Too Much Yarn

Yarn Shops in Italy

First of all, I want to make a correction - the lovely lady who helped me in Zurich is Iva - not Eva!!  She's my friend for life for the few hours she spent with me - to visit with me, to go back to look for my purse and then, she has to go home and make her boyfriend dinner!  In the next few weeks, I'll tell you about what I saw on my trip.  For now, I will only tell you about knitting related stories.  So I had one yarn shop picked out for Venice and two in Florence.  The first one is in Venice - Lellabella... what a cool name.

It is located across the famous Rialto Bridge - one of the bridges that crosses the Grand Canal.  Despite how famous it is, it is not as pretty as the Ponte Veccho Bridge in Florence.  I hate construction to make my photo ugly!!!  Anyway, this is the Rialto Bridge.  There are shops as well as a pedestrian-only walkway.

This is the other side of the bridge (no banner!)

Our apartment is on the opposite side of the yarn shop (Grand Canal-wise).  I can either walk about 15 minutes to the Rialto Bridge  and cross it, or I walk 6 minutes to a Vaporetta stop (the Grand Canal bus) and just get off the next stop (which is now across the canal - provided I don't wait too long for the Vaporetta, this would be the better route.  From there, I still have to walk a bit (and get lost..) to find the shop.  This is where my data plan on my phone comes in - I used the map app.  Along the way, I have to cross bridges over the smaller canals, e.g.

and looked at yet another winged lion statue (mascot of Venice)...

I love Venice. I would go back there and just walk around (plus Vaporettas for further distance).  Back to yarn business... LellaBella has novelty yarn along with basic nice yarns.. Being the only customer there, and you can see how small the shop is,

I simply asked one of the workers there - for all I know, she could be the owner - there was an old lady who doesn't speak English, but when I showed her my sock in progress, she approved that I am OK!  The other lady spoke English.. I asked if there was anything in the shop that I cannot get anywhere else.  She showed me the shop-brand cashmere.  I bought it.  It was 770 yards of pure Cashmere for 35 euros.  I would need to knit it with another fiber - wool, silk?  But no idea when and what pattern I'd use it for!

Now.. In Florence, it's a different story.  There were 2 yarn shops I was interested in that were near the Duomo... yeah.. THE Duomo - the one I've seen in Amazing Race!  Which, by the way, I've gone to a number of places I've seen on Amazing Race!!  Let's not forget the bridge.  This is the Ponte Vechhio Bridge.  It also has shops and the pedestrian walkway in the middle.

Here is one of my favorites photos of myself!  Anyway, I used my English reserved for non-Americans and asked if they would take a photo of me - I would be standing by the arch on the right in the middle of the bridge.  These are a couple of young ladies in their early twenties.  One of them nodded and took my photo.  Because the sun is setting, I feel my face is darkened and a flash should be used. Before I say anything, the lady said, "I should turn the flash on."  "oh, you're American!"  "Yeah, we're from Kansas!"  Anyway, I love this photo - in the background would be the bridge that is 2 blocks from where we stayed.  That's how close we are to the historic area. This photo was taken before the flash was turned on!

This is also one of my favorite times on my vacation - I had 1 1/2 hours to myself.. I walked to the Duomo and just relaxed and had a gelato on a stick - it was a very memorable moment...

I digress... one afternoon, Emily and I were walking home and I said I have to find this yarn shop.  Again, the map app came to the rescue.  This shop is by the Duomo, but it was hard to find!  Finally, we found it.. This is the store front! 

If it weren't for the 2 skeins of yarn, I won't have know were were there!

It is more of an outlet. Yarn were sold like this - as you can tell, I would not be able to bring something like that home!   sorry for the blurry photo - I was trying to take this without them knowing!  So I was walking and taking photographs!

I did not buy anything!  The funny thing is that when we were leaving, a lady walked in and was looking at the shop like I was when I first walked in.. I asked her if she's a knitter?  It took her 25 seconds to reply me, "Yes, I am."  I'm not sure if she's shell-shocked at the shop or from someone who spoke English to her.  Then, we walked out and her husband the 3 other people were there. They were saying something like "We would never this place!"  I spoke to one of the gentlemen who decided to wait outside the shop.  "You guys are good friends to find a yarn shop for your friend."  He replied, "No, we're not!" I don't think they were too happy walking around looking for a yarn shop.  Anyway, I ran out of energy so I didn't even bother looking for the other shop.

OK... that's all the travel stories I have for today.  I do want to show you what I knitted on the trip, though... I only worked this far on the shawl:

I finished 6 squares for the afghan.

But as of now, I only have 3 squares left and I'm starting to join them together!

AND - I finished a sock today.. I worked on most of this on the trip:  (pattern is Bubbles by Cooke A)

AND - I also bought yarn when I was travelling - Bugga's only.  I was in Cinque Terre when Verdant Gryphon released the colorway Cinque Terre.  I had to get them.

These are probably the last skeins of Bugga I'd buy from Cephalopod Yarns as they are closing:

That's all!

A Trip to the Wollmeise Store

I tried to blog while on my trip, but the BlogPress app did not cooperate while out of the country.  I resorted to posting on  Facebook so if you're friends with me there, you would have read about my adventures.  There were not too many knitting stories, but here's one.

So my trip included Munich, which was 1/2 hour from Pfaffenhoefen, the home of the famous Wollmeise store.  I posted on Ravelry, looking for someone who would be interested in taking me there.  I bought a train ticket - Bayern Ticket which would be good for the whole day and you just add another 4 Euros for an additional person using the ticket.  Sue, from Munich was nice enough to take me. Afterall, it's time for her to make her quarterly visit.  We met at Starbucks, which was almost right next to the train we took to Pfaffenhoefen.    Before I show you any photos, I have to tell you this "side story"...  this happened in Zurich.

I met Eva in Zurich - also through Ravelry.  As I sipped my mineral water and Eva sipped her coffee, I decided to pay for drinks as she was kind enough to meet me!  I opened my shoulder bag and did not find my smaller purse, which had all my credit cards, passport, about US$600 (you're wondering why I had so much!  My travel partners owed me money for what I've paid for the trip so they each gave me $200 at the airport plus my own).  I also just went to the cash machine and took out 200 Swiss Francs.  The US cash was in an envelope. This is a small purse.  We had just arrived in Zurich at about 9:00 a.m.  We got to the hotel about noon and then, we went out for boat ride on Lake Zurich.  I had a bottle of water and Emily asked for it.. I took out my "purse" with the valuables and gave her the bottle.  I think I left the purse out because at one point, I dozed off (jetlag).  This was about 4 pm.  Then, we walked around town.  Until it's now, 7:15 pm and I'm looking for my money to pay for drinks!  Eva walked me back to the boat launch but the ticket office was closed. Luckily, the last boat was coming in to drop off passengers. We talked to the staff and the captain called in to the office and finally said, "Yes, they have a purse belonging to a Chinese American - as they checked my passport."  What a relief.  All this time, Eva told me the Swiss people won't take my money and passport. They just don't because they know this is valuable to me.  The ticket office would open at 9.  I showed up at 9.  The ticket office people had no clue what I was talking about.  My heart sank... He then called the main office and said, yes, it's there!  He gave me directions there and I finally got there an hour later.  Sure enough my purse was there and everything was there with the exception of 100 Swiss Francs.  The lady there asked me to be sure that I was missing that as they would not allow their staff to steal from their passengers.  I was sure, but I was OK losing the money - it's "reward money" since everything was still there.  The lady made some calls and said there were 2 people who turned the purse in.. They said they found it on the park bench.  Huh?  Whatever... maybe I took the camera or water bottle out on the park bench?  The end of the story is that I got everything minus the 100 Swiss Francs back... ok.. onwards with my journey.

The day I met Sue in Zurich at Starbucks, I was early.  I need to be careful.. I put on my Travel Vest (which has 17 pockets!  check this out if you don't believe me!  Vest).  I was checking my email on my phone with the wifi at Starbucks.. Then, Sue showed up.. I slipped my phone into the left front pocket and zipped it shut!  We got on the train and we talked about how Sue came to Germany from Australia... I started to tell her about my near-loss of my passport in Zurich.  Suddenly, I reached for my phone in my pocket and it's not there!  Did I leave it at Starbucks?  Sue tried to look up the Starbucks number.  This took about 10 minutes while I searched every bag I had with me.. Then, I started on the 17 pockets.  Suddenly, I felt my phone, but it was at the back!  Then, it took another 10 minutes to figure out how to get the phone out of the mystery pocket!  By the time we got the phone out, we were there!

We walked about 10 minutes...

And then, I saw it!

We approached it.. Dare I go in? 

The chickens said yes.  Then, I died. But before that, I was asked if I would like a cappuchino.  I said no, thanks (silently, I was thinking - lady, I've come all this way to smell Wolllmeise, not sip coffee!)  This is the wall with the Twin and Pure:

Here's a panaromic of the entire wall:

Behind the needles were the Lace yarn.  On the opposite wall are the DK and the "We're Not Perfect" skeins.

I started my pile

while Sue was knitting.  On the table are baby Toberones and other goodies.

I tried to take a photo with Claudia, but she does not take photos with her fans.  She's in green with her back against me.  That's the best I can do, but I have met her personally!   Then, I paid.  Then, I decided to use the washroom.

I had to leave my mark, too.  I pee'd there.  And I also wrote my name.

It's to the left of the heart:

and then, we went to the post office to mail back what I bought.  I sent home 3 packages, which all arrived before I did. 

And that, is my Wollmeise Story!  I did visit 2 other yarn shops in Venice and Florence, which I will save for another day.  I miss writing and I hoped you had missed me, too!