A Yarn Story

A Yarn Story Wool boutique carrying beautiful yarns and yarn accessories from hand dyers near and far.

Why we made our own yarn.After years of helping you find the right yarn for the right project, we started making our own...
01/09/2026

Why we made our own yarn.

After years of helping you find the right yarn for the right project, we started making our own - not to add to the shelf, but because each one earned its place. Three yarns, three reasons.

Opus was our first. We wanted the softness of cashmere without the fuss, so we blended 70% merino with 30% baby alpaca into a lofty sport weight with a handle you have to feel to believe. Soft, yes - but with the structure and stitch definition to carry a proper garment, and hardwearing enough to be worn for years. It set the standard everything else had to meet.

Origin is the one closest to my (Carmen) heart. A 50/50 blend of merino and highland wool, spun as a worsted with real bounce and beautiful stitch definition - bold, warm and built for everyday knitting. The palette is drawn straight from Oregon, where I grew up: wide open spaces, big skies, the colours of home. Earthy, wholesome, and made to give everyone who holds it that same sense of belonging.

Fluff came from friendship. A collaboration with Max and Vincent of Les Garçons, it is a brushed blend of baby alpaca, merino, mulberry silk and yak - impossibly soft, full of halo, and light as anything with real warmth. Knit it on its own, or hold it alongside Opus or Origin to add a whisper of a halo to whatever you are making. Fifteen shades, each with a warm grey depth you will keep coming back to.

It is Knitting Season. If you are casting on something that deserves proper yarn, this is where we would start.

Shop all three 👇

https://f.mtr.cool/tvdz6nts8n

Consider this your sign 😉Quite literally - here it is, propped up on Walcot Street, asking the only question that matter...
30/08/2026

Consider this your sign 😉

Quite literally - here it is, propped up on Walcot Street, asking the only question that matters: where will your next stitch take you?

A jumper you've been circling for months? A first run at colourwork? Something small and satisfying between bigger makes? Whatever it is, take the board at its word.

We're shut today, so let this be your nudge to plan the visit: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 til 5, 128 Walcot Street. And if the idea won't keep, the website's open around the clock!

See you on Walcot Street :)

Susan On Tap!Free yarn advice, straight from the source. No catch, just Susan.Introducing virtual personal shopping: a 2...
29/08/2026

Susan On Tap!

Free yarn advice, straight from the source. No catch, just Susan.

Introducing virtual personal shopping: a 20-minute one-to-one with Susan over Zoom, helping you choose exactly the right yarn for your next make. Better than online colour-guessing, more fun than deciding alone, and genuinely useful whether you've got a pattern in hand or just a wild idea and a soft spot for something you can't quite name.

Her speciality? Take a swipe through the photos and see: combinations you wouldn't have dared, and the confidence to actually cast them on.

Book here 👇

https://f.mtr.cool/eepqhe8nm0

Twelve blacks. Six whites. One pairing built to be knit together.Harrisville Designs, Inc. Nightshades and Daylights are...
28/08/2026

Twelve blacks. Six whites. One pairing built to be knit together.

Harrisville Designs, Inc. Nightshades and Daylights are counterparts by design - twelve nuanced blacks and six soft whites, each dusted with a whisper of colour that only shows when you look closely. Which is exactly why colourwork knitters have been picking up both.

The reason they work: both are spun from American Cormo and wool in a lofty, woollen-spun 3-ply DK. That loft is what makes them bloom in stranded colourwork - stitches settle into each other, floats soften away, and you're left with a warm, even fabric. Add a gentle halo, proper rustic character, and that lanolin-rich real-wool smell people keep mentioning, and you can see why they're moving fast.

Think colourwork yokes and mittens, textured jumpers, cables that hold their shape, or simple stockinette that looks anything but plain. 100g / 228m per skein.

Nightshades or Daylights? The answer is both 👇

https://f.mtr.cool/6fdj2sv89o

The (surprisingly glamorous) history of knitting!We tend to think of knitting as something cosy: A sofa. A cup of tea. A...
26/08/2026

The (surprisingly glamorous) history of knitting!

We tend to think of knitting as something cosy: A sofa. A cup of tea. A basket of yarn. Perhaps a dog asleep on your feet. But knitting has had a rather more glamorous life than that.

For centuries, knitted things were fashionable, valuable and occasionally very fancy indeed...

TAKE STOCKINGS
In the 16th century, knitted silk stockings were the height of fashion. They fitted better than woven stockings and became particularly popular among wealthy and aristocratic people.

In fact, stocking-making became such a huge industry that by 1595 there were estimated to be 90,000–110,000 people working in England's domestic knitting trade!!

KNITTING GOT FANCY
As mechanical knitting developed, hand-knitting increasingly became something wealthy women could do for pleasure and by the 18th and 19th centuries, "fancy knitting" had become an elegant drawing-room pastime.

Women knitted decorative purses, pincushions, lace shawls and all manner of elaborate objects, because apparently a perfectly ordinary pincushion simply wasn't enough 😉

AND PATTERNS?
For centuries, you didn't have a pattern, you simply learned by watching someone else. In fact, some early knitters used songs to help count their rounds - imagine being asked what you're working on and replying:

"It's a 14th-century sock, but I've got a little song for the heel.". I actually love that (though I don't know what I'd do without Amanda teaching me things!)

KNITTING AS WORK, FASHION & ART
It has been used to make everything from humble socks to elaborate garments. It provided income for generations of people, has been taught in schools and, during the Second World War, became part of the huge civilian effort to make clothing for the armed forces.

26/08/2026

There's nowhere quite like the . And we will have *exclusive use* of the entire hotel this November!

Comment WINTER below and we'll send all the details immediately 👇

boutique

Video by the talented 🙏

Meet my Mixtape frontrunnerI keep coming back to the Largo V-neck by Aegyoknit - Karoline Skovgaard - all that texture ...
24/08/2026

Meet my Mixtape frontrunner

I keep coming back to the Largo V-neck by Aegyoknit - Karoline Skovgaard - all that texture and drape in one oversized, cabled, deep-V sweater. And the name? "Largo" is a musical term for slow and broad. On theme without even trying.

Here's why it's calling to me for the Mixtape KAL: it's a worsted-weight gauge on a 5mm needle, which means I can really play with the fabric. A few combinations already spinning round my head:

🎶 Isager Yarn Tweed + Spinni + Mohair - woolly, with a fuzzy halo
🎶 Opus + two strands of Spinni - soft, but with real structure
🎶 Harrisville Designs, Inc. Nightshades + Mohair - lightweight and fuzzy

One pattern. Three completely different sweaters. See what I mean about the options being endless?

That's the whole spirit of the Mixtape KAL - your project, your combination, your fabric. Sign up and you'll get a £95 code to spend on yarn and tools, then nine weeks of us knitting together from Monday 7 September.

Come mix it up with us: https://f.mtr.cool/9jkd398d11

The Jane Austen Bath you can still see 🎩One of the lovely things about Bath is that you don't have to use much imaginati...
23/08/2026

The Jane Austen Bath you can still see 🎩

One of the lovely things about Bath is that you don't have to use much imagination to walk into Jane Austen's world. She lived here for around five years, and quite a lot of the places she knew are still standing:

🟣 **Sydney Gardens**
Jane lived just across the road at No. 4 Sydney Place. The gardens were Bath's fashionable pleasure ground: promenades, entertainments, music, refreshments and evening galas.

It's still a very lovely place for a stroll (and one of Peaches' favourite walkie spots!) although thankfully you no longer need to dress for a ball.

🟣 **25 Gay Street**
After her father's death, Jane moved here with her mother and sister. It's now home to a dental practice, which means that somewhere between the waiting room and the dentist's chair, people are probably sitting approximately where Jane Austen once sat!

🟣 **The Pump Room**
This was one of the great social centres of Georgian Bath. People came to "take the waters", certainly, but they also came to see and be seen. Jane knew the social world of Bath extremely well, and the city's rituals and characters found their way into her writing.

🟣 **Great Pulteney Street**
Take a walk along here towards Sydney Gardens and you're following streets Jane would have known intimately. The architecture looks remarkably unchanged (though traffic is a little less Regency!)

🟣 **St Swithin's**
Jane's father, George Austen, married here in 1764 and was later buried here, so even the churchyards around Bath contain pieces of the Austen family story.

Jane lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806 and set Northanger Abbey and Persuasion here so next time you're walking through Bath, look around - you might be standing in one of Jane Austen's old haunts without even realising it.

And if you're visiting us at 128 Walcot Street, you're only a short walk from several of them.

Which Austen location would you visit first?

Say hello to the new residents of Chez Myrtil. 🦊Cinthia Vallet's follow-up to Mouche & Friends is every bit as charming ...
22/08/2026

Say hello to the new residents of Chez Myrtil. 🦊

Cinthia Vallet's follow-up to Mouche & Friends is every bit as charming as we'd hoped - a houseful of twelve characterful animals and their beautifully tailored little wardrobes. Frankie the fox and Merle the crocodile by the fire, Merri the mole making supper, and little Didi and Tsutsu off causing mischief somewhere.

What sets Cinthia's designs apart is the construction. Each animal is knitted entirely seamlessly, in the round from the nose down, so the creature takes shape in your hands as you go - no assembly, no sewing-up, just clever shaping and clear illustrated tutorials. If you enjoy the puzzle of well-engineered knitting, these are a genuine pleasure.

A handmade animal is the sort of thing a child keeps for a lifetime - cast on this autumn and there's every chance you'll have two or three tucked away before December, which is a rather satisfying position to be in by the time the wrapping paper comes out for any friends / family / grandchildren.

Chez Myrtil is available to preorder now, arriving late September. Reserve your copy today!

https://f.mtr.cool/lwevcgjmlq

Launched: Mixtape KALPress play on your most creative project yet and join our Mixtape KAL. This one's all about mixing ...
21/08/2026

Launched: Mixtape KAL

Press play on your most creative project yet and join our Mixtape KAL. This one's all about mixing yarns to make fabric that's entirely your own. One rule, endless possibilities: use more than one yarn. That's it.

Any project. Any designer. Any combination you can dream up.

Add a whisper of mohair (you know how we feel about mohair!). Play with marling. Pair a wild hand-dyed with a calm solid. Mix texture, mix colour, mix it all up. The project is your canvas and the B-side is wide open.

Here's the best bit: when you sign up, you'll get a £95 code to spend on yarn and tools - in-store or online. So your KAL fee comes right back to you to build your perfect stash. 🎁

How it plays out:
🧶 Kicks off Monday 7th September, 8pm on Zoom
🧶 Runs 9 weeks, right through to Monday 2nd November
🧶 Weekly Monday meet-ups to share your WIPs (all recorded, so no fear of missing a beat)
🧶 A WhatsApp group for questions, cheerleading and project envy in between

Let's create fabrics as unique as your favourite playlist. Sign up now 👇

https://f.mtr.cool/zueemyvwpv

Address

128 Walcot Street
Bath
BA15BG

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm

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