In the last year I’ve been introduced to Explorer Knits (EKF) and Woolberry, and I am totally obsessed. But it turns out that there are a ton of amazing yarn dyers in Colorado! Somehow I was able to convince a couple of my yarn-loving friends, Holly and Andrea, to join me for a local yarn store (LYS) tour of Denver last month.

Day 1

We actually started our first day with a tour through Hammond’s Candies Factory. It was short and smelled delicious — I’d recommend a stop! Plus, being in a candy store is actually amazing. I don’t think I’ve been in one since Mr. Bulky’s of the 90s and back then I definitely didn’t have the kind of money to support buying everything I could dream of buying.

After feeling reinvigorated by the power of sugar, we set off for our first yarn shop in Boulder, Lula Faye Fiber.

Lula Faye was cute little shop — about three rooms chock-full of yarn of all sorts! I am primarily a knitter, but if I remember being impressed by all of the tools dedicated to other yarn crafts as well. The front room of the shop had a big table covered in yarn from Colorado dyers, so it was a little hard to choose a souvenir! I opted for a couple skeins from Rainbow Peak Yarns for an assigned pooling project someday.

The next impromptu stop was Maker General in Longmont. This is not specifically a yarn shop, but instead had a lot of tools for a ton of different crafts.

Practically across the street was our next LYS destination, the Longmont Yarn Shoppe. A very lovely clerk gave us a tour all over the store to lead us to locally-produced yarns and projects, but once Holly held up a pack of mini-skeins dyed to match cats I was done. I haven’t quite figured out the branding, but I ended up a full skein and the minis from Herd of Cats/Road Trip Sock Yarn. Definitely go visit their Etsy shop if you’re a cat or dog lover! They visit local shelters, take photos of the animals, then dye yarn to match. Part of their proceeds are donated back to the shelters, too. ?

After these shops, we opted to stop at the Acreage for some drinks and yarn time. If you like hard cider, charcuterie, and positively amazing views, then this is the place to stop! We were lucky to get there mid-afternoon and had the best table looking out to the front range until the dinner rush started. We even caught the sunset over the mountains! I will dream of going back to this place forever.

In the evening we stop at the magical, creative, and (honestly) confusing Meow Wolf exhibit. We were greeted by the plethodon out front and didn’t know how much more wild the inside would get. I can’t explain it, but I do want to go back and discover things I might’ve missed.

Day 2

We started our second day at the southernmost shop on our must-visit list in Denver, Colorful Yarns. This shop was definitely competing with Lula Faye for the most representation of locally dyed yarn — and it was exciting to find some EKF here! I recently bought enough for three different sweaters, though, so I opted to let someone else take that yarn home. Instead, I picked up some fun monarch-inspired yarn from Abi Grasso. I also grabbed a skein of mohair from Chasing Rabbits (now Barker Wool, not local to Colorado… I don’t think) to pair with it for a hat or something, but now I’m not sure. I’m not a sock knitter so I’m going to need to think on the best way to use this fun self-striping yarn.

Blazing Star Ranch was next on our list, since it was practically the next best thing to going to a real alpaca farm. It was really fun to see all of the ribbons and awards that their alpacas have earned! There was a smaller selection of locally dyed yarns, but they were all really lovely higher-end blends. I grabbed a small skein of an alpaca/silk blend as well as some other lovely goodies (bamboo socks!).

Since I started planning this tour, everything I read made Fancy Tiger sound like it was a yarn heaven. I was a little disappointed that their stock of local yarns was low while we were visiting, but I did end up with some Knerd String (now Salty Blonde) for a shawl project. This shop offered peak Instagram vibes, though, and it was very organized. There were a lot of yarn and fiber crafts represented!

I loved seeing an old card catalog holding all of the circular needles! What a clever way of organizing those.

The last stop for day 2, on a little bit of whim, was the Lamb Shoppe. I loved all of the original (or at least seemingly original) woodwork in the shop, and it felt very open and inviting. I found another skein of Herd of Cats to match my calico at home — I didn’t notice until much later, though, that this time I grabbed a skein of DK weight. (The others were fingering weight, oops! I guess I won’t be finding a single project for them all.)

Day 3

Just two more shops to visit on our final day of the tour. We have a pretty good stamina for shop hops after doing the MN Yarn Shop Hop for several years together, but it does get to be a lot of overstimulation. We were also noticing a lot of the same dyers and not making as many new-to-us discoveries.

We were referred to The Tangled Ball, which is located inside of funky, new food hall. It was a very fun, colorful shop and the location was awesome! With Sloan Lake just a couple blocks away and all of the neighboring restaurants in the building, I think it’d be safe to say I’d visit this shop pretty often if I lived in Denver. Stock for locally dyed yarns was again pretty low, but I grabbed a skein of Viking Fiber and a shorties needle set from ChiaoGoo that I’ve been wanting.

Our final shop was the newest, opened just a few months ago on the western edge of Denver, Knitter’s Therapy. It was a very small shop with a lot of luxury yarns. I picked a discontinued silk-blend yarn that was embellished with beads and sequins. ? We chatted with the owner and learned that she had relocated the shop from New York. There was some good space to sit and knit/crochet/whatever. This could be a good little shop to meet some yarn-loving friends!

We spent the afternoon driving up to Lookout Mountain in Golden, to learn about Buffalo Bill and get into nature a little bit.

How do you think those mountains compare to the mountain of yarn we brought home?!