I am loving England way more than I thought I would. It just has so much history and I have had really great hosts this week who have taken me around A LOT. I have been really lucky to be able to see not only London, but other more rural parts of England as well. It is just beautiful here. After spending my first week in London, I forgot that the rest of England actually has GRASS, and living plants. So many hydrangeas! I love it. My sister and I go back to London tomorrow and I start my class at Central Saint Martins on Monday. We'll see how that goes...
Here is a list of yarn stores I have gone to in London. They have a lot of them but the ones I have gone to are pretty different from each other.
This is my favorite yarn store that I have been to in London. They have a knitted stork in a nest of yarn in one corner and a little mushroom/flower scene upside down on the ceiling in the other corner. It is full of upcycled yarn (yarn made out of discarded materials such as old t-shirts or plastic) as well as regular yarn. They have all of this in crazy fun colors and a knitted sink in the back!!!! The two girls working there were really kind and inviting. They made me want to own my own yarn shop. It is nice to NOT see examples of really boring cardigans and shawls and 3284932794 baby stuff for once. Granted, some of the stuff there is weird, but it is nice to see something different and creative. It was hard for me to choose what I wanted, so I left with a bunch of stuff. Problem solved :)
This is some of what I left with. I am ridiculously excited to make stuff with it.
I went to a vendor who had some beautiful Israeli 100% merino that is washable. WHA???? Yeah, it is unbelievably soft and I got 2 balls of it. That sounds weird, but it is true.
JOHN LEWIS: It is like a small Joann's but in a department store. Convenient with a big selection but nothing too special.
I KNIT: Regular knitting store. A good place to look at a large selection of books on knitting. The highlight is the cute small dog that sleeps on the couch. The owner looked really unenthused or maybe I came on a bad day?
I tried haggling sort of and it didn't really work. I am a horrible haggler. But I still got 3 balls of yarn for 5 pounds. Not too bad but I could have done better. For some reason I am really attracted to lace weight hairy yarn but I fail to remember when I buy it how frustrated I get when I am trying to knit with it... Hopefully I will push myself through it when I use this.
LOOP:
This yarn store is so very cute. They have a great selection but it is not cheap or even close to cheap. But this is the only place I have found yarn from Habu Textiles which I looooooooove. So having a weak spot for cool yarn, I went ahead and broke the bank buying some Habu stainless steal/silk yarn as well as its cotton boucle which I probably didn't need but still love.
Probably the all around best place to go for anything related with yarn. It is mostly directed towards weavers, but there are a LOT of options for knitters too. They have the biggest range of colors I have seen yet. It is like a twin of the Yarn Barn in Lawrence. Except they also have a basket of abaca for some reason? I asked what they used it for and the girl at the counter had no idea... so I bought some to experiment with, along with some mercerized cotton in different colors... I am not going to have any room in my suitcase!
Ok so that was probably really boring for most of you, but it is a good way for me to remember what I liked and disliked and if anyone ever ends up in London looking for some yarn shops, here is a small list. Maybe I was a cat in my past life because I LOVE YARN! and cats.
i miss kitty!
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