{"id":439,"date":"2026-11-11T17:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T23:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/?p=439"},"modified":"2026-11-11T17:43:43","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T23:43:43","slug":"are-you-a-crochet-friendly-lys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/?p=439","title":{"rendered":"Are You a Crochet Friendly LYS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Original Publishing Date: October 25, 2008, Winter 2008 issue<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not enough for a yarn store, either brick and mortar or online, to carry yarn; they must also support and carry supplies for those who use their yarn \u2013 both crocheters and knitters. For years, crocheters have lamented that their local yarn stores (LYS) haven\u2019t supported their craft. They hear comments like, \u201cOh, crocheters only use acrylics\u201d or \u201cWe don\u2019t have anything you\u2019d like here, but there\u2019s a Michaels down the road.\u201d Then there are the places where, once they learn you crochet, their faces fall, and they either ignore you or try to hurry you away from their store. These stores also have mostly knitting supplies, and if they have any crochet supplies at all,&nbsp;tuck them&nbsp;away in a bin at the very bottom of a shelf or thrown haphazardly into buckets. Okay, so we still make granny squares, but that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t spend money on expensive yarns and supplies. So, LYS owners, belly up to the hook \u2019cause we\u2019re fighting back!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crocheters are tired of being treated like second class crafters, being pushed to learn to knit (although many of us can knit but prefer crochet), ignored in stores, and generally made to feel not welcome.&nbsp; They are telling fellow crocheters which shops and online stores are crochet friendly and which refuse to support crochet. If the store barely supports, won\u2019t support, or treats crochet as a crime perpetrated on yarn, then we don\u2019t shop there. Crocheters spend hundreds of dollars at a time, just like any knitter, so we believe that it is time to show our support for those stores that welcome us with open arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a thread in the Crochet Liberation Front forum at Ravelry where folks can list crochet friendly shops.\u00a0 The shops are then added to a group page where all can see and find these stores no matter where they live or happen to be visiting. <s>There is also a website with the same list for those who have yet to discover the joys of Ravelry.com <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crochetliberationfront.com\/crochetfriendly.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.crochetliberationfront.com\/crochetfriendly.html<\/a>)<\/s><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ravelry.com\/discuss\/crochet-liberation-front-headquarters\/32578\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">List Crochet Friendly Shops here<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ravelry.com\/groups\/crochet-liberation-front-headquarters\/pages\/Crochet-friendly-LYSs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Find Crochet Friendly Shops here<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an LYS owner, what can you do to support and welcome the ever growing customer base that crochets? For this, I turned to the Crochet Friendly LYS thread at the CLF where Laurie Wheeler listed the basic criteria for what crochet friendly means (summarized a bit):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Crochet Friendly<\/strong> starts with customer service, but <strong>Friendly<\/strong> is a rather distinct word. Supplies are awesome, but friendly and accommodating are golden. Lack of customer service is beyond annoying. If we are ignored or the staff turns cold once they see that we have hooks in our hand or assumes that we knit when just buying yarn, then why should we drop a wad of cash in your store? \u00a0Respect our craft!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We understand that it costs money to have stock, but it\u2019s nice to see an equal measure or\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 representation of supplies for various fiber arts. When there is a wall of needles and a tiny portion of that wall holds the hooks and sundries, then that is poor supply. If there are only certain sizes, such as those used mostly by knitters for dropped stitches and P and Q hooks for afghans, that\u2019s not a big point winner, unless you have an equally poor selection of needles. The same goes for magazines and pattern books. We\u2019re asking for parity. It\u2019s hard to spend money when what you want isn\u2019t there.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A decent range of yarn \u2013 doesn\u2019t have to be the swankiest \u2013 but a nice mix of good standard yarns, not just a whole bunch of sock yarn and some worsted acrylic, or heavy on the ribbon and novelties.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Some thread, any thread is cool! More thread, lots of thread is great.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Basic crochet classes are nice, more advanced classes are even better.\u00a0 Listing these classes\u00a0at the front of the store or in your ad is better than in the back corner of the back page of a magazine with a bland explanation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Samples of the available yarn in crochet, as well as in knit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When a crochet customer comes in, ask what you can do to be more crochet friendly, instead of immediately becoming defensive and claiming it\u2019s the crocheter\u2019s bad attitude that is the problem. This will definitely get you extra points.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019d like to read more of how to be more crochet friendly, take a look at the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150606121218\/http:\/\/www.ravelry.com\/discuss\/crochet-liberation-front-headquarters\/142263\/1-25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What makes a store crochet friendly?<\/a> thread at the CLF forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now,&nbsp;for those shops who already support crochet and do what they can to help crocheters find what they need, treat us with respect, have classes, and do what they can to carry supplies for us, we thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Original Publishing Date: October 25, 2008, Winter 2008 issue It\u2019s not enough for a yarn store, either brick and mortar or online, to carry yarn; they must also support and carry supplies for those who use their yarn \u2013 both crocheters and knitters. For years, crocheters have lamented that their local yarn stores (LYS) haven\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-editorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446,"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/crochetuncut.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}