Finding Lion Brand Yarns at Your Local Store

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Finding Lion Brand Yarns at Your Local Store

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SkeinsMany of you have written to us about not being able to find your favorite Lion Brand yarns at your local stores and have encouraged us to offer more there.  We thought we would give you a little behind-the-scenes info about how our yarns end up in your local store to help you understand what you’ll find.

Lion Brand offers over 800 different yarn colors and over 45 different types of yarns.  The major retail chains that carry yarn–Michaels, JoAnn Fabrics, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby and Walmart–as well as the smaller stores, could not possibly have room for all of our yarns in the space they have available in their yarn department.  Of course, we would love for them to offer a wider selection of Lion Brand but we don’t control what retailers offer.  As a result, you will often find a good selection of the most popular Lion Brand yarns like Vanna’s Choice®, Homespun®, and Wool-Ease® Thick & Quick® in many retail outlets, but you may not see some of our cult favorites like Cotton-Ease®, Wool-Ease®, or Recycled Cotton.  But even if you find a popular yarn like Homespun®, no one store will carry nearly 60 colors.

We know that everyone has her favorite yarns and colors so if you’d like your local store to carry your favorites, don’t hesitate to ask them.  You can write on their Facebook page, if they have one, you can email their corporate office, or you can ask a store manager for the yarn and color you like.  When enough people demand the same product, it may push your local store to carry it.

If all else fails, we have every single yarn and color on our website, LionBrand.com.  Plus, we have something extra online, which is the exclusive LB Collection of fine fibers at value prices.

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37 Comments

  • Thanks for this really helpful info. I am loving the LB collection. Could you tell me if you distribute in the UK and which major stockists might have any of your wools? If not I imagine I can buy online? There must be some shipping costs involved in that..?
    The patterns are also brilliant by the way. Thank you for such a brilliant resource.
    Charlie

    • Hi Charlie, LionBrand.com does ship to the UK. You can also purchase Lion Brand yarns from BanyanTreeYarns.com in Europe and RoyalYarns.com in the US for shipping to the UK–both have good shipping rates. Finally, you can also email international_sales@lionbrand.com to find out about local stockists.

  • Will the LB Collection ever be available in yarn stores? I moved from NYC and it would be interesting to see the LB Collection in yarn stores. Maybe one in each area could get the exclusive?

    • Hi Enid, since LB Collection yarns are made in small batches, we’re not able to offer them to stores.

      If you’d like to see the yarns/colors in person before purchasing, we do offer color cards for all of our yarn, including the LB Collection. Use this link to see/order the cards: http://lby.co/qbOUm5

  • Thank you for letting us know.  Unfortunately, the three large craft stores in my area have been slowly reducing the Lion Brand stock.  I used to be able to get Alpine Wool and CottonEase (my favorites) in these stores, but just this summer all of them stopped carrying those yarns.  That’s really disappointing. 

  • I found that Joann.com has a sale on some type of Lion Brand yarn each month.  This past week it was Homespun for  4.79…cheaper than most other places I’ve seen.  As for who carries it, I find that Michael’s (locally in NC) doesn’t stock half the colors or types I like.  My local sewing shop has just decided to discontinue Homespun (my yarn of choice) because she went to reorder colors she ran out of that are popular and was told that the minimum order went from 100 to 500.  How do you, as a company expect to keep and maintain small shops and allow us to help small companies in our area?  If we don’t take care of our own economy, who will.  I feel it’s a shame that a company with such a great product and following is showing that they are money hungry.  Treat your customers and suppliers right and will will be loyal.

    With that said, I can easily change my favorite brand choice to Premier or Michael’s house brand if things don’t change. 

    I’d love feedback from Customer Service on this.

    • Hi Melissa,
      We would really like the retailers to carry more of a selection of Lion Brand yarns but although we do our best to encourage a wide selection, they make the final decision.  Our yarns are available through a distributor, Notions Marketing, that has very small minimum order levels, so that small shops can buy in quantities that work for them.

  • Where I live in Texas, the Michael’s stores I shop at have been reducing ALL the brands they carry in favor of their house brand. I enjoy being able to order every type or color of Lion Brand online but wish I could avoid shipping costs. The selections at these stores, however, are so bare-bones that I am rarely able to find anything I really like there. Re coupons, both Michael’s and Jo-Ann offer coupons that can be used online, where they carry at least a few more colors and types of yarn. I like to wait for Lion Brand’s own specials — 20 or 25 percent off plus free shipping would be ideal, or regular discounts over a certain amount ($50?) would help, too. So does searching for sales at other retailers; I’m knitting a sweater out of Recycled Cotton I ordered online from Beverly’s at a great price.

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  • i love this yarn but can’t find it here in the uk!! Any advice without having to pay extortionate postage prices gratefully received!!

    • Hi Ruth, check out Wooly Madly Deeply or Cafe Knit, both stockists in the UK. You can also order Lion Brand products from Banyan Tree Yarns in Malta or Royal Yarns in the US, which have reasonable shipping rates to the UK. Hope that helps!

      • Many thanks will check them out!!!

  • I own a yarn shop and it is very difficult for customers to understand why they can not purchase LB collection from us, saving on shipping. We carry a large selection of Lion Brand, but are considering replacing many with more natural fibers (like your LB Collection) Why are they produced in small batches? They are machine made, not hand spun.

    • Hi Robin, there are many different 100% natural fiber and fiber-blend yarns that are available to our retail customers: Alpine Wool, Baby Wool, Nature’s Choice Organic Cotton, Recycled Cotton, Superwash Merino Cashmere–just to name a few. Ask your Lion Brand sales rep or distributor rep to learn more about these products.

  • Sell your yarns online, all types all colors. It will cut out the middle-man, reduce our expenses and give you a constant supply of customers.

    • Hi Christina, you can order from LionBrand.com. Simply click on “Our Yarns” to view colors and add them to your cart, or click “Shop” to browse all of our products. Hope that helps!

  • Finally, somewhere I can sound off. Why, oh why, did LB decide to discontinue the LB Wool line??? It’s the best felting yarn and came in that amazing collection of colors. There is nothing on the market to replace it. I used it exclusively and I am very disappointed.

    • Hi jmack, we would love to offer an infinite number of yarns in every
      color of the rainbow but unfortunately we do have limited resources. Our decisions
      on discontinuing yarns from our line are often based on their ranking in sales
      throughout the whole country, and unfortunately, Lion Wool hasn’t sold well. Some stores may still have it on their shelves, and we do still have a limited number of colors available from our website:
      http://www.lionbrand.com/yarns/lionWool.html

  • Ok, I live in Houston TX and the retail shops are not carrying much of your yarns. Why won’t LB sell their yarns online at the prices LB sells them to the retailers and give us customers a reasonable shipping cost. Cut out the middle man and grow your business.

  • Do you have a distributor for LB yarns in Belgium?

    • Hi Christel, visit Banyan Tree Yarns to order Lion Brand yarns in Europe. You can also order from RoyalYarns.com in the US, which ships internationally at very reasonable rates. Hope that helps!

  • I would really like Lion Brand to bring back the discontinued baby colors in Homespun: Cotton Candy, Lemonade, Lavender Sachet, Blue Sky, Sunshine State, Spring Green. The only way I can purchase them now is to pay an outrageous price on eBay, and hope that I am the highest bidder. Please, would you make these colors again?

    • Hi Kristen, while we would love to offer an infinite number of yarns in every
      color of the rainbow, we do have limited resources and do have to discontinue yarns based on their sales rankings throughout the country. Those colors of Homespun unfortunately didn’t do well in stores. You can still find Sunshine State on LionBrand.com and in some stores, but for other more pastel colors of Homespun, be sure to check some of our new painterly shades like Seafoam, Ocean, and Parfait.

  • I live in Madrid, Spain. Do you Know where can I be able to find Lion Brand yarns??
    I Like your ideas, and your yarns, I hope to find them.
    Thank you.
    maria

    • Hi Maria, you can email international_sales@lionbrand.com to see if there are stores that sell Lion Brand in Spain. You can also visit Banyan Tree Yarns to order Lion Brand yarns in Europe. You can also order from RoyalYarns.com in the US, which ships internationally at very reasonable rates. Hope that helps!

      • Thank you. I will visit the pg. and see if I can orden some yarns.

  • Is Cotton Ease being discontinued and if it is why? I can’t find any yarn equal to it.

    • Hi Kay, so glad you like Cotton-Ease! No, we’re not discontinuing the yarn–if your local store is no longer carrying it, it may be because they’re changing their stock of yarn. Do be sure to let them know that you’re want to buy Cotton-Ease so that they know to order it in the future!

  • i live in Ohio is there a store in Columbus Ohio? we do have a Joann store hear in Columbus

  • do any of the local yarn shops carry the Zpagetti yarn?

  • The problem with stores like AC Moore, JoAnn’s & Michael’s is that when you do find the yarn that you like and want, they have a quantity of about 6 balls in a dye lot. I don’t know about you, but other than baby items, 6 balls doesn’t go very far. I think this is ridiculous, but it is definitely true in each of these stores. And it isn’t just Lion Brand yarns that I have found this to be true for. I guess they want us all to purchase online.

  • Strangely, our Walmart carries Baby’s First (which is one of my all-time favorite bulky weight cotton blend yarns), but they don’t carry anything from the Vanna’s Choice line. It is the exact opposite at our local JoAnn store.

  • This was really good, very useful info.Thanks very useful info.Thanks

  • I live in the South Bay area in California and need to know which stores carry Lion Brand “Trellis”

    • Hi Gerry. I am sorry, but that yarn has been discontinued and is no longer available. It’s possible that some retailers still have stock, so you may want to call around and ask. You might also be able to find it online by searching sites like Etsy, Ebay, or Ravelry, as sometimes you will find individuals selling discontinued yarn from their personal stashes. Hope this helps!

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