by rmkristy on Wednesday, Sep 19 2007 at 08:55AM UTC

This is one of the truly great shops. There is a coffee house attached on one end and the rest of the store is jammed full of the best yarns. I love to spend time there when I am in Portland!

by feministmama on Wednesday, Oct 03 2007 at 08:52PM UTC

Every knitter must a pilgrimage to the Yarn Garden at least once a year.

by glowgirl on Saturday, Oct 13 2007 at 10:28AM UTC

Staff here are really helpful, and the selection is great.

by Spotnik on Tuesday, May 27 2008 at 06:00PM UTC

Friendly employees, SO MUCH yarn - this is a wonderful store. Unfortunately, the attached coffee house has closed. The seating is still there, but no more snacks and coffee.

by irulan on Monday, Jun 09 2008 at 10:06PM UTC

I have never had much luck getting assistance that was helpful. The employees are usually too busy chatting, eating or looking busy.

by Anonymous on Tuesday, Jun 10 2008 at 03:05PM UTC

I have been going to the Yarn Garden practically since it opened, and I have never heard the staff being anything other than as helpful as they can be! I don't know what the situation was that caused the woman to "walk out in tears" but there must have been a reason other than "knitting help being on specific days during the afternoon." Maybe it was almost time for the store to close? Maybe she was rude to the staff? (Just some other possibilities.)

by lusciousluka on Wednesday, Oct 01 2008 at 08:54PM UTC

Overwhelming setup. I didn't really understand how things were organized. Atmosphere was a little weird. Nice sale items.

by pinktiburon on Friday, Oct 31 2008 at 05:45PM UTC

Lots and lots and lots of yarn!!! Nearly a city block full. When I'd went last year they had lots of stickers and neat little novelties, though they had none this year, which was a little disappointing. A good mixture of price and quality, something for most likely everyone.

by Deb on Wednesday, Jan 28 2009 at 10:48PM UTC

I hang out here for a few hours every Monday. Love the friendly staff, the wonderful service, and it's great to go there and know I'll find a yarn that I want.

by SunflowerCompass on Sunday, Feb 22 2009 at 08:19AM UTC

This is a must-stop simply because of the size and selection! Beemergirl and I have seen quite a few of the Portland shops and this one was over the top! It takes a bit to get oriented and to look past the clutter, so plan to spend some time and you will be rewarded with great yarn! (By the way, the coffee shop was open when we were there!)

by beemergirl on Wednesday, Feb 25 2009 at 05:43AM UTC

A copious amounts of yarn to choose from and a whole room of patterns, magazines and notions. A must visit when in town.

by heidi on Tuesday, Jul 07 2009 at 02:46PM UTC

tons of yarn piled ceiling high, several rooms to browse through, a pattern room... i can spend hours here dreaming and planning out patterns.

by symphony91 on Monday, Aug 10 2009 at 01:51PM UTC

Selection is very large, and nicely varied, and a lot to my taste, but the service was the most exceptional. The staff member I talked to was very helpful, knew exactly where everything was, had excellent suggestions for substitution, was eager to give a discount during sock summit because I 'probably' had a coupon, and even printed off a trimet bus plan after I asked for directions. Extremely pleasant experience, and highly recommended!

by renne on Saturday, Sep 05 2009 at 09:18PM UTC

I am in love with this one! I had too short a time here passing through from Seaside back to the Midwest. My husband was perfectly comfortable in a cozy chair with a magazine. (no quiet corner for him. He chose a seat right in the middle of the action!) I really wanted-no, needed- to move in and live there. I settled for a bagful of Malabrigo sock and worsted, for a very reasonable price, plus free patterns from the designer. I fondled all the way to Minnesota! There was an enormous sale going on. I need to go back......tons of beautiful yarns at good prices.

by knittypops on Monday, Oct 05 2009 at 04:57PM UTC

The staff usually leaves you to your own devices, which is generally fine with me, though I've had to wait a long time to get a question answered once or twice. Great selection, though a lot of it is sorta "eh" (more novelty yarns here than you'll get at most places.) The addi's are behind the counter now, which annoys me for some reason. I'm also pretty sad that they got rid of their cafe area. Now that Abundant is gone, there is pretty much nowhere to eat and sit and knit (Twisted has tea, but that's not quite the same as a full-on coffee shop.)

by budasue on Saturday, Dec 26 2009 at 03:29PM UTC

Lots of yarn, great variety, but difficult to discern any organization. The bins certainly need some attention, as varieties have spilled into neighbors. When I visited the staff was friendly and available for help if requested. Since I am an out-of-towner, I don't think I would make the effort to come back, but it was a pleasant half-hour of browsing.

by Yrnldy on Tuesday, Jan 19 2010 at 10:10PM UTC

I was just there on the Yarn Train crawl, and was almost overwhelmed by the extensive stock. My time was short there, but I was able to find some amazing stuff at good prices. I love the fact that this store is across the street from newbie Happy Knits-the two stores have a very different feel from one another, and I loved each one for different reasons. You PDX-ers are lucky to have such amazing shops. It was well worth the bus ride from the shops in the Pearl District. I'll certainly be back!

by irulan on Friday, Apr 23 2010 at 03:43PM UTC

Decided to pop into Yarn Garden while down the street at another LYS. Three people were working and not a single person greeted me. It was a little annoying. I realize they were busy taking in inventory and knitting, but a simple hello would have been nice. It was around noon and there were only a couple other customers in the shop.
The yarn selection has been pared down considerably since the last time I was there and the patterns notions room has been cleaned up and organized. It still has a lot of stuff in it, but it is more manageable than its former incarnation. It's not as overwhelming as it used to be.

by vbhtml on Tuesday, Feb 01 2011 at 04:06PM UTC

I had a similar experience t Yarn Garn as irulan. When I went there, no one greeted us (even though there was 2 employees there doing much of nothing). When we asked the lady questions about needles, she seems borderline annoyed because she had to take the needles out from behind the counter for us to look at.

Their selection is good, but the yarn quality that they have is not great. I didn't get a really good vibe from the store due to the average service received. It seems like Jo-Ann type service but minus the discounts and coupons that Jo-Ann has.

by raniviva on Friday, Mar 04 2011 at 08:49PM UTC

Even a ratio of 5:1 (employees:customer) didn't bring me much luck in being noticed. The staff were busy talking amongst themselves. It's too bad, I've heard how great the yarn is there.

by edenkitty on Friday, Mar 18 2011 at 05:16AM UTC

Visited them recently on the 2011 PDX Knit Crawl! My sister and I visited all twenty stores in two days! They had a great selection of yarn, I mean, it's almost three yarn stores worth.

On the Knit Crawl they had some great super discount yarns, and had free pattern books. I myself, purchased some of the really cool discount yarns (sorry to those who missed out). The service wasn't the best but I've had far worse. It's confusing that they have two registers but it still took ten minutes to check out (the transaction itself not the wait). I thought it was odd that while happy knits up the street was slammed with people making purchases and in line to make purchases, that they didn't have a wait, but also seemed unhurried.

I give them my "Most likely to be overwhelmed by choices" award. Seriously, three stores worth of yarn, I would take hours to make a decision.

by hkpdx on Saturday, Oct 22 2011 at 06:19PM UTC

If you don't knit socks, then this store is a good place to start. They have a good selection of yarn for those of us who knit other items and want a bigger selection of weights.