Well, I love to travel: the choosing of a destination, planning the journey and accommodation, learning about the country or city and then exploring it with my own senses while there. It is a bonus if I can find yarn and fiber related stores or activities. Sitting on the plane, train or bus are my dedicated knit and spin times and I am almost more productive on our trips than at home.
The past months I had the opportunity to visit yarn shops in Munich/Erding, Paris and Dublin and found some lovely owners passionate about their work. In early June we stopped by Tolle Wolle in Munich, a store I researched and found online thanks to a good website describing their product lines. It was easily accessible by S-train and carried a brand of lace yarn I was familiar with. My goal was to stock up on colourful lace wool, which I did not seem to find in my stash or local store, to knit a few shawls. The owner, Sabine Schneider, is a very creative and engaged knitter who not only runs fashion shows of knitwear she designs for Atelier Zitron and Noro, but is working on a book with Atelier Zitron as well. How cool is that? Since I forgot to buy a complementary sock-yarn there for another stashed skein to create a colourwork shawl similar to “Daybreak” by Stephen West I checked out “Das Haus der Handarbeit” (the house of handicraft) in Erding. Their website is a bit general and less informative, but that may have to do with their vast array of yarns, needles and other craft supplies on offer. Way too many to put online. The short video on their website gives a quick impression of their store. The staff was friendly and helpful even though I showed up 10 minutes before closing.
The lace yarns are still waiting for their time on my needles which was in the meantime occupied by these three scarves:
The rainbow striped one on the right was just finished today. In June I explored Paris with a good, old friend of mine and we had the most amazing time visiting museums, galleries and Versailles. Inspiration was everywhere in the buildings, the clothes people were wearing and the food we tasted. I want to go back badly: it was just such a wonderful experience. Staying close to the Louvre was a bonus since we didn’t notice the concurrent soccer Euro-Cup going on and was easy walking distance to many sights, including two yarn stores. Cat’Laine was the first one I visited. A big summer sale was going on and all the products were displayed in cardboard boxes on shelves and the floors as well. It was a bit overwhelming to get a good view of the yarns and most seemed to be Katia brand. This store does not have a website and it is a surprise to find it in one of the smaller streets. I bought some Katia Inox, a wool with stainless steel, in grey and teal for a colourwork lace shawl. I was curious to see if the steel would be only adding a sparkle here and there or if the end product would retain a 3-dimensional shape. The other one was La Droguerie which is a small, privately owned French craft-store chain. It is beautifully set up in an old store room which reminded me of the haberdasheries of old. Yarns dyed specifically for La Droguerie are displayed in skeins hanging of the ceiling and along the walls to chose colour and type and then the amount needed will be wound up for you from big cones. They sell fabric for quilts, buttons and beads, feathers and wooden accessories. A feast for the eyes and a must visit for a knitter or quilter when in Paris.
The month of July provided me with plenty of opportunity to participate in online spin and knit events. Parallel to the Tour de France the “Tour de Fleece” happens and our team “Wool n’spinning” was led by co-captains Rachel and Becca. It was great fun and the motivation was high to spin a little every day. My final yarns were a gradient, blue-white super-wash merino with a little sparkle of Angelina, a blue sari silk yarn, a skein of white Polwarth from the Falklands and three mini skeins to sample and make a choice how to spin my yak-silk fiber. Plans are to knit the two blue yarns into a scarf with some colourwork and the yak-silk into a scarf with some lace elements and a colour gradient.
During the Tour De Fleece my husband and I decided to fly for a weekend to Dublin to celebrate the end of Ramadan and Eid al Fitr. We arrived half a day later than expected when we missed a flight, but were still able to visit all the places we wanted to see. Among them two yarn stores in walking distance. This time I was on a search to find an Irish yarn, preferably from wool of Irish sheep, in a natural white to be used for a yarn dyeing session the day after our return. The first one was “This is Knit” located in a beautiful neighbourhood (South William Str) and in an old mansion, the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, renovated into boutique stores. They have a great setup and lots of beautiful yarns including some locally dyed and hand-spun. I would have bought there, but felt that a 20 Euro skein of local yarn is too expensive to be in an experimental dye workshop.
The next shop was a bit further away and took us by the St Andrews church on Dame Str and the adjacent well-manicured park. An area we would have not wandered about otherwise. The Constant Knitter is absolutely worth the visit. The owner Rosemary was so helpful and really concerned about my expectations when I picked a natural white Cushendale DK (spun and grown in Ireland) because she thought I may be unhappy with the coarseness of it. I am not worried at all: it is a true sheep yarn which is meant for garments and accessories to be worn as an outer layer still retaining some of the lanolin. Wonderful! As a backup I picked another white merino/nylon yarn of fingering weight to use for dyeing as well and a few grams of local Cheviot fiber for spinning.
The rebuilt Jeanie Johnston, a museum ship explaining the circumstances of emigration during the famine (1844-1848), and the “Little Dublin museum” are both well worth a visit and not as crowded as the streets outside. Interestingly, we skipped the Guinness brewery tour and did not visit the Scotch museum or the Jameson Scotch building. Mostly, because Dublin was so crowded that we spent our second day in the suburb and seaside town of Howth. A walk along the gorgeous coastline with its purple blooming heather, steep cliffs and great nesting places for seabirds, was exactly the Ireland we wanted to experience. One can still work on some spindle-spinning in between.
At the moment I am working on a scarf as a participant in a KAL for a good cause (Fuer einen guten Zweck) run by my friend Uta. We just received our third lace pattern and it will be one of my travel projects. The other travel knits will be a colourwork scarf with the two sock yarns shown above and a small gift for a friend. So, I can show you the yarn, but nothing else.
This pretty much sums up my yarn and fiber activities of he past two months. Have a great rest of July!
Maike
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