Unpacking (the first part - Sweden)
Well, look what followed me home ... wool spun in Estonia and purchased in Stockholm (Sweden) and Frederiksvaerk (Denmark).
Right away on our first full day in Stockholm I tracked down Marias Garn where I found a bewildering array of unknown yarns. There was just too much to see. The green mix wool spun by evilla came away with me. I have tried knitting a small sample, and it is great yarn.
Just around the corner in the centre of Stockholm is another gem: the Almgren silk factory . We visited this the following day. Unfortunately, having accidentally gone into it the wrong way round we just missed seeing the silk weaver. There was masses to look at, and we just wish that we got there earlier.
The factory was used by Almgren's from 1844 until 1974. At that point the doors were closed, and it wasn't until the 1990's that it was opened as a museum. Upstairs on the top floor is a permanent exhibition about silk and silk weaving in Stockholm. There is also some footage from a Swedish film industry documentary shot in the factory in 1943.
We also had time to travel on some of the steam driven ferries, and went to Södertälje to visit the Torekällberget open air museum. Unfortunately, 100% Ull the textile shop in the museum there was closed for the day. All of this was done dodging showers of rain.
After four nights in the youth hostel at Fridhemsplan, we reluctantly moved on to Göteborg, or Gothenburg as we know it. This involved a train journey travelling westward across the country.
The linen cotton mix in my favourite purple came from the Bohusslöjd shop in Göteborg. There we were told about the design museum, once again to be found just round the corner.
It was too late to visit the Röhsska museet that day, but I went the next morning, while Ian was at the town museum. There wasn't enough time for us both to do everything.
I also tracked down a couple of yarn shops. In the centre of town is Strikk. We had looked in the windows late the previous evening when walking around town. Once more I marvelled at the yarns. I came away with a small ball of EKO (ecologically hand dyed) cotton from Atelje Huskroken that was unlabelled and in the sale basket.
posted by m at
9:44 am
3 Comments:
Sounds like you were in yarn lovers' heaven! I wonder about language though when you go to purchase yarns. Does someone usually speak English, or do you speak Swedish?
I don't speak Swedish or Danish for that matter. Throughout our trip it was embarrassing not to be able to say anything, when the people we met all spoke English fluently. Through my knowledge of English and German I can make some sense of written things. At times I had to sound words out, and then think what a similar thing might be in German. Yarn shops are fairly easy though, as you can get a lot from the feel of the yarn, and sometimes there was another language on the label.
The most frustrating one was some natural off-white yarn that I saw at Marias Garn. It was fine and strong, and labelled on the basket containig it as : ull + get. I didn't "get" it, and had to ask. The mystery ingredient was goat. It would have been great for knitting seaboot stockings, and now I wonder why I didn't just get some. Can't stop the puns now!
The yarn looks wonderful it sounds like another great adventure can't wait to see more pictures
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