Purlescence Yarns

I purchased some luxury fibers at Stitches West in Santa Clara and failed to label them when I got them home. A huge thank you to Sarah who looked up my transaction from over 2 months ago and identified my mystery fiber. I appreciate her friendly manner and her willingness to help with my problem. Wonderful selection of goodies and top notch customer service. Thanks so much! Can’t wait to shop again next year!

This place should be called Purlescence Looms, not Purlescence Yarns. Over half the store is taken up by looms and spinning wheels and their accouterments. The rest is yarn, sure, but a VERY limited selection. If you’re looking for anything heavier than worsted, you’re out of luck. I went in there looking for a bulky yarn and was told they didn’t carry bulky. I don’t know how you can call yourself a yarn store if you don’t carry a decent variety of weights — it’s not like bulky is an unusual request. What they did have was less than impressive. If you’re looking for a loom or spinning wheel, this might be the place for you, but if you’re looking for YARN, make the trip to Green Planet Yarn in Campbell or Uncommon Threads in Los Altos.

Purlescence has a great selection of supplies for pretty much any fiber art you can think of. Staff is friendly and helpful. Other LYS sometimes have a snobby attitude, not Purlescence. I actually wish I had more time to hang out there, it looks like a great community of knitters.

This is a great place to buy yarn or knitting supplies. The store carries a wide variety of yarns and they have promotions on some yarns. The staff is friendly and helpful. They helped me (gave me an opinion) to select the colors for my project (a baby blanket), they spun the yarn at not charge, and printed the copy for the project at the store. I left the store happy and had everything I needed with me.

Cozy, welcoming, friendly (even after multiple «dumb» questions from a weaving newbie). They never push me to buy things I can’t afford, they don’t tense up and act like I’m too «poor» or «not the right kind of person» to be in there (for real, I’ve had some weird yarn store experiences in the Bay Area). I’ve bought a wheel, all of my current fiber tools and several pounds of fiber from them since discovering them a year ago. Kay and Sandi make me feel like I’m not just a customer but I’m part of their yarny family. That’s a big deal to me.
The yarn swaps, the Halos for Hope hat drive, the talking-​about-​weird-​art-​yarn times, it’s all good. They’re well worth their reasonable price point, they have a fine selection of wheels, carders, combs, looms and other tools; they’re willing to let you touch and test nearly anything they have. They want to keep you happy. Again: that’s a big deal to me.
They don’t mind if you come in and sit a while; they don’t mind if it’s a quick run in and run out because you’ve got to finish pulling a warp/​crocheting a chicken dinner/​felting a dog yurt and you just need one last thing. I’m an intensely anxious person and everyone at that wonderful little store has made me feel at ease.

As an inexperienced knitter, I have occasionally been treated dismissively at other local yarn shops. Never so at Purlescence. The staff has been helpful and pleasant every time. They want you to love your knitting project and are willing to spend the time with you so that you will be satisfied with your work. Lovely people there, and their attitude is much appreciated!

VERY Friendly staff here! I’ve been crocheting for years and conceptually knew how to knit… very horribly. I finally put my mind to it and learned how to knit. I’ve dabbled in a variety of fiber over the years and went through a needle felting place two years ago.
This is one of the few places on the Peninsula that sells WOOL ROVING!!! I purchased my felting supplies here and now I’ve been going to the open knit nights. The owners are extremely passionate about fiber arts and providing and maintaining a great community of artists.
The major selling point here is that the customers here are AMAZING. I’ve had a few oopsie moments while attempting to knit my first pair of socks and the regulars that gather here are super understanding and have immense amount of patience to help out a newbie like me.
The regulars were pointing me to the yarns and making recommendations. Majority of the staff including the owner is super welcoming; I only ran into two staff members over the many visits that weren’t very friendly or helpful.
Staff is extremely knowledgeable and they carry a LARGE AND WONDERFUL selection of yarn! Definitely one of my favorite LYS!!!

I really, really want to like Purlescence. But I have had *such* mixed experiences, and ultimately I just prefer to go elsewhere.
Buying a spinning wheel for a friend — a TON of us chipped in on it — I called ahead and worked with one of the ladies and it was a great experience. She even allowed us to set up a mini surprise reveal party, and it was all wonderful.
But actually going to the store just to browse or shop is not so fun. Full disclosure, I haven’t gone in years other than that one time for the spinning wheel — because when I did go, I did not enjoy it.
Here is what I experienced: The store was host to a group of rabidly loyal customers who seem to spend all their free time there, treating it like their living room. Nothing wrong with this, except that the owners/​workers would spend all their time and attention on these groupies, sparing little to no attention to someone who walked in the door to shop. I wanted to like this shop so badly that I deliberately went there more often, and eventually felt like I was starting to be accepted as part of this ‘in crowd’… but ultimately I should just NOT have to work that hard to have a good experience at a yarn shop, which is supposed to be fun!
Much prefer Green Planet Yarn, where they are helpful whether or not they recognize you.

I’ve had a great experience at this shop every time I’ve come. I can’t speak to the classes or community, but I have been really blown away by the quality of service here. The workers here have been really great about answering my questions — as someone who is new to the world of yarn and knitting, I definitely rely on their expertise, anecdotes, and assistance.
Every person who has assisted me has been very welcoming, and they have really tailored their answers and assistance to my specific needs and questions, rather than just trying to make a sale off of me. I’ve walked in with nothing more than a list of things I need for a knitting class, and even though there are SO many options (especially when it comes to needle choices!), the ladies here have been such a great help with navigating me through all of that, explaining things that I’m not familiar with, and just in general giving me great tips as I explore my new hobby.
I would highly recommend this local yarn store to local knitters, especially those who are very new to the craft.

Very friendly and helpful staff & owners.
Decent selection of high end yarns that aren’t in typical discount/​craft stores.
Lessons & classes available for knitters, crocheters & loomers. Glad there is still a bricks & mortar store where I can actually see the colors of yarn, quality & types of fibers before I buy.

I really wanted to support a local store… but.
MY BIGGEST GRIPE… Is that there seems to be customers that must come in constantly and kind of seem to have their own club. They stand around chatting. Staff spends all their time with them. I had to wait to checkout for 15 minutes because there were 2 (YES ONLY 2) ladies in front of me that must be in here all the time. The staff was so slow and talking so much. I understand they’re loyal frequent customers. But this was ridiculous. It seems like the same deal EVERY TIME I go in here.
Second gripe… this place is spendy. If you happen to go in when they have a sale… which always seem to happen out of the blue. Almost unplanned? The prices are good.
Third gripe… the space really isn’t organized well. It doesn’t flow at all.
Fourth gripe… I had my son with me. He’s 9 and knows how to behave. He’s an awesome guy. Lots of experience going to galleries and art shows etc. That said, it really irritates me when shops (typically not kid shops) are so unwelcoming. Just feel like they’re waiting for you to leave. Except all my son did was stand there. He didn’t touch anything.
Fifth thought. yarn selection was ok. But could have had more variety. Seemed like a lot of the yarns were similar.
All that said, I’ll probably end up ordering my needles off amazon… at least I tried.
Will probably checkout other yarn places… or order from knitpicks, I’ve been really happy with their service and products.

The pluses: friendly, laid-​back people working here. Helpful without breathing down your neck. If you’re into spinning, they can hook you up. I can see where this would be a nice place to hang out if you lived nearby and wanted to sit around a table and knit.
But on the other hand: they’re open only six hours a day, five days a week. I guess their rent is low or they do a lot of mail order, since they manage to stay in business, but it’s hard to coordinate my trips to Sunnyvale with their hours. That may explain why I hadn’t visited in a while.
According to their website, they have a pretty wide variety of yarn. Maybe I hit the store at the wrong time of the year, but 95% of their stock was Cascade, most of it produced in China. Very disappointing. I realize that a lot of local yarn stores have gone out of business and the competition isn’t what it used to be, but there are better options in the area.

I was a bit disappointed by the selection, mainly because I was hoping for a more extensive Madelinetosh collection. There are quite a few types of yarns, but each one isn’t all that well represented. The staff was friendly, though, and I saw many books, notions, needles, and even a knitting area.

Love this place. Great community, great teachers, wonderful yarn and looms and spinning wheels. But primarily I go here for the community. If I have a question or a problem, I can pop in and *someone* will be able to help, often informally. The classes are great — very helpful.
Not the kind of place where a salesperson hovers over you — but very helpful if you have any questions at all.

After reading all the negative reviews, I admit I was a little wary going in here. I may look tough, but I’m actually very sensitive. Especially as a man-​knitter, I sort of expect to get a bit of side-​eye whenever I go into a new yarn store. So, in light of some of the stuff I read on here, I went in prepared for the worst.
Fortunately, they were super nice to me. If I’m in the South Bay and I need yarn, (or a spinning wheel,) I’ll totally go back.

I’ve been coming here for a little over a year, since shortly after I moved to the area — can’t believe I haven’t made a review yet. Gorgeous yarns, lots of fiber, a corner full of spinning wheels, a number of looms, tons of books. They clearly love what they do and care about their customers.
The sitting area is always open for anyone to come and knit, weave, spin, etc, or just sit and chill, but on Thursday nights in particular (also Saturdays, to a lesser extent) lots of people come to hang out. That amount of people can be intimidating to an introvert like me, but they’ve always been welcoming and it’s been easy to make friends with everyone. It usually takes me a while to stop feeling awkward with a group of people, but it was easy to get comfortable here.
They are very kid-​friendly; there’s a little corner in the sitting area with toys and coloring books and other things to keep a child busy, and it’s visible from a lot of the rest of the store. When I have my daughter with me (she loves it here), I can usually get some knitting or spinning in while she plays. If the owners and/​or some of the other regulars aren’t busy they often like to play with her too — good for her and good for me :)
They regularly do various events — charity knitting, a yarn swap every few months or so I think, yarn tastings, and they’re currently doing a baby blanket contest with prizes. Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) was super fun too.

I had a few bad experiences at Purlescence last fall. I went there to take knitting classes and when I went for the initial meeting of the second series of classes, my teacher wasn’t there. One of the co-​owners, a rather unfriendly woman, told me that was because my teacher had jury duty. I asked why no one had called to notify me since there were only 2 people in the class and she basically said that would have involved going upstairs to look at another computer. I guess that was more difficult than me taking the time and trouble of going there. I gave her my phone number and left a message for my teacher to call to reschedule but she never did.
My other objection to Purlescence is the way I was taught to knit. They tended to take the work out of my hands and fix my mistakes rather than taking the time to explain where the error was and how to fix it. Also, when I asked for a suggestion for an easy cardigan pattern, they recommended one that I now know was really too hard for a rank beginner.
Last, but not least, is the dirty condition of the store. I believe yarn should be stored in pristine condition, not among dust and food smells from the food that’s left on the central table. I wanted to like Purlescence because of its location but I won’t be going there again.

I have been a shopper at Purlescence Yarns since they opened and can only say good things.
First because of the incredible wide selection of yarns, fiber, needles, books,
Second they care about the people and the community they serve.
Where to start?
There a living room always open to sit and knit, crochet or spin.
Thursday late night knits, pull up a chair and enjoy time with new and old friends.
Classes, be it beginning spinning or the more advanced Spin-​U.
I say when it’s your first time say «hi» and make a new friend or 20.

Although there is a variety of yarn available, none are really what i’m looking for.
Their customer service is a little BUNK AS HELL too. but i digress.

Wow. These ladies really know their yarn.
This place is a miracle and makes me wish I lived on the west coast!
The customer service is excellent, the products are very interesting and unusual and there is always something going on. If you have a question about a pattern, someone can give you tips.
They carry yak yarn, for goodness sake.
Yak. Yarn.
Wow.
Seriously, I love this store. If you don’t go there, you are either insanely foolish, or unbelievably spoiled.