Fabric Love

Here's something to brighten your day...

Fabrics from our Japan trip.

I'm thinking a few tops, dresses, cushions and lots and lots of bags.

I just need to learn to sew.

World Tour of Yarn Shops

If you've been reading this blog you might be under the impression that we've been on a world tour of yarn shops. I assure you it's not true. But here are a few more if you haven't overdosed on yarn shop descriptions already...

Goteberg...
Strikk (Vallagatan 23) - One of the best I've seen on this trip. This place was like an Aladdin's cave. You go through a little door down some steps into 3 spacious rooms full of yarn and knitted goodies.

The first room is full of Collinette, and their own brand of handspun single ply. They have quite an extensive range under their own label (but I've found this to be the case in many Scandinavian yarn shops tho the yarns are the same, they just put their own label on) including a 100% silk, gotland wool, and linen.

They also stock Malabrigo, Araucania from Chile, and of course, Garnstudio. Lots of buttons too. The highlight is their own knitted designs. Quite modern and very clever use of yarn and notions.

I also visited another yarn shop just a street away but it's tiny and I've forgotten the name.

Lund
Sländan (Lilla Fiskaregatan 1) - Again their own line available, including a 100% mohair with similar meterage to Kid Silk Haze (but comes in hot pink, amongst other, more subtle, colours). Their line also includes a super soft baby alpaca (below) which I couldn't keep my hands off.

Small shop but chock full of the standard Scandi yarns.


Malmö
Stopped by Irmas Hus, Kalendegatan 13, but it is mainly a habedashery shop with just one shelf of yarns. Only Rowan and Drops.

Also wandered past Signe Svensson Garnaffär (Davidshallsgatan 25) but it is tiny. Some very nice shops on the same street though.

At Yllet (Jöns Filsgatan 2) there is a small line of yarns including linen and gotland wool again but it's mainly a clothing shop.

One thing worth mentioning is the artist collective shop Formargruppen (Engelbrektsgatan 8) run by 20 local artists. Lovely ceramics, textiles, glass work and jewellery. My favourite was a felted penguin by Yvonne Bävman. There's a photo of the penguins on her site here.

Copenhagen
Wilfert's (Gammel Kongevej 102) - Best shop here in my opinion. Run by Wilfert and her friendly black labridor (I think, I'm not good with dog breeds). Again their own line of yarns including Duo (100% wool) and Duo Silk (wool silk) from Jutland in Denmark, but I found the textures slightly coarse and opted for 4 balls of their Bambini (100% superfine merino).

The shop is very tastefully decorated, with chandeliers and glass cabinets brimming with buttons and notions. There is a very good collection of Rowan yarns and magazines.

I was completely taken by the no brand but luxurious 100% cashmere that they 'buy from some woman up in Jutland'.

Also visited Sommerfuglen (Vankunsten 3) and Strikkeboden (Krystalgade 16). The former is quite good and another treasure trove packed with yarn and lots of knitting books. When I walked into the latter, a woman barked at me 'What do you want?' which led me to leave at unprecedented lightning speed. You can read a pretty good review of both here.

(Front room of Sommerfuglen)

Adventures of a Little Red Sock

Bergen is a quaint little town, despite being touted as the capital of Western Norway, with a much more relaxed laid back feel compared to Oslo. It was nice to chill out in pubs and meander the streets without an itinerary. On Saturday night after we arrived, we took a stroll after dinner and pretty much covered all the main sights (including the yarn shops, but more on that later).

Pubs along the waterfront in Bergen.

On Sunday morning we took the floibanen up the side of Mount Floyen (320m above sea level) to breathtaking views of Bergen city. Then we took a long walk up to the peak which gave us magnificent views of the landscape - snow covered peaks, glassy water holes, pine forests... you get the idea.


The first red sock came with us as well and I took some photos, much to the amusement of passing walkers.

The pattern is the Child's French Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.

There are probably 3 yarn shops in Bergen (there maybe more but I couldn't find them). Also we were there on a Sunday and none of the shops were open so all this is just from peering longingly outside the shops...

Husfliden - similar to the one in Oslo but smaller. Tho it looks like it has more modern souvenirs like fleecy blankets and designer homeware. The range of yarns look pretty much the same - Drops/Garnstudio and Tynn Alpakka etc.

Modellstrikk (Vaskerelven 15) - cute little shop on a street full of cafes and other cute little shops. Looked like it mainly stocks Drops yarns and patterns. They have pictures of the types of yarn they stock on the website which gives you a pretty good idea of the kinds of yarn you find in Norway.

Pinnsvinn Designs (Jonsvollsgaten 9) - Had a sign on the door saying it has English patterns. Had some Rowan patterns and yarns. Also sells toys. They have a few pictures of the store on their website.

On our train ride back to Oslo, it gave me a little thrill when we passed Dale (pronounced 'dahl' here) of Dale of Norway fame. I noticed that they have a factory outlet there but as we were on a schedule, we had to give it a miss. Oh well.

Day 1 in Oslo + Yarn Shops

Took a stroll around Akershus Festning (Royal Fortress) this morning before boarding the ferry to Bygdøy to the Vikingskipshuset (Vikingship Museum). Quite an austere little museum with bits and pieces from 3 buried Viking ships, and of course, the ships themselves. The interior strangely resembles a whitewashed church.

I was struck by the simple yet functional nature of these boats, in contrast to the complete uselessness of the extravagant and elaborately decorated ship Vasa we saw in Stockholm.

We then went to the Norsk Folkemuseum nearby. For the NOK70 entry fee, the place is not really worth it. There are quite a few restored houses but very little interpretation (in either Norwegian or English). There are only so many houses labelled 'Farmhouse' you can look at before it gets really boring (strange that). One redeeming feature is the toy exhibition. I was particularly taken by the intricate doll houses. In a music room, there's even a miniature bust of Beethoven!

Okay okay, the yarn shops.

For lunch we went to the Grunerløkka district. On the main street was the Elna Sy-Og Servicesenter (Thorvald Meyers Gate 48) which is basically a sewing machine shop, but had some very 'sensible' knitting yarns on the back wall - 100% wool in 4, 8, 12 ply, mohair, alpaca and cotton in a variety of solid colours.

On a quiet side street was the find of the day - Guanako garn & design (Seilduksgate 7). This is a more 'modern' shop owned by a 29 year-old. It's only been opened for over a year. She stocks a lot of Rowan yarns and magazines, but also the more traditional Norwegian brands. I picked up a mixed bag of colourful Egyptian mercerised cotton, baby merino and some sock yarn for an absolute song (thanks to Jerms' reassurance that he'll carry it in his luggage).

She's also got some beautiful pieces knitted up, including the Butterfly Camisole in both short and long versions. Also a few Birch shawls in different mohair yarns. The shop is gorgeous and well worth a visit if you're in town.

Finally, we paid the obligatory visit to the tourist oriented Husfliden (Rosenkrantz Gate 19-21) right in the centre of town. They have a massive range of traditional Norwegian yarns. The costume and ribbon section is worth a look and they have quite a few mits and socks knitted up. They also sell Hanne Falkenberg knitting kits, drop spindles and embroidery tools and kits. They even have a working loom in the store!

P.S. The next day we visited another yarn shop near Vigelandsparken (the massive sculpture park) called Tjorven (Valkyriegata 17) but it sold pretty much the same stuff as other Norwegian yarn shops. They have some Rowan magazines and books and a small selection of Noro.

Garn Garn and More Garn!

Here are the garn (yarn) shops we visited in Stockholm.

Yesterday I went to Marias Garn (St Paulsgatan 20 in Södermalm, closest station is Mariatorget). This one had lots of brands I had not seen/heard of. Mostly yarns from small local mills I think. I must say I was somewhat disappointed - most of the wool is really coarse and stiff, though I did see a few balls of very soft 100% cashmere by their own label and some Drops alpaca. The shop is very nicely presented and had lots of gorgeous scarves however.

Today we were wandering around Gamla Stan (the old town) when I hit the jackpot.

On Österlånggatan I first came across Anntorps Väv (Österlånggatan 11). I was served by a lovely lady who was very bemused that I wanted to take photos in her shop. The store stocks a wide range of Collinette and Noro, and some Malabrigo. It also has a range of soft lace weight to aran yarns that look hand spun and dyed by Östergötands Ullspinneri (although she assured me it's not hand dyed) in solids and varigated colours. They also have plenty of Drops and Garn Studio yarns and a few other Scandi brands, like one called 'Love'.

I ended up with 2 skeins of the not hand dyed stuff in approximately 4-ply, and two smaller skeins of a snubbly single ply in pale minty green and blue.

Further down the same street, we came across Sticka (Österlånggatan 20). This place has some gorgeous knitted up stuff, a few pieces I recognised, including the butterfly camisole from Rowan 37 (ex. the beads) and a hooded top from Vogue Knitting not too long ago. She also had 2 triangular wraps that had stunning colourwork. Initially I thought they were Kaffe Fassett designs, but she told me they were by a Danish designer named Christel Seyfarth. The kits were about SEK1300 each (AUD260!!) and included about a dozen balls of cashmere, alpaca and wool yarns. I held back and only walked away with a couple balls of sock yarn. The restraint!

On our way back to the train station we stumbled upon Ullcentrum Öland (Stora Nygatan 36). This is strictly not a yarn shop, they mainly sell knitwear and felted things like pot holders and coasters, but they had a couple of shelves of yarn at the back. Again, a lot of the coarse yarn but they also had some interesting 3-ply linen/1-ply cotton mix. It feels quite stiff in the skein, almost like paper, but the girl at the counter showed me some scarves knitted in that yarn and they were softer. I'm still skeptical but somehow left with a skein of the stuff.

Finally, I made a deliberate visit to Nysta (Luntmakargatan 50, closest station is Rådmansgatan), recommended by a couple of Swedish bloggers. It stocks some Debbie Bliss, Noro, Malabrigo and Collinette (I got a skein of Jitterbug in Copperbeach). The main range, however, like all the other yarn shops mentioned here, are Scandi brands and the wool is quite coarse and the yarn is not as tightly spun as ones done in Italy ( e.g. Zara).

The highlight of my day was visiting the Stockholm Knitters. It was great to be able to meet complete strangers in a foreign city and be welcomed into their midst. Thanks girls!

We're off! (Well, almost)

Am standing at a free Internet kiosk at Sydney Airport, waiting to board our flight in about an hour.

The 2.5mm bamboo dpns have been successfully smuggled through customs, in preparation for a lot of knit action on our (*gasp*) 27 hour trip to London. I'm making a pair of Child's French Socks from Nancy Bush's fabulous Knitting Vintage Socks with some 4ply merino from The Knittery in Roses.

Sorry, no pics yet. But you can check out what other people have done on flickr here.

Ocean Boy

Jerms in one of his rare moments not choking on sea water.

A few more pics of our dive off Port Douglas has been uploaded to my flickr!

Mind you, these ones were taken using a disposable underwater camera so the images are a bit fuzzy!

FNQ Holiday Wrap

Now that we're back in cold, wet Sydney, it's time to reminisce about our Far North Queensland holiday before all those lovely memories fade.

Itinerary: 1 night Cairns, 3 nights Palm Cove, 4 nights Cape Tribulation. (Click links to see where we stayed!)

Cairns Highlights: Not much considering we only stayed for 1 night and slept most of that day! We did have a great seafood platter for 2 at Mangostins on The Esplanade for dinner. Great value too - only 75 bucks with the 25% early bird discount (seated by 5pm and done by 7pm). Yeah we true Asians.


Palm Cove Highlights: Great little beachside resort town that's a little less touristy than Port Douglas or Cairns. Thanks to the stinger net on the beach (below) we swam with wild abandonment and baked off on the beach afterwards. (We did lie under one of many palm trees so as to not get too burnt.)

Speaking of stingers, I love this article which basically says that YOU WILL DIE if you get stung by a stinger. This, according to Aussie Stu, is actually not true because it does depend on where you get stung - e.g. chest and face more likely to be fatal.

I must say reading The Phantom comics while lying on the beach was a highlight. It's got classic lines such as "Cold voice of angry Phantom chills even jungle tiger's blood - Old Jungle Saying". Hilarious.

Also the 40 min drive between Palm Cove and Port Douglas has magnificent views of about a million beaches.

Port Douglas Highlights: I've already raved about this in a previous post but snorkeling on the GBR was really the highlight of the entire trip. Here's one of us knackered on the boat afterwards! (More pics on my flickr!)

We went with Wavelength which I highly recommend. The 10% off for YHA members also helps!

Daintree/Cape Tribulation Highlights: Aside from licking a limey ant's bum? Snorkelling AGAIN on the Great Barrier Reef! This time we went with Odyssey H2O and I must say we enjoyed it more than the dive at Port Douglas.

Although there were only 2 dives (both off a reef site aptly named Turtles - see below), the Reef was more pristine and more beautiful there. And it's only a 45 min boat ride to the Reef!

Jerms found a turtle and I saw at least 3 sting rays. Pity we didn't have an underwater camera that time!

Another highlight was swimming at the freshwater swimming hole behind Mason's. Apparently they were one of the first white families to move to the Cape. The fresh water was so refreshing after the really salty sea water!

Finally, seeing a cassowary was pretty special - even though we only got a picture of his butt (can you spot it?). Apparently he's the resident cassowary at the Coconut Beach Resort and his name is George!

Check out the slightly 'modified' speed hump sign and cassowary warning sign below too... *chuckle*.

For more info about The Daintree, we found this guide pretty much covers it.

I Licked An Ant's Bum!

Day 8 - New Year's Eve

Went kayaking around the Cape today. Our guide was a real Aussie bloke called Stu. Everyone was to him either a brother, sister, mate, love, or possum. Gotta love that.

He's one of the most laid back people I've ever met. Whilst on Myall Beach he picked up half a dozen coconuts that'd fallen onto the beach. We carried them on our kayaks back to his 'office' which is basically an outdoor tent canopy and he hacked them open with a machete. We drank the juice and ate the flesh, which he also hacked off with a hunting knife.

Then Stu decided he fancied a walk in the 'garden' and gave us an impromptu bush tucker tour. He climbed a tree and found a jack fruit (tastes like bubble gum), then pointed out a cashew tree to us (cashews are actually a nut grown on the end of apples, see below), a lime tree (we could pick as many off as we wanted), a macademia tree (nuts still green) and then, he pointed out a fruit covered in green ants.

Stu tells us the ants have a lime flavour in their green butts so what does he do? Gives us each an ant to lick.

It really has a lime taste! Very potent too!

Anyway, pics to come when we have the technology.

Hot Hot Christmas Holidays

Day 1 (Xmas Eve) - Cairns

Got up at 5am for 7am flight. Arrived in Cairns around 9am.

Slept most of the day. However we did manage to go out for dinner. Had a seafood platter with prawns, mussels, bugs, oysters, calamari and fruit! Nice.

Here's a picture of the lagoon in the middle of the city. And here's a sign accompanying...

Read the bit about water tight swimmers? Gross.

Day 2 (Xmas Day) - Palm Cove

Drove to Palm Cove (20 mins from Cairns) where we'll be staying for the next 3 nights. This is Trinity Beach enroute to Palm Cove. Just one of about 7 beaches between Cairns and Palm.

And here is Palm Cove.

All the beaches are really nice but I still think beaches in Sydney and Byron are nicer. Sand on Palm Cove is pretty coarse but there's shade everywhere thanks to the abundance of palm trees.

Weather's been good. No rain so far and not extremely hot but still around 31 degrees each day and quite humid. Thank goodness for air-con!

Spent the rest of the day at the beach and just chilling out. Finished my book (The Innocent Man by John Grisham). Well worth a read.

Day 3 (Boxing Day) - Great Barrier Reef

The whole day was spent snorkelling at the GBR. Weather conditions were perfect. Needless to say it was FANTASTIC.

The tour was a full day one to the outer Reef. Took 1.5 hours on a boat to get there. Will post pics in a separate post, including some underwater ones! (ps. pics have now been posted on my flickr! Teaser below!)

We did 3 dives at sites called Ray Ban, can't remember the 2nd one and Turtle Bay.

Heaps of tropical fish (plenty of Nemos), different varieties of coral in an array of colours, and a turtle! Had so much fun and didn't get sunburnt (except on the top of my head and my left ear... ouch!)

Day 4 - Still at Palm Cove

Today was our laze around day. Went to the beach in the morning before it got too hot, then back to the resort for a swim in the pool.

We then decided to visit Mareeba and Kuranda in the Atherton Tablelands, west of Cairns. The drive took an hour up some pretty windy roads. When we got there, there was nothing but a coffee shop! About 90% of the coffee produced by Australia is grown in Mareeba - which is why we decided to visit since I am such an addict.

I was kind of hoping for a tour about the roasting process of the beans (above) or something. Instead there was just a shop and cafe. Pooh!

Here's a really ancient expresso machine.

Best thing about the drive was finding some really cheap mangoes and lychees. My 2 fave fruits! Look at Jerms fondling those juicy juicy mangoes...

What?! $3.50 a kg? Give me 2!

Another highlight was driving past a town called, wait for it... Speewah!

Yeah. Small things amuse small minds.

Don't worry folks, I haven't been neglecting my knitting - even in this heat! Here's the beginings of the Phylotaxis Scarf, my 2nd Knitting Nature project.