Yarn Shop Day 30th April - Online Retail Fight Back

It's that time of the year again to love your local yarn shop. The annual event sponsored by Let's Knit magazine encourages knitters and crocheters to support bricks and mortar shops in their area, rather than going online and buying from the big guys. In a rather underhand marketing move, going against the spirit of the day, the online-only retailers are fighting back: Loveknitting.com is offering 15% off everything this weekend, whilst Deramores has a whopping 25% off all yarn.

Local retailers, with the rates they have to pay on their shops, can't match that kind of discount but what they do offer in spades is help from friendly assistants and the chance to squish as much yarn as you want to before you buy. Not everyone has access to the internet or wants to buy online and local yarn shops are an invaluable resource on our high streets. What a shame the big online retailers are trying to put a spanner in the Yarn Shop Day's works - surely it's in all yarn retailers' benefit to raise awareness about the craft?

If you do want to buy online then many yarn shops offer online retailing as a side offer. My favourites are Leeds' baaramewe and shop turned website Mrs Moon, which stock their own yarns alongside a well-edited collection of yarns and patterns.

Events

Lot's of events are planned on Saturday to tempt you into your local yarn store. There's a full list on the Let's Knit website. Highlights include:

• A party at Knit Nottingham's store
• Brityarn pop up trunk show at Countess Ablaze's studio in Manchester
• Cake at The Yarn Cake in Glasgow
• Live yarn bombing and giveaways at Whitknits in Whitstable.

If your local yarn store leaves a bit to be desired why not pop in for a chat and mention the British yarns you'd like to see stocked?