An exciting new yarn shop just opened up in Anchorage – Wooly Mammoth!  For anybody familiar with the downtown Anchorage shops, Wooly Mammoth is an offshoot of Quilted Raven, which is right across the street.  For anybody not familiar with Anchorage downtown shops, Quilted Raven is an awesome Alaska theme quilt/sewing/fabric shop, well worth a visit if you are a quilter or fabric person.

But I digress.  Although it is a smallish shop, Wooly Mammoth is pretty well stocked with a wide range of yarns, needles, notions, little knitter gifties and swag. It is very clean and neatly organized. There are two nice benches for husbands or other non-knitting friends to use while the knitters have at it.  The first room is all Alaska made yarns – everything is some combination of locally sourced, spun and/or dyed.   ATHW (short for A Tree Hugger’s Wife) yarns, from the owner/operator of Seaside Yarns of earlier post fame, is well represented.

Most of this wall is ATHW yarn 🙂 Also on this wall are yarns dyed specifically for the shop by Nancy Sopp, a local dyer.  On the other wall are yarns from the Alaska Yarn Co and some other local companies.  One offering I was very glad to see was yarn skeins and project kits from the Alaska Zoo!  The zoo has a bactrian camel and some alpacas and musk oxen, all of which are sheared or combed annually and the wool is spun into yarn and sold in the gift shop – and now at Wooly Mammoth!  I have knit some of their alpaca and camel, and it is nice yarn – and the profits go to a good cause as well.

The next room is filled with yarns from “outside” (Alaskan term for pretty much anyplace except Alaska), a good selection of needles and notions.  They have Mrs. Crosby, Ancient Arts, and much much more.  Among the notions are fasteners and shawl pins from Jul, a small selection of buttons, and a selection of little felted animals.

It’s very new – open for a week so far – so it doesn’t really have much of a vibe to it yet. It does capitalize on the name with cute mammoths all over, as the observant picture viewer may have noticed. However, it is pleasant and has a great selection.  For residents and visitors alike, there is a ton of local Alaskan yarn, as well as yarns from the rest of the wide world. And for people who don’t like yarn, benches and swag with woolly mammoths on it – something for everybody!