The Best Yarn Shops in Seoul

Yarn Shopping in Seoul

I’ve been to Korea many times now (it’s one of my favorite places in Asia to shop, eat and relax!) but this most recent trip was the first time I visited Seoul since I started knitting.

And it was like discovering a whole new part of the city!

I now want to revisit all of my favorite travel cities and check out their crafting scene..

Below are some of the best yarn shops in Seoul you should absolutely check out, even if you don’t buy anything.

I walked away with so much knitting inspiration just window shopping.

Here’s my fun shopping guide to the best knitting stores in Seoul!

Planning a Knitting Trip to Seoul: Practical Tips

Where to Stay

Myeongdong

Most Central & Tourist-Friendly

If you want to be in the heart of Seoul’s shopping and dining scene, Myeongdong is ideal.

It’s incredibly walkable, with tons of Korean BBQ restaurants, cosmetics shops, and street food. You’ll be near Namsan Tower, palaces, and traditional markets.

Most yarn shops are 20-30 minutes away by subway, but the central location makes it easy to plan a yarn shopping afternoon between other activities.

Browse Myeongdong hotels here.

Gangnam

Upscale & Modern

Made famous by that song, Gangnam is Seoul’s sleek, modern district with upscale shopping, excellent restaurants, loads of skin clinics and the trendy COEX mall.

It’s perfect if you prefer a more polished, cosmopolitan vibe. The efficient subway system puts you within 30-40 minutes of all the major tourist sites.

Browse Gangnam hotels here.

Hongdae

First-Timers in their 20s

This artsy, energetic neighborhood is perfect for younger travelers and anyone who loves indie culture, street art, and nightlife.

You’ll find countless cafes, unique boutiques, and live music venues. Hongdae has excellent accommodation options at all price points.

It’s close to the most popular yarn store in Seoul, Banul Story.

Browse Hongdae hotels here.

Pro Tip

No matter where you stay, choose accommodation near a subway station.

Seoul’s metro is incredibly clean, efficient, and easy to navigate (signs are in English!).

This lets you explore the entire city easily – tourist sites during the day, yarn shops in the afternoon, and back to your neighborhood for dinner.

Read more: Where to Stay in Seoul as a First Timer

Language Considerations

Most Seoul yarn staff will speak Korean and yarn signage will primarily be in Korean.

Note: Koreans tend to measure yarn by thickness in mm, not weight.

I highly recommend getting an eSim so you’ll have fast local Wifi connectivity and can look up directions or translations on the go.

You’ll want to download a couple local Korean apps before your trip.

• Naver or Kakao maps for getting around (it’s the local version of Google Maps, which isn’t frequently updated and doesn’t work that well).
• Papago is a South Korea translation app, but I found Google Translate to work just fine.
• You can use the camera feature on Google Translate to hover over signs / labels and have it auto-translate hangul.

There’s sometimes free Wifi on main public streets and on buses, but it’s quite spotty and slow.

Korea Esim

You’ll definitely want an eSim for each day of your trip, or ~10gb for 7 days.

I’ve used a couple different brands but liked Jetpac or Klook the best.

They offer both country-specific and Asia Pacific eSIMs (great if you’re visiting multiple countries), and the pricing is great for the reliability.

Be careful with the ultra-cheap eSIMs.

I bought a Nomad esim that advertised 10gb but the data ran out in just 36 hours – despite my my phone being mainly on airplane mode!! It left me unexpectedly stranded without data, in the middle of a quiet suburb in Seoul where there wasn’t any free public wifi.

Nomad customer support was extremely unhelpful and the entire data package honestly felt like a scam. After that experience, I only use reliable esims from Jetpac or Klook.

Seoul is an Underrated Destination for Knitters

Seoul has a really vibrant crafting community, with some of the most unique yarn shops and knitting stores I’ve ever seen.

I always prefer to shop for yarn in person, so that I can touch the fiber and see colors most accurately.

Lots of yarn shops will have swatches and finished objects so you can see the yarn, which I think makes for a much nicer shopping experience!

a wall of swatches! all different colors, fibers and stitches

Buying online (for delivery) is tricky in Korea without a local credit card, so I find it easiest to shop in person.

Plus, compared to NYC, Seoul’s yarn shops are a lot more aesthetically laid out so it’s a fun shopping experience!

Seoul yarn stores carry everything from luxury imported yarns to hand-dyed Korean fibers to affordable all-natural cone yarns.

And tons of cute knitting kits, notions and accessories.

They also sell more project kits, with a wide variety of knit and crochet accessories.

And don’t even get me started on the cozy cafes!

I loved the marled shades in this ball

I love cafe culture in Seoul.

There’s always plenty of seating, free Wifi and plenty of outlets (sometimes even free chargers to borrow).

Korean cafes love a theme and almost all have fantastic cakes, breads and pastries.

And they’re not too sweet, iykyk.

What I really love is that a solid cup of coffee costs just a couple dollars (!!) and you can sit for as long as you like.

NYC could never 😭

the cafes in Korea are so creative – handknit cake ‘desserts’ and the pastries are SO good

Finally, a unique shopping experience in Asia are the local markets.

Seoul has some traditional markets dotted around the city.

Most are focused on food, but some offer craft and clothing focused, where you can find hundreds of stalls (some just the size of a closet) jam packed with things.

You can find yarn in the most unexpected places – some are wholesale markets in multi-story buildings.

at some stores, the display yarn is beautifully organized and just for display. staff will pull out a plastic-wrapped fresh ball for you when you buy.

Others are small stalls tucked in the underground malls.

And I even saw some tiny shops dotted throughout the subway system.

It’s really fun to browse through the maze of stalls. (It can be very overwhelming and overstimulating ha).

But if you’re in Seoul, I highly recommend checking it out!

Read more: The Perfect 5 Day Girl’s Trip to Seoul

Best Yarn Shops in Seoul

Banul Story

I spent hours here and picked up several souvenirs to take home.

Banul is one of the largest yarn shops in Seoul.

It’s located just outside the city center, in a cute university neighborhood filled with aesthetic cafes, dessert shops and boutiques.

There isn’t a major subway station nearby, but you can very easily take one of Seoul’s local buses and walk over.

Banul hass extended hours (typically open until 8pm daily) so it’s very easy to squeeze in a visit during your Seoul trip!

Banul has yarn for every type of fiber artist.

Lots of crochet yarns, fun boucle and sparkle options as well as a large variety of natural fiber yarns.

They also have swatches everywhere, so you can really see the drape, texture and color of each yarn type before purchasing.

I also loved how they have tons of finished object samples!

I thought these dog sweaters were sooo cute

Not just sweaters and cardigans, but more unique things like tote bags, crossbody bags, clutches, slippers and amigurumi.

All the finished objects have sample tags, with exact yardage requirements, needle sizes, gauge information and project costs.

(This info is in Korean though, so you’ll want your eSim and translation app at the ready)

adorable veggie keychains if you like amigurumi

Banul also sells kits, where you can get both the pattern and yarn, and eliminate any guesswork.

They were all very reasonably priced. Patterns start at just 2,000 korean won (under $2 USD).

I was very tempted by some of the crochet pouches and clutch bags but I don’t know how to crochet… yet.

This yarn shop would be great for picking up gifts!

Don’t skip a visit to the second floor cafe.

Somsom Knit

super soft hand dyed yarn for sale

There’s also a wall of some stunning hand dyed yarns and a rack of finished objects, if you want some yarn inspiration.

Somsom Knit is a short walk from the main street in Hongdae.

The neighborhood known for its indie music, street art, shopping and general creative energy.

So it’s perfect to combine with a visit to Hongdae’s cafes, big mall stores and boutique galleries.

almost everything available was on cones, and there were plenty of swatches!

Nougatbar Knits

Nougatbar Knits carries lots of lesser well known international yarn brands as well.

I touched this oh-so-soft poledale yarn, that was created by combining Polwarth and Corriedale sheep! I think they’re Falkland breeds.

They also had a small selection of hand dyed yarns, since I know people will ask.

What do people do with hand dyed yarns? It always looks so pretty in the hank, but I don’t think I’d want to use it for a garment or frankly, be able to afford a sweater quantities worth, so I’m always curious with the fixation on hand dyed indie yarns..

A Look at Some of Nougatbar Knits’ Yarn Stock

I appreciated how this Seoul yarn shop had a windowsill full of swatches!

That way, you can get a feel for how different yarns would look once knitted.

I find it difficult to choose yarn when it’s in the hank or ball, so seeing a swatch is so helpful!

The owner speaks perfect English and is really knowledgeable about knitting, so it’s a much smoother shopping experience than most knitting shops in Seoul. 

I know some people prefer to shop for purely local yarn as souvenirs.

While Nougatbar Knit’s yarn stock focuses on international brands, they do have some unique local souvenirs in the accessories department.

Nougatbar frequently collaborates with various illustrators to make a fun collection of original knitting goods and notions.

Think stitch markers, needle cases and project bags.

Nougatbar’s cute project bags! The characters and prints are really popular with local knitters.

Nougatbar Knits also carries lots of knitting needles and tools, in case you need to pick up some supplies.

And there’s a small selection of knitting books and magazines.

I spotted the ever-popular Chiaogoo needles.

Nougatbar Knits is also one of the few yarn shops in Seoul to offer tax refunds!

Most of the other yarn shops in Seoul are small businesses catering to locals and don’t offer tax refunds.

Tax Free Shopping in Korea

In Seoul, the way it works is the tax refund is on a sliding scale.

The more you spend, the higher the refund. Some stores will have the refund chart on their checkout counter, which shows the exact refund amounts.

So… you could easily get carried away and justify a big yarn purchase!

The refund process is very simple in Korea.

At the airport, there’s kiosk machines after security where you can scan all your receipts and you’ll immediately get the refund back in cash.

While I prefer credit card refunds, this method is faster, gives you a slightly better refund rate and an excuse to come back to Korea!

Note: Nougatbar Knits is located a bit outside Seoul’s city center.

I recommend grabbing an Uber or driving (if you have car there’s parking right in front of the store).

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Dongdaemun Market

Inside, I quickly got lost.

It was like stepping into a bazaar full of every kind of supply you’d ever need for any type of hobby – sewing, crafting, garment making, jewelry making, you name it.

They had fabrics (silk, fleece, suiting, regular clothes), buttons in all shapes and sizes and an entire floor of ribbons, lace and cords.

There’s another entire floor of beads and charms plus jewelry making supplies.

I think you could find anything craft related here!

a maze of endless, endless vendors and stalls

But be warned – it’s not neatly organized and it spans multiple buildings.

The wholesale market is primarily aimed at wholesalers who buy in large volume, so vendors here offer wholesale pricing.

You’ll get the best pricing if you buy a large quantity and even better if you can speak Korean.

I had fun using Google translate back and forth with a button seller.

Dongdaemun Market is a really fun way to experience authentic Korean market culture, but it truly is a maze.

You can take 5 steps in and feel hopelessly lost, ha.

As someone who gets a little claustrophobic, I was constantly looking up at the ceiling for the fire / stairs / exit sign lol.

a one stop place for all your hobbies – I saw some local girls oohing over the huge selection of charms and jewelry beads

Tip: Shop availability varies.

Come early to shop, on a weekday morning or latest by the early afternoon. The market is closed on Sundays and vendors typically close by 4-5pm on Saturdays.

This was the most chaotic and overwhelming experience of my Seoul yarn shopping experience.

It’s a sprawling market where you’ll need to explore and hunt for treasures, but the variety and pricing made it worth the adventure!

There’s also a flower market, clothing market and home goods / kitchen supply market if you want to spend your whole day treasure hunting!

Dongdaemun can feel very overwhelming, especially for foreigners.

Korean Yarn Trends + What to Look For

I’ve noticed that yarn shops in Korea are beautifully curated.

They often have minimalist color palettes that reflect Korea’s modern fashion aesthetic.

A lot of the yarn is on cones, and well priced for the volume and quality.

I saw a wide range of fiber content – a lot more crochet yarns, acrylics and scrubby-type yarns than I’ve seen here in NYC.

Most of the boutique yarn shops had a decent assortment of natural fibers, but you have to look a little carefully.

most of the yarn for sale in Korea is on cones

Best Days to Visit

I recommend yarn shopping from Wednesday – Friday.

Weekends can get very crowded and some stores are closed on Monday.

Transportation

Seoul has excellent public transportation.

All of the knitting stores I’ve listed here are easily accessible through the subway and bus network.

You could easily visit multiple knitting stores in one day if you wanted to hit as many as possible!

If you prefer to not use mass transit, Uber is a convenient cab option.

Taxis are very inexpensive in Seoul (but Uber is easier for foreignors, as local Taxis can often only take cash or local credit cards and may not speak English)

Read more: How to Get Around Seoul Using Public Transportation

the felted slipper trend is also popular in Seoul! I loved these cute metal ‘stitches’ labels

Bringing Yarn Home

If you’re flying internationally, yarn is generally allowed in both carry-on and checked luggage.

Just be mindful of weight restrictions, especially if buying heavier yarn like cones.

And I didn’t have any problems bringing my project bag and knitting needles on the flight.

I found that most shops did not offer tax free shopping.

You can read the rest of my Seoul travel guides on my travel blog here.

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