Our story

My name is Bridget. I have been selling yarn on Etsy since 2012, and StorybookRetro grew out of my own stash. I started accumulating skeins that were too beautiful to keep tucked away forever. Yarn from shops that had closed. Estate finds. Mill ends from yarn lines that quietly went out of production. Hand-dyed skeins from indie dyers who only made each colorway once.

I think of the shop as a small library of yarn. Each skein is a little different. Each one has a history. My job is to find them, tell you what I know about them, photograph them so you can really see what they look like, and price them so they can come home with you.

If you have a skein you want to set free into the world, I sometimes buy stash too. Send me a message.

Destashed yarn is the secondhand market for knitters and crocheters. Yarn shops close. Knitters clear out their stash. Lines get discontinued. None of that makes the yarn less beautiful. It just means it needs somewhere to go.

I source carefully. Most of the yarn in this shop is in like-new condition: full skeins, original labels, untouched. A few have been wound into cakes by a previous owner, and I always say so in the listing. I always include the spec information from the band, and I research yardage and fiber content when the band is missing or damaged.

Buying destashed means you get yarns at 30 to 60 percent off retail. It means you can knit with a Hedgehog Fibres or a Madelinetosh skein you would not normally splurge on. It means you can finish a project that has been waiting because you needed one more skein in a colorway that no one is making anymore.

It also means the yarn does not go to waste. That matters to me.