About Us

Welcome

Welcome to The Woolly Thistle. We specialize in stocking the best yarns from the United Kingdom and Europe right here in the USA.

We scour the globe for hard to find knitting yarn from small producers and independent mills around the world.

When you order from The Woolly Thistle you receive your yarn quickly and without the added cost of international shipping.

Learn More About Some of Our Small Producers

Hi There!

My Name is Corinne!

I started my yarn journey on the longest night of the year, back in December 2011, when I embarked on knitting Kate Davies' Owlet Sweater for my then 5 year old daughter, Maya.

I had learned to knit (and had knitted various garments) as a young girl in Scotland but had put the knitting down for several years. Upon picking up my new circular needles on that December night, and while following the well written and friendly pattern by Kate Davies, a new appreciation and enjoyment for knitting grew and quickly became a passionate pursuit.

There followed lots more knitting and eventually a podcast. The Woolly Thistle Podcast (formerly known as New Hampshire Knits) published its first episode September 15, 2014.

A Bit About Being Anti-Racist

The Woolly Thistle welcomes and seeks out customers, designers, authors and yarn makers of all backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, locations, ages and orientations who possess a love of wool and craft.

We value your work and your contribution to making TWT a safe community. We are actively working to be anti-racist in our business as well as on a personal level too.

We value working with BIPOC designers who enjoy designing with the yarns we offer here at The Woolly Thistle. If you would like to work with us we encourage you to get in touch by sending an email to hello@thewoollythistle.com.

Kind Words

Thank YOU for offering so much woolly goodness from small producers. You occupy a fascinating middle space where the vision, curiosity and infinite desires of fiber artists intersects with the limits of shepherds (and their sheep and the land!), mills and dyers. It's important to me to support independent farmers and mills who resist the pull towards uniformity, who keep alive sustainable practices, and who preserve the beauty and quality of wool sourced from a variety of sheep breeds.
Sue, customer

Listenership to the podcast steadily grew and I found myself interviewing local woolly people in New Hampshire and Vermont, such as Nick Colony of Harrisville Designs, Michael Hampton of Hampton Fiber Mill and Theresa Walker of Great Bay Wool Works, and more.

In 2016, I went home to Scotland for a quick visit and attended the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. There I met many British yarn producers and got to squish, sniff and buy lots of British wool.

My dream of opening a yarn shop was cemented and The Woolly Thistle came into being in July 2016. The thistle is Scotland's national flower and often you can find a tuft of wool caught in their spikes.

I am from Scotland and immigrated to the USA in 1992. Through knitting and actively participating in the world-wide knitting community, I have been able to keep connections with Scotland in a way that wasn't possible before. The act of knitting as well as being a part of a community of Knitters has brought a lot of happiness to my day-to-day life and now provides me full-time employment importing British and European yarns for those of us here in the USA.

The Woolly Thistle team has grown to include 10 employees who care enormously about getting your order out to you quickly, efficiently and with a little extra love.

The Woolly Thistle welcomes and seeks out customers, designers, authors and yarn makers of all backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, locations, ages and orientations who possess a love of wool and craft. We value your work and your contribution to making TWT a safe community. You are welcome here!

I hope you enjoy visiting The Woolly Thistle, and while you're here sign up for our emails (see below) which will keep you up-to-date on shop news and there's sometimes a discount. We recently started our Youtube Shopcast which runs every other Friday so do visit us there and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out! Join us in ourRavelry groupwhere we have knit-alongs and lots of friendly chatter.

With clacking pins and best wishes,

Corinne