About Us

Welcome to Skein Sisters!

Skein Sisters is the ultimate yarn store. Deb & Janine opened Skein Sisters in the Inner West of Sydney Australia in 2017 after years of dreaming and planning. We love helping our customers in our beautiful shop and in our online webstore.

Everyone at Skein Sisters is passionate about knitting and crochet. We pride ourselves on our product knowledge and quality customer service. We’re here to help you with techniques or choosing your next project, whether you’re a beginner or have a lifetime of experience. 

We stock high quality knitting & crochet supplies from Australia and overseas.

We are open 7 days a week - Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 11am-3pm. Our Contact Us page has more detailed information.

We have everything you need to create your dream project with joy. 

Everyone deserves fabulous yarn

Meet the 'Sisters'

Skein Sisters is the product of years of planning by friends Deb McDonald and Janine Smith (Deb's on the left, Janine's on the right). 

Both grew up in homes filled with knitting and sewing. Deb's first career was in retail and fashion and textiles. She worked in stores including The Fabric Shop in Chatswood, Sydney and the Ladies Knitwear department of Harrods, London. In her late 20s, she did a side-step into gardening and horticulture, where she worked as a landscape designer for a few years and then became one of Australia's leading gardening journalists. Her work included editing ABC’s Gardening Australia magazine, writing books and newspaper columns, and appearing at events and on radio. 

Janine pursued a career in advertising and marketing including over 10 years in a variety of roles with Network Ten television. Positions with Reebok Australia, Ogilvy and Mather, Major League Baseball and two wildly fun years running the marketing of a leading London-based casino group, made for a rewarding career. 

Deb and Janine met while working at the Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. They soon discovered their mutual love of yarn. 
Becoming frustrated at not being able to find the yarns they wanted in Australia plus the cost and difficulty of ordering overseas, the idea of Skein Sisters was born. There was lots of coffee and wine drunk while they were deciding what their dream yarn store had to have! 

Skein Sisters opened in April 2017. It now spreads across three sites - the shop and the office/warehouse with just a few doors separating them, and now with a dye studio in the middle where all the Skein Sisters Yarns are created.

Deb and Janine are both so grateful that Skein Sisters has found its place at the heart of Australia's crafting community.

Meet the Team

Our team at Skein Sisters are the ones who make your visit truly special. Linda, Jane, Olga, Nikki, Marghie and Tracey all have a passion for knitting and crochet, and have amazing skills that they love to share.

Behind the scenes we have Helen in IT, Julia our master dyer and Josephine our Dye Studio Assistant, plus our online team - Maria and Sarah - who make sure that your orders receive the attention they deserve. 

Pop in or give us a call - we're always here to help.