Finding Hand knitting Yarn – Yarn in Kathmandu

In the world of handmade knitwear, the search for the perfect yarn is a journey in itself. And here in Kathmandu, where hand knitting has been a part of the culture for generations, finding the right yarn can be a challenge. But as the owner of a knitwear supplier, I am no stranger to the hunt. Hand knitting requires thicker yarn than its machine-made counterpart, and so we rely on the local market for almost all our raw materials and wool being no exception. But the search for high-quality, soft wool is not an easy one. It can be scarce and, when found, often comes at a premium price. I will share what we have learned in searching yarn in Kathmandu.

Most of the wool we find is single ply yarn. There aren’t many plied yarn in the market. There are few shops that sells the yarn in retail mostly it is Vardhaman wool(Mostly blend of Acrylic) from Nepal Wool House.

The local term used by the vendor is “count” & “knot” to denote the thickness of yarn.

Usually the softness of yarn is denoted in Micron. It is not the case for most of the yarn in Nepal. The quality it is either “Ordinary”, “Gillbox”, “Tibetan wool”, “TT wool”, “Natural”, “Carpet wool”, “Merino (specialty yarns)”,etc. These terms does not imply the softness of the yarn.

The fineness (measured in micron) which that the vendors stock varies from 28 and above. The higher the Micron the coarser the yarn. 28 Micron Gillbox yarn can be categorized as economically soft. The “Ordinary” is around 32 Micron and the Merino is around 21 micron. This of-course needs to be taken with grain of salt. Most vendor do not provide you with the guarantee of quality.

There aren’t many wholesale vendors and there aren’t many choices. This is chicken & egg situation between vendors & hand knitting factories. Vendor do not sell high quality yarn for reason being expensive to hold on to & not enough demand. And the factories cannot find different quality of yarn that is readily available to include in sampling process.

There aren’t lots of wholesale supplier in Kathmandu. Few of them we knew are out of business. Also the new suppliers have come in which sells the yarn in complementary to their Dyeing facility. Few shops are in Chhetrapati and Paknajol area. Few dyeing facilities are in Mulpani area. There are also spinners that sell the yarn. It is not easy to find any of them as they do not advertise much and also do not have sign boards, so it is quite a daunting task to locate them let alone buying from them. The most common way to get in contact with them is through the manufacturers like us or through the spinners & dyers.

For retail purchase, there is few of them that has been selling for quite a long time ago. Nepal Wool house is one of the oldest retailer out there. As I mentioned before, they sell mostly the acrylic blended yarn. Other that we have found are in Ason area & Needle Craft(3rd floor, shop 381 Bishal Bazar, kathmandu) in the shops who also sells needles, crochet, threads, embroidery accessories etc.