Red Heart and Yarnspirations Together at Last

Your inspiration destination

What’s better than yarn? More yarn! We believe that fiber crafters want to be able to visit one place to source inspiration and shop for their favorite stitching crafts. With an extended family of brands at your fingertips, the products you can shop in just one bag, have doubled overnight.

Now comprised of 12 unique brands, hundreds of years in the making, Yarnspirations creates the ultimate resource for crafters. With a variety of yarns from budget friendly options to home décor yarns and natural fiber designs with fashion in mind - your stitching options have doubled!

Red Heart yarns has joined the ever-growing family of Yarnspirations yarns including Bernat, Caron, Phentex, Patons, Lily Sugar’n Cream and Sugar Bush. Along with these yarns comes Susan Bates tools and Aunt Lydia’s crochet thread to round out your crochet and knitting needs.

In addition to your favorite yarns, you can now shop Coats & Clark classics from Dual Duty thread to zippers in addition to shopping an array of Anchor embroidery floss.

Our new family of products offers you a one stop shop for all your stitching, knitting, and crochet needs.

Red Heart

The Spool Cotton Company started selling Red Heart yarns in the U.S. as Chadwick’s Red Heart in 1936. Red Heart became known for its value and quality over the years. In order to bolster sales, they began selling pattern books in 1942 for 10 cents apiece. In 1952 Red Heart developed the innovative tangle proof pull skein and adorned he tail with a Red Heart charm.

In 1955, after the formation of Coats and Clark, Red Heart changed its name to Coats and Clark Red Heart. In 1959 Red Heart produced their first acrylic yarn gravitating away from the wool products. In 1987 Red Heart Super Saver hit the shelves while also launching no dye lot solids.

Coats and Clark

The Clark Thread Company was founded by James and Patrick Clark when they created a method of twisting cotton yarns together that was smooth and strong. This thread quickly replaced linen and silk for hand sewing and weaving. The first Clark sewing thread was sold in 1812 and they opened their first mill in 1817 while finding a way to spool thread onto wooden reels.

Similarly, James Coats started his own thread company in 1826. By 1830 his sons James and Peter took over with their namesake J & P Coats specializing in sewing and crochet thread. Their grandsons expanded production to the US under the name The Spool Cotton Company.

J & P Coats and The Clark Thread company integrated in 1952 to form Coats & Clark where they continued to build their strength as the largest supplier of threads and zippers in the U.S.

With spooled thread and a collection of zippers Coast & Clark has been recognized as an essential to your sewings kits.

Susan Bates

Carlton Bates began working for the firm of Tyler and Post in 1861 who made small items from ivory discarded by a piano key manufacturer in a one-room shop. In 1865, Post bought out his partner and bought up another business, Griswolds, which made crochet hooks from whale bone (baleen) and cow shin bone.

Carlton Bates bought the business from Mr. Post in 1873. He continued to make small items such as crochet hooks and manicure implements from bone and ivory. In 1993, C. J. Bates and Son, Inc. became part of Coats and Clark.

Around 1905, whale bone (baleen) became scarce and its use discontinued. Bates began expanding its needlework tool line in the early 1900s by introducing wooden crochet hooks. In the mid-1930s plastic crochet hooks and in the late 1930s aluminum crochet hooks were added to the line.

Originally, Bates needlework tools were unbranded or branded with private labels. Bates began using its own brand names, Chester and Barbara Bates, in the early 1930s. In the early 1940s Chester was changed to Zephr and Barbara Bates to Susan Bates. In 1944 Bates received a patent for the in-line hook shape. The 1960s saw changes in mass marketing and Bates received several awards for packaging and display including awards for color coded crochet hooks.