Ewe Name It

A fiberholic who brands for a living has a ball stringing together LYS names.

By Purl Needlemeyer

When you think of the qualities successful yarn shop owners tend to display, "creativity" is likely the first word that springs to mind. Need proof? Look no further than the remarkable names that grace so many of their stores, the result of either an inspired bolt from the blue or a painstaking process that usually begins with a pad and pen and a long list of knitty words—knit, purl, yarn, hook, stitch, sheep. Throw in a group of friends to free-associate and, if you’re so inclined, a bottle (or two) of wine, and there’s no telling where the process will take you.

One of the most common rules for naming a retail location is to keep it simple. Linens 'N Things, Home Goods and the Container Store quickly tell the consumer exactly what's inside. A preponderance of yarn shops have followed suit. There's little question what you can buy at The Yarn Boutique (Lafayette, California) or The Yarn Market (Beulah, Michigan). You should find acres of alpaca at The Yarn Farm (Franklin County, Missouri) and barrels of bouclé at The Yarn Barn (Lawrence, Kansas; Dillwyn, Virginia). For some cozy reason, knitting is often found in smaller venues like The Knitting Niche (Greenwich, Connecticut), The Knitting Nest (Jackson, Michigan; Maryville, Tennessee), The Knitting Nook (North Richland Hills, Texas), The Knitting Knook (Keene, New Hampshire; Marlton, New Jersey) and The Knitting Corner (Huntington, New York; Virginia Beach, Virginia).

Short-and-sweet monikers make a lot of sense. Yarn (Westville, Connecticut), Skein (Pasadena, California), Fringe (Aurora, Illinois), Purl (New York City), Loop (Philadelphia), Stitches (Columbia, Missouri) and Needles! (Concord, North Carolina) all get right to The Point (New York City). Whether or not it's three times more effective to call a shop Yarns-Yarns-Yarns (Branford, Connecticut) or Knit-Knit-Knit (West Bloomfield, Michigan), the names sure are fun to say.

Having a playful name sets a happy tone right away. How can people not smile when you greet them with "Welcome to The Knutty Knitter (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) or Knitty Knotty (Westmont, New Jersey) or Knitty City (New York City) or Knitty Gritty (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware)"?

As yarn shops continue to evolve into social gathering places, names that broadcast a sense of community are becoming increasingly popular. You know you're bound to find kindred spirits at Connecticut’s Knit Together (Stamford) and Knitting Central (Westport). Book an entire afternoon to visit Sit 'N Stitch (Toluca Lake, California) or Sit 'N Knit (Hartford, Connecticut). And what could be better than kicking back with close-knit types at Sip & Knit (Maitland, Florida), as long as you sober up before heading over to Knit and Tell (Rockville Center, New York)?

Vicki Sayre, owner of Chicago's Loopy Yarns, was up in the air about what to name her shop before it came to her. Aside from the obvious yarn/loop connection, "The shop is located at the south side of the downtown area known as The Loop," she says. "Plus, I'm a little crazy!" Being up in the air about a shop's name seems to be a popular place—there are plenty of good ideas floating around up there: Flying Fingers (Tarrytown, New York), Flying Needles (Belleair Bluffs, Florida), Flying Colors (Clarendon Hills, Illinois) and Flying Sheep (Ann Arbor, Michigan).

Back on earth, the humble ovine, being somewhat essential to The Whole Nine Yarns (Woodstock, Georgia), has led to numerous sheep-shop names. We've stripped them of their coats (and dig-knit-ty) at Shivering Sheep (Denver), Naked Sheep (Manistee, Michigan; Bennington, Vermont) and Shabby Sheep (Dallas). Perhaps some owners were ostracized by their families for opening an LYS in the first place, hence the myriad establishments called The Black Sheep.

Yes, knitters have always been a wild bunch, giving rise to The Happy Hookers (Chatsworth, California), Two Crazy Ladies (Las Vegas), Wilde and Wooly (Black Mountain, North Carolina), a Knaughty Knitter (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) and a pair of Knotty Girls (Fairfield, Connecticut; Corpus Christi, Texas).

If you're into puns, there's Passion Knits (Toronto), Hither and Yarn (Torrington, Connecticut), CommuKnity (San Jose, California), and Putting on the Knitz (Newton, Massachusetts). Allison Isaacs, owner of the San Francisco–based ImagiKnit, knew that having a clever name wouldn’t always be easy. "Some people are confused by our name, but ImagiKnit so clearly communicates the craft's endless creative possibilities that we think it's worth it," she explains. "We inherited our name from the shop's previous owner," says Diane Greenfield of Knitting to Know Ewe in Newtown, Pennsylvania. "People are always telling us they love the name. Of course, on the phone we often have to add, 'That’s ewe, e–w–e.'"

Speaking of ewe, tons of shops pay homage to the homonym. There's The New Ewe (Nampa, Idaho), Embraceable Ewe (Hamburg, New York), Crazy for Ewe (Leonardtown, Maryland), With Ewe in Mind (Paducah, Kentucky), Christie's Just for Ewe (Marblehead, Ohio) and Ewe-topia (Troy, Ohio), just to name a f-ewe. Grammarians be damned: It can be Ewe and I (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) or Ewe and Me (Sandwich, Illinois; Ridgeway, Colorado), as long as it’s All About Ewe (Locust Valley, New York).

Wordplay and happenstance can play a part in the name game. What else would you call a yarn shop on Pearl Avenue but Knit on Pearl (Jackson, Wyoming)? Likewise, a shop on Red Bank's Monmouth Street in New Jersey's Monmouth County couldn't be anything but Wooly Monmouth.

Associating the name of a shop with its physical location, like Knitting in La Jolla (La Jolla, California) or Hilltop Yarn (Seattle), can put a yarn shop on the map, literally. In the same vein, do you think people have a difficult time finding the shops called Needle in a Haystack (Montrose and Alameda, California)?

Landing a name that is memorable, distinctive and easy to say is a challenge, but it's just the first step in the branding process. It quickly becomes about marketing, advertising, customer loyalty and relationships, which may spur the folks at Have Ewe Any Wool in Elmhurst, Illinois, to host an event with Three Bags Full, just 20 miles away in Northbrook.

Other names evoke the nail-biting reality all business owners experience. It's not unusual to hear that an LYS owner is constantly Hanging by a Thread (Oxford, Mississippi; Fort Mill, South Carolina), unable to Unwind (Burbank, California), All Strung Out (Cocoa Beach, Florida), in need of Stitch Therapy (Brooklyn, New York) or completely Unraveled (Monrovia, California; Richmond, Virginia).

Someday, someone is going to name a shop You Can't Possibly Need More Yarn or Hidin' Knit From Your Spouse or Have Ewe Lost Your Mind? Until then, stick with the fact that as long as you can get your hands on Two Sticks and String (Broken Arrow, Oklahoma), there's Never Enough Yarn (Middletown, Virginia).

Jodi Meryl Wallace (a.k.a. Purl Needlemeyer) has been naming companies and products for more than 25 years. A marketing and branding consultant, she's also the creator of Gettin' Knit Together, an organizational tool kit for fiber fanatics. She writes Purl's blog at knitandplenty.com and can be reached at purl@knitandplenty.com.