Calling all Chicagoland crafters! This week, July 20 to 28, 2024, is the annual Chicago Yarn Crawl. Grab your knitting needles and crochet hooks and join this journey around the city.
A yarn crawl is sort of like a bar crawl but with yarn instead of booze. Instead of going to several bars in one night, you see how many participating yarn shops you can hit throughout the week. Crawls like this, sometimes called shop hops, are fairly common in the crafting community. Participating shops around the city and in the suburbs each have an exclusive free pattern and a 10% off deal on yarn. They also have raffles and free buttons. In addition to the in-store events, many of the stores have their free Chicago Yarn Crawl pattern up on their websites.
The Chicago Yarn Crawl has been active since 2009 and hosts a yearly crawl every summer. Many crafters have favorite shops they go to regularly but are unaware of the other cool shops in the city. Eight shops in the city are part of the crawl, with an additional 10 shops out in the suburbs. The crawl is a good excuse to explore craft stores in Chicago you might not otherwise go to.
“I think this is one of the best yarn crawls in the country,” said the owner of Firefly Fiber Arts Studio, Sarah Jamison, whose shop has been participating in Chicago Yarn Crawl for the last seven years. She further explained she believes this because of the discounts, swag, free patterns, and number of shops that participate every year.
You can register for the crawl on their website and download and print out a “passport” for the week. Every shop you go to will stamp your passport, so you can log which shops you’ve hit. But if you skip registration and printing out the passport, don’t worry. You can still go to the shops and enjoy all the freebies and discounts. But registering makes you more eligible for raffles.
On the first day of the crawl, F Newsmagazine and School of the Art Institute alumni, Teddie Bernard, and I loaded up his car with an itinerary for the day, snacks, tote bags for yarn-carrying, and a camera to snap pictures of each shop we went to.
In total, we visited five of the participating shops: Bolly’s Hobbies, The Bloomin’ Spindle, Firefly Fibers, Nina Chicago, and Yarnify!. The prices and stock of each store vary, but each one has its benefits and drawbacks. Overall, all five of the stores we went to were worth the trip, especially with the 10% discount and free patterns.
Bolly’s Hobbies, 5503 W Belmont Ave
Our first shop of the day, Bolly’s Hobbies was a great way to start out the crawl as it is the shop’s very first yarn crawl. They’re a smaller but well-stocked shop that opened recently and has some great bargains.
Bolly’s Hobbies was one of the quieter shops we visited, but it also contained some of the best prices all day. They’re a hidden gem! Their yarns range from $2.50 to around $50, with a large portion of their yarns ranging in the under $20 range.
Having only opened in December 2023, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bolly’s Hobby becomes a fan-favorite Chicagoland yarn store within the next few years, especially for us crafters on a budget who want alternatives to big box craft stores.
Don’t let the size of the shop fool you, there’s so much here to enjoy. The walls of the shop have a large variety of yarn colors, textures, and weights, including some hand-dyed and imported yarns.
“I hope this allows us to be a more successful shop and keep going through the next years,” said store manager, Anise Breault who is proudly a knitter, spinner, and weaver outside of working at Bolly’s.
Bolly’s Hobbies had a free crochet pattern and a free knitting pattern. Both were for cutesy throw pillow covers. They also have a table of free snacks and drinks!
Additionally, their free buttons were easily the biggest and best of the day, including ones featuring shiny gold cats playing with balls of yarn. And once you’ve checked out, you can say hello to the fish swimming in a tank towards the back of the store. All in all, Bolly’s Hobbies is not a shop to miss on your crawl.
The Bloomin’ Spindle, 5359 W. Irving Park Road
Less than 10 blocks away from Bolly’s, The Bloomin’ Spindle is a great shop to hit next, and their bright green exterior makes them easy to spot. Like Bolly’s, the Bloomin’ Spindle opened recently — April 13, 2023 — which makes these two neighboring shops some of the newest yarn stores in Chicago.
The Bloomin’ Spindle was hopping when we arrived.
Most of the yarns there are hand-dyed and cost around $30-$35. Some yarns were as cheap as $8, and the priciest I spotted were $40 skeins. Their hand-dyed yarn is \this store’s biggest draw, as they have a huge selection of different colors and dye artists. So if that’s the type of yarn you’re seeking, put Bloomin’ on your list to go to.
The Bloomin’ Spindle has an entire wall of yarns dyed by their artist-in-residence Gnome Depot Fiber.
The Bloomin’ Spindle wins, hands down, for the cutest free pattern out of the five shops we saw. Their pattern was a knitted shawl with a special stitch that imitates the appearance of a cicada. In addition to the pattern, there was also an exclusive Gnome Deport Fiber yarn themed around cicadas to make the shall with.
Beyond the special cicada pattern for Chicago Yarn Crawl, the store also has a basket of free crochet and knitting patterns for customers. This seems to be a regular part of the store, and not just for the crawl
Upon checking out, don’t miss out on looking at all the adorable stickers they have near the cash register. There’s even a sticker of a crocheted cicada!
Firefly Fiber Arts Studio, 2860 N. Milwaukee Ave
Firefly Fiber Arts Studio from the get-go with its neon signs and big glass windows comes off as a cool, artsy space instead of the more standard craft store look.
For art school students, Firefly Fiber Arts Studio might be the coolest shop on the list. Located right next to The Insect Asylum on the edge of Logan Square and Avondale, Firefly is a place welcoming of the more alternative crafting community.
Open since 2017, Firefly has cultivated a strong aesthetic of bright colors and sustainable fibers. As their website explains, Firefly makes a conscious choice to, only sell “socially and environmentally responsible yarns and wools.”
Firefly’s yarn prices range from around $6 to as high as $60. There was a small selection of yarns on sale for $2. They also often feature trunk shows in their store. In addition to yarn, they also sell some roving wool and small weaving kits.
Make sure to spot this group of crocheted dolls and toys Firefly has on display. Doesn’t this look like an average friend group you’d see having lunch at one of the SAIC cafes?
The people who work at Firefly Fiber Arts Studio are incredibly nice, and they genuinely seem interested in chatting with you about your interests, current projects, and the different yarns hanging on the walls.
“The yarn crawl sees around 1,300 to 1,500 [participants]. But my shop, I probably see between 300 to 500 hundred people depending on the year,” said Jamison.
They have free Chicago Yarn Crawl patterns for knitting, crochet, and Tunisian crochet. These patterns were small triangular banners that seem like a really good beginning pattern for each of the crafts. Of the five stores we visited, this was the only shop we saw with a free Tunisian crochet pattern.
Here Firefly is displaying the official tote bag and project bag for the 2024 Yarn Crawl. These bags are available to purchase at each of the participating stores. Firefly also has an exclusive, limited-edition skein just for the crawl.
If you’re looking for a place with cool vibes and eye-catching sustainable fibers, Firefly is a good place to visit. But you might not find the perfect yarn for you if you’re someone who tends to lean into more muted shades.
Nina Chicago, 1256 W Chicago Ave
Nina Chicago has a yarn-bombed bicycle sitting outside their shop, making it an excellent landmark to spot the store from down the block.
Having opened its doors in 2004, Nina Chicago has stood the test of time, even pre-dating the Chicago Yarn Crawl. With its longer history, it is no wonder Nina Chicago is an elevated, upscale storefront. Though welcoming of younger crafters, the store does seem to have a slightly older clientele than some of the others on this list. But don’t let that scare you off because Nina Chicago has a lot to offer.
Nina Chicago is a large store that, though mostly filled with yarn, also carries wool roving, cross stitch and embroidery kits, sashiko kits, stitching patterns, and an assortment of fabric.
The pricing for the yarn is higher than some of the other stores. Their lower-end yarns are around $8 to $12 dollars and their high-end yarns go for as much as $70. But there is also a lot of yarn within the $20 to $30 dollar range. These higher prices for the yarn make the yarn crawl a good time to check out Nina thanks to that 10% discount on yarn.
Most of the fabric was around $15 a yard, but they also cut quarter and half yards.
Nina Chicago’s patterns are beautiful. They have many displays of knitted and crocheted clothing that you can purchase the patterns for or if you buy the yarn for the pattern, you get the pattern for free
Their free patterns for Chicago Yarn Crawl are equally as gorgeous. They offer two free patterns: a knitted shawl and a crocheted shawl.
Nina Chicago is a store I would recommend if you have people visiting you from out of town who are crafters or if you’re someone who shops at local craft stores and does a lot of different types of crafts.
Yarnify! 633 S. Plymouth Ct.
If you’re having trouble finding Yarnify!, look for their sign that is a play off the Chicago flag.
Yarnify! is a crowd-pleaser, and, even after visiting four others in one day, my personal favorite yarn shop in Chicago. Located in the South Loop, Yarnify! is an incredibly convenient store to get to from the SAIC campus.
Being one of the larger yarn stores, they have a huge variety of all kinds of yarn. The owners of Yarnify! have mentioned in passing that they prioritize stocking yarns that are pleasant to touch, including less-scratchy wools and wool blends.
The prices at Yarnify! vary a great deal. It’s easy to spend a lot of money here, but it’s just as easy to find good deals and less expensive yarns. The cheapest yarn I could find here was about $3 and the most expensive I saw was $50. The back aisle has a lot of $10 to 20 dollar yarns, and the front of the store has the more expensive hand-dyed yarns.
Their free patterns for Chicago Yarn Crawl are a crocheted capelet and knitted cowl.
But the reason Yarnify! comes out on top is because of the people who work there. The Yarnify! team are some of the friendliest crafters you’ll meet, and they are an incredible resource to go to when you need help or advice for a project you’re working on. Whether you’re a complete beginner or very experienced, the folks at Yarnify! have your back.
Adding to the positivity and support, Yarnify! is also a very LGBTQ+ friendly store. They have pride merchandise all year round, and one of the free buttons they are giving out for Yarn Crawl is their sheep mascot colored in with a rainbow, as a nod to the pride flag.
These are only a small portion of the shops participating in Chicago Yarn Crawl. There are many, many more. See how many yarn stores you can crawl to this year!
