Needlecraft shops in London?

[nuky1982]

Hello everyone,

I would like to buy some needlecraft materials but because I'm fairly new to the craft I'd like to try feel the fabrics, threads and take a look at the tools myself to see what is comfortable for me. So, my question is, does anyone know of any good needlecraft shops in London? I'm OK to travel anywhere in London, but since I don't drive, getting to shops outside of London is a bit difficult for me.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to buy all my materails and tools from a shop. However, if that's not possible, could you recommend somewhere that I would be able to get anything from the following:
- evenweave fabric, linen and cotton with fairly high counts (25 - 45)
- embroidery/tapestry frame, I'm not very keen on the hoop frame so I would prefer something a bit more square
- DMC/Anchor stranded cotton in a variety of colours (varied colour and metallic threads would also be a plus!)
- crochet cotton, ideally Twilley's Lyscordett No. 5 or something similar

Thank you very much for reading and any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

[juliemarley]

Hi, not sure about shops in london? is there a hobby craft?
i tend to buy all my crossstitch fabrics, skeins needles etc online.
http://www.katzcrossstitchshop.co.uk/ have some good things and they are reasonably priced, also you can buy from them on ebay, lots of other reasonable sellers on ebay too. To be honest hobby craft seem to be quite pricey.

[nuky1982]

Thank you for your reply. I agree with you about Hobby Craft being a bit pricey. There is one in Greenford, which I have visited and more than the price I was disappointed by their range of fabrics and tools. I work with miniatures for doll's houses and need quite high count evenweave fabric for it but they only had the lower count fabric for bigger tapestry projects. Also, they didn't have the kind of frames that I was looking for. They had a big selection of threads though but I didn't want to buy those before I got all the other bits and pieces first. They also didn't have much of a choice in crochet threads.

I might have to resort to buying online. I hope that I get the right stuff! :confused: I would still much prefer to get my first set of materials and tools form a shop even if it is a little pricier.

[juliemarley]

How about Boyes? i know they do a range of needlework stuff.
Buying on line - katzxstitch are very reasonable so how about buying just a couple of things to see if they work for you first, or you could ask if they could send a sample? x

[Caroleecrafts]

Have you tried Delicate Stitches aka London Bead Company (http://www.londonbeadco.co.uk/) in Kentish Town, not sure what you are looking for exactly but they import some wonderful threads etc from Aus.

[nuky1982]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I emailed Boyes and Delicate stitches but they don't have the higher count evenweave fabric that I need. I think in the end I will have to buy online. Thank you for directing me to katsxstitches, I have to agree, they are very reasonably priced! :)