When I returned to London earlier in the year, I fulfilled my duty as a knitter and visited every yarn store I could find. Back in June, that meant iKnit, Loop, Socktopus and Stash.
My first experience of iKnit was not the best. I found it to be a bit grubby, disorganised and the atmosphere between the shop employee and her daughter made me feel uncomfortable. They stock lots of lovely yarns and the shop is easy to get to, but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy.
Loop is a lovely shop, but a little walk from the tube. They stock plenty of good yarns and I had a nice chat with an employee who got more strange looks on the train when he was knitting: "as a pierced, tattooed 40+ year old you do get odd looks when you knit."
I visited Socktopus twice - the first time just for a GoKnit pouch, the second for the Knitting Goddess trunk show. There was a great spirit of community and Alice was a lovely host. Similarly, when I stopped by Stash, there was a knit-in in progress and the community seemed well-established and enthusiastic.
Six months later, we've lost my two favourite London yarn shops. Socktopus closed and their remaining stock went to Stash, then Stash announced that they were also shutting up shop. Both were due to the owners finding it difficult to manage their home and business, which I can totally understand, but it's such a shame to lose such lovely shops with strong community focus.
I wish both owners well and hope that the knitting communities which developped around their stores will continue to thrive in their absence.
