NYC Craft Center

This place is closed. Its inventory moved to the main location on Canal.

I usually come here for cheap acrylic yarn to make knitting mistakes on. Even so, P&S has a much better selection and prices for yarn. HOWEVER. This crappy little hole-​in-​wall offspring of pearl paint has all the yarn shops in NY beat when it comes to knitting needles. Clover bamboo needles starting at 4.29? I usually see them retail for around $ 10 or more. Aluminum needles starting at $ 2 – 3? I had bought the same needles for almost double the price somewhere else.
So, go to P&S for cheap yarn and come to the craft center for knitting needles! Limited selection, but if you’re a student or teacher you’ll also get 10% off.

Let me preface this review by saying that this is a GREAT CONCEPT. NYC NEEDS a source for crafting supplies. I was thrilled when a fellow Unilocaler mentioned there was a separate «Craft Center» owned by the Pearl Paint folks.
When I went, I was sorely disappointed, though. The store looked like it was going out of business. Most of the shelves were empty, the selection was terrible, the place was disorganized.
I went thinking I could find a rubber stamp. The Pearl Paint I go to in NJ has an entire aisle of rubber stamping supplies. The Craft Center, alas, does not. It has a tiny corner of ugly and outdated stamps. I had to really look to find ink pads, which were not located immediately near the stamps.
They claim to have yarn… the selection was so poor. It looked like a bunch of «leftovers» or something. The needlepoint section had no kits, and looked so pitifully picked-​through.
Seriously, if you are a crafting enthusiast, you are going to be dreadfully disappointed (as I was) coming here.
Not to say I didn’t buy anything… the upstairs has stickers. I found some to be pretty nice.
Maybe they ARE going out of business. This place just gave me the impression that it was now a shadow of its former self. I feel like it MAY have had days of glory once. Maybe I just came on a bad day.