the history of Yew Tree Farm than is on their website which really undersells the place. And in fact of why Prince (King) Charles has been there so many times- including at least two overnight stays- due to their innovative approach of adding value to the breed generally, not just at their own farm.

Personally I go well out of my way, to visit their tearoom and shop (over many years) because of their approach to sustaining the breed and the farm- and have been more times than is good for my waistline. I would just love to stay there overnight (to support them, not just as a place to stay), but living half an hour away really can't justify doing so- or anywhere else in the area.

I am also going to make several other enquiries in this matter for you- which will take a bit of time.

Skyegirl-- thanks for the very sound advice. My enthusiasm has definitely gotten me into some yarn purchases that are still in my stash, waiting for me to figure out just how to use them. :) I'll go through my Ravelry que and make sure I have a few specific contenders before I head into the shops... and maybe a couple potential sweater patterns just in case I find something really special.

Frank II-- I like good yarns of all kinds. :)

Mardee-- good point! What made me think that they might know or know someone who did (less shops and more producers/brands) was isn31c's comment about how they were proponents of a particular breed of sheep. In my limited experience, folks particularly focused on heritage breeds can be fairly tight-knit communities (no pun intended). In any case, I think with all the good suggestions I'm getting, I'll probably have plenty of good options without needing to go a more indirect route.

Thanks, everybody!

I'm a knitter who is currently planning a trip to England and Scotland later this year. Here are a few resources and places to visit I have found:
https://www.woolclip.com/ in Caldbeck, they seem to offer quite a bit of local yarn including some Herdwick
https://makeitbritish.co.uk/best-of-british/british-yarn-producers/ this is a resource page of many producers
https://garthenor.us/collections/yarn I'd really hoped to visit these folks, but am not going to make it that far west in Wales.
I don't think this will fit your schedule but Marie Wallin has a class in June in Sedbergh https://mariewallin.com/collections/workshops/products/daisy-cowl-weekend-workshop-22nd-23rd-june-2024
(my traveling companion and I are in her September class, we are so excited!).

I concur with Skyegirl about not buying that random ball of yarn with no plan!! Altho I am hoping to come back with a sweater's worth from Iona, or maybe the Scottish Yarn Festival (September 8 just east of Perth)!

One last suggestion, not far from Conwy is the Trefriw woolen mill, I visited there in 2015 and thought it was fantastic. https://www.t-w-m.co.uk/
And thanks isn31c for the Yew Tree Farm link, now added to my list of places to visit!

While in Sedbergh do look into St Andrew's Church to see the wonderful Sedbergh Embroidery- the Church is open daily, also go up to the Dent Village Heritage Centre for their display about the "Terrible Knitters of Dent".

Katherine, thank you for sharing the resources you've turned up and your wisdom! I just spent the last thirty minutes on the Garthenor and Wool Clip websites, and have images of sweaters-yet-unmade dancing in my head. Your class sounds like it will be so much fun, as does traveling with a fellow knitter! I hope you have a great time and find that sweater's worth from Iona. :)

Thanks isn31c for the ideas for Sedbergh, I've just been on the website of the Dent Village museum about the knitters- that looks like a great place to visit!
Happy travels to you too s.vierra!

For the OP if you wanted to get to Caldbeck that is now possible again on the bus (route 553 on Saturday and Sunday only) but the timetable works from the Carlisle end of the route, not the Keswick end.

And Caldbeck is an interesting and worthwhile village to visit.

So you would have to go from Keswick to Carlisle (via Penrith) then Carlisle to Caldbeck, returning to Carlisle, then the 554 back to Keswick via Bothel and Bassenthwaite, or the 600 to Cockermouth for the X4/X5 back to Keswick, after time spent exploring Cockermouth.

You get to see a lot more of the area that way, parts which many tourists don't get to, because they are just doing the highlights.

EDIT- Anyone who does get to Caldbeck should also seek out the Howk Bobbin Mill- a survivor of the textile industry in the area- a listed building which has just completed a period of restoration/stabilisation work- https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1480821 (oh, and see the nearby gorge waterfall- which provided the water for the waterwheel which powered the mill)

Hi isn31c-- thanks for the suggestions! That sounds like a great way to spend the day.

Hello,

I don't know if you have been or are currently in the Lake District. But I've just found out this morning about a knitting shop in Kendal- The Kitten and the Goat, which is in New Shambles Yard.

The shop is actually going to close down on 3 August, so has a clearance sale on currently.

The owner has a website with an online shop- https://www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk/

From that website you will see that she also has a You Tube Channel.

Thank you for the information-- I'm back in the states now, but I'll check out the Kitten and the Goat online.

For those who are interested, here's a quick run-down of my luck with yarn shops:

In Conwy, I visited Ewe Felty Thing (https://ewefeltything.co.uk), which is right in the mix of things and a wonderful shop. It carries a few yarns from dyers in and around Conwy, one line that goes from sheep to skein all within Conwy (and was unfortunately too pricey for me), and a good selection of yarns from around Britain, including West Yorkshire Spinners. Great shop!

I had less luck in Keswick, as Needles and Pins doesn't carry yarns made with British wool, but it was a really interesting place (rather like walking into someone else's massive closet stash), so if you're just looking for yarn and not picky about where the wool comes from, this could be a good place.

Duttons for Buttons in York also carried West Yorkshire Spinners, though not quite the selection of it as Ewe Felty Thing, and they had a decent selection of other yarns as well, but not that I could tell of British origin.

My favorite find was in Grassington at Spinning Jenny (https://www.spinningjenny.co.uk/pages/grassington-shop-contact)! She's got some West Yorkshire Spinners, but also undyed skeins of Clapdale Wool (https://www.glencroftcountrywear.co.uk/clapdale-wool/), which she said came from sheep just about five miles down the road. All she had was the undyed DK weight, but she said they're started to offer dyed skeins as well, which I found on the website.

No time in London for yarn shopping! :)

Thanks again for all your helpful suggestions! Hopefully it would be too long before I get to go back and do some more yarn hunting. :)