When I am in Columbus I usually make a stop at my favorite local yarn store.  Columbus has several very good yarn shops, but my favorite is The Yarn Shop at Kenny Centre.

The first thing I love about The Yarn Shop at Kenny Centre is its name.  “Let’s go to The Yarn Shop.”  “What’s at the yarn shop?”  “Yarn – duh!”  The name is very descriptive!  Unlike “Temptations” – the local yarn shop in Dublin – or “Yarn It and Haberdashery” in Grandview Heights.  They even spell shop correctly.  I hate pretentious spellings like “shoppe.”

The second thing I love about The Yarn Shop is all the yarn.  So much yarn!  Every time I visit, I find exactly what I need and lots of things I want.  The store layout is logical.  All the fingering weight yarn is on one wall.  All the worsted weight in another area.  The chunky, sport weight, hand dyed, and baby yarns all have their own section.

The exotic yarn has its own section.  The last time I went Tom told me to “take my time” (a dangerous thing to tell a knitter) and I think I felt every yarn in the store.  The stiffest yarn was the flax yarn.  I think I could knit a bag out of it but I wouldn’t want a sweater of flax!  There is also milk yarn – yes, yarn spun from the cellulose in milk!  Milk yarn is a natural fiber that is super soft and recommended for many baby patterns.

The third thing I love about The Yarn Shop are the prices.  Things can get a little expensive in Columbus.  Temptations and Yarn It both sell overpriced yarn (in my opinion).  Because The Yarn Shop is not in a trendy area, they are able to keep their prices more reasonable.  The store has plenty of beautiful, expensive yarn.  But you can also find Patons, Cascade, Rowan and Berroco yarns which are all reasonably priced.

The fourth thing I love about The Yarn Shop is they accept returns.  I recently finished a big project and ended up with 10 extra balls of yarn.  Obviously I had some issues reading the pattern.  But I kept the receipts and The Yarn Shop took them back without a question.  They offered to refund my money or give me store credit.  I took store credit, of course!  I got a new bag full of yarn and only spent a little extra money on it.  You do have to keep your receipt and return the yarn within six months of purchase.

The web page is the only thing I don’t like about The Yarn Shop.  Although it has basic information about the shop, it is hard to navigate and you can’t purchase items online.  When I was in the shop this last week I overheard the owner talking to a web designer.  Hopefully there will be a new website soon.

If you are in the Columbus area and need some yarn, I highly recommend The Yarn Shop at Kenny Centre.  If I am in town, I might even go with you!