Yarn Shopping in Ottawa

Oh. My. God.

SO MUCH YARN.

I have had the BEST day! I'm in Ottawa, and I went yarn shopping. I went to four stores, all around downtown. So exciting!

The first place I went was Yarns, Etc, right near the Rideau Centre. A tiny little shop, but they had a great selection of yarn in a variety of qualities, for pretty reasonable prices! I was surprised how much could fit. The owner was super nice, too, I had a lovely chat with her. I'd definitely go back there again! The only thing was that they didn't have any spinning stuff apart from a couple bundles of roving (which looked a bit bedraggled). There was a lot of embroidery stuff there too, which is useful to know if I take up embroidery again. 4/5 stars.

Yarn from Yarns, Etc.

The second store I went to was Yarn Forward, in the north part of the Glebe. They had a really large space, but somehow it seemed like they had less selection than Yarns, Etc. That said, there was some great yarn there! The only stuff I really wanted was too expensive though, everything was a bit on the pricy side. They had a few colours of roving (more than Yarns, Etc), so I got a bit of that. The staff were pleasant but not really friendly, I felt a little awkward there. 3/5 stars.

Fibre from Yarn Forward.

The third store was Knit Knackers, farther north on Bank. This store was AMAZING, look at the pictures on the website, it is GIANT! And all for yarn and fiber! I am still buzzed from going to this store, and it's nine hours later. It took me at least an hour to go through all the yarn they had; a fantastic selection, from cheap to gorgeous expensive. There were some great bargains, I couldn't believe the prices on some things! They also have bags of yarn to buy in bulk with ridiculous savings; I almost bought a bag of 10 skeins of bulky wool for $80, cut down from something like $150. And the fiber they had! Some of it I didn't even know existed, like fiber from milk and corn?! They had a crazy variety, including llama, several types of wool, alpaca, silk in different forms, cotton, linen, soy silk, angora, sea silk, the list goes on, it's just so wonderful! Most of it is undyed, but there's a wall of dyed wool top in loads of colours (and I think there was dyed silk as well?). PLUS (I discovered by accident), if you buy more than a kilo of fiber, you get 10% off your fiber purchase; and if you buy more than 10 skeins of yarn you get 10% off that too! The staff were super friendly and patient (and they had to weigh a lot of fiber for me) and helpful, happy to chat and really eager to help! I just can't express how excited about this store I am!! If I still lived in Ottawa I would be here all the time, and spend all my money. 6/5 stars!

Yarn from Knit Knackers.


Fibre from Knit Knackers and Wabi Sabi.

The last store I went to was Wabi Sabi, in Hintonburg. I used to live literally right around the corner from here, but I don't think this store existed then. This felt very much like a Fiber Art Store (with the capitals), not a yarn or knitting store. There was a decent amount of yarn, mostly Berroco. It was fairly pricey though. There was a nice selection of dyed roving, including a lovely wool-silk blend (that I bought some of, it's the blue fibre in the top left corner above) in a bunch of different colours. They also had needle felting and other fiber art supplies, plus some lovely finished artworks. The owner was busy but nice and happy to help! The railing in the doorway had been yarn bombed, which I was excited about! A lovely store, but limited amounts of yarn, and a bit above my price range. 4/5 stars.

And then I went home because I had spent all my money at Knit Knackers. Oops. Heh. There are a bunch more knitting shops around Ottawa, but they are farther away and difficult to get to without a car. But I am definitely satisfied with what I got.