When I looked up yarn stores in Japan, Walnut came up again and again. It’s “the” place to go for Japanese and other fine yarns.
It has its own line of yarns, as well as many premium brands from around the world. From the reading I did beforehand, it has a wonderful merino-cotton-silk-linen blend that behaves wonderfully in warm weather. That particular line won’t blend well with my stash, so I settled for a fingering merino.
The store also has a small selection of exquisite fabrics, and sample garments to show how they drape.
The stars are the yarns.
And the beautiful samples.
The store is easy to find, if you trust google maps’ walking directions. It was less than 2 km from the main Kyoto train station. There is also a Walnut store in Tokyo, though I opted to visit the flagship store in Kyoto. It’s upstairs on a quiet(ish) street. It’s probably near other shops, though the direction we took, the location felt a bit random.
I highly recommend a visit. The staff spoke excellent English and admired the sweater I was wearing.
Juliette Knits 