Location: 1732 Connecticut Ave. NW

Readers’ pick: Little Words Project

Between rows of multicolored yarn, crochet hooks and needles lies a knitter’s dream.

Through a small door, up a narrow, winding staircase to the second level of the building shared with British pub Across the Pond, is Looped Yarn Works, the self-proclaimed “happiest yarn shop” in the District. The business has served knitters and needleworks in Dupont since 2010, when business partners Susan Galbraith and Janie Lipnick opened the store to “bring the community a friendly, comfortable and warm shop with a selection of beautiful yarns and notions,” according to an interview they gave to the Washington City Paper that year.

The shop, home to knitting supplies and how-t0 classes, is vibrant and arranged like a cozy living room, with a couch, large windows and geometric cubbies of multicolored yarn lining every inch of the space. 

Looped Yarn Works provides all of the resources needed for anyone looking for a new creative outlet. For more seasoned knitters, Looped sells knitting publications like Pom Pom magazine, a small, independent publication, that instructs knitters on how to craft patterns for everything from mittens and hats to cardigans. For beginners, the shop sells all of the supplies needed to get weaving, from yarn, priced as low as $12, and needles to hooks and stitch markers.

Looped Yarn Works also offers weekly classes, from $40 to $185, on topics like troubleshooting tough stitches for beginners, making cable knit hats and crafting sweaters for dogs. Whether or not you think your — or any — dog needs a new sweater, Looped gives you a near-infinite amount of colors to choose from for that hypothetical sweater: pastel pinks stacked atop rolls of pale grays across from a shelf of turquoise and ocean blues.

Be wary if you decide to enter as a knitting virgin— the sheer amount of yarn options and multiple black-and-white photographs of content knitters might just force you to spend all your funds acquiring a new hobby.