Yarn hunting in Europe Part I - Germany

This is a long post packed with photos and narratives of my yarn hunting adventures in Europe. I had such a great time there that I wanted to keep this post as a diary for myself. And as you know me, I don't seen to be able to keep things short. I have a tendency to deviate from my main subjects as well. ;) So be patient and I will share my yarn hunting experiences. By the way, I decided to just cover Germany first. This post is really huge. :D

I spent long hours in the skies during the month of February. In the other hand, also spent good hours in earth thinking about what to knit in the plane! ;) And often, have to pack a project at very last minute. For some reason, I find it very hard to prepare wips to go.
Here is a preview of my in-flight entertainment,

It's my Flower Basket shawl using HYX yarn in double strand. I actually started it in Hokkaido and continued to work on my flights to Europe. I am very pleased with this project so far. The knitted fabric is so soft and the double strand is not causing me any problem.

Just three days after we returned from Japan we travelled to Europe. We ( kids and I ) travelled apart from DH because there were no more seats available in our flight for him. Besides DH had some business work to take care first. Then the plan was that I was going to be on my own in Stuttgart ( without DH for 3 days, meeting him on the 4th day). Leaving little hopes for yarn hunting on those days. As you can imagine, it's a bit hard to visit yarn shops with two teenager boys. So what can a knitting lady do on a foreign country without speaking a word in Deutsch? Take them to car museums, like Porsche and Mercedes.

The Mercedes-Benz museum was pretty interesting , had antique models, racing gears, trucks and basically all sorts of vehicles and plenty of historical facts around the exposition. So I felt better that at least I was covering my duties with some cultural sites.

On the following day, we decided to visit downtown . I couldn't help but to ask at the hotel reception about yarn shops. Although, they can speak English, our basic words of yarn and knitting weren't in their vocabulary. I had to take my shyness away and mimic some knitting motions and showing off my sweater to be understood. :D I didn't get a confirmed location , just a small hope that a department store could carry some"wolle". Not bad, at least there was some hope.

Once in the downtown area ( Main station - Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof), I soon detected a craft store but alas no yarn. However, next door, there was a small magazine stand. With my trained vision to spot knitting things I soon found some local knitting magazines. Never mind that they were all in Deutsch. There were some charts that I thought I could figure them out in some sort of way later. I told myself that they would be my souvenirs from Germany, since my hope for yarn was already diminuished by the first failed attempt. I collected two knitting magazines for myself and three crochet for my Sis.

In a second thought, the vast display of these publications gave me vital signs for the existence of yarn shops! I was lucky that the owner was able to confirm that there was yarn next door in the basement level.

Galleria Kaufhof -basement level

There was a large selection of Regia yarn. I decided to buy some even though I don't knit socks. Well, It doesn't hurt to have some in the stash!

Being more confident that I knew the words "wolle" and "stricken", I was able to to ask the saleslady for another shop,

Karstadt department store, in the basement

This store looks very similar to the first one. Even the fixtures are the same, makes me think that they are from the same company. Did you see the sale table? Most of items where on acrylic , novelty or strange colors yarn . I tried to keep in mind,that I didn't want volume but more quality. With that in mind, I was very careful not to fall into temptations. Got a glance at their fabric and buttons section. There were just too many shapes and colors to choose from. I didn't buy any, time was running fast , so were the boys' patience.

While window shopping in the area and waiting for the kids that were browsing in a sports shop, I was day dreaming about the possibility to find a store with more sophisticated yarn. So surprised I was to have bumped into this one,

Sparkling surprises come when you least expect it! ;) This was a nice yarn shop, packed with more selective yarn. I browsed the place quickly since I was worried that the boys would not find me. Had I told them that I would be waiting outside the sports shop. I decided that I had to find them first in order to look the little treasures in a nicer way. Though, the boys let me spent some time I still didn't buy much . There weren't enough stock on the yarn I had selected. But these were the substitute, stripped yarn in cheerful tones. A style that I don't have in my stash.

Not bad, right? Three yarn shops in only one day! ;)

There was one more shop nearby that I found the next day, more in a remote area that was a quilting shop. I always keep my hope and looking inside from the window I spotted some yarn bins. I carried away a pack of Royal Tweed from Filatura Di Crosa in Indigo blue.

On the third day, DH surprised us with an earlier rescue, I mean arrival. ;) We didn't do much for the rest of the day. Just resting and relaxing around the city for our new destination. The following day, we headed to the airport to pick up our rental car. We prefer to travel on our own without joining tours since we don't like the packed scheduled often offered in tour packages. Though there are some cons on this choice as we have to find our way, check the main attractions, the expenses are higher as well. But this allows me to look for yarn shops as well! ;)

On our way to Zurich, we visited two castles Bebenhausen and Hohenzollern.

I really enjoyed the stops on these castles, they were impressive, packed with hidden passages. We had a great time visiting them, specially Hohenzollern, located on a high hill with an amazing view. The castle guide was also so knowledgeable, he gave a good presentation of the castle along with rich historical content to us and the boys were very attentive in the subject. See, less guiltiness in spending time in the yarn shops in Stuttgart.

Stay tuned ......Coming soon, yarn hunting in Europe Part II - Switzerland. ;)