Life's a Stitch

Souvenir Yarn - Lost in Translation

As if Wollmesie wasn't enough.

 

I'll fess up. I first saw this merino/slk in Denmark, however the price was too high even for souvenir yarn, about $32 for 100 gms. Regretting my decision, after returning home I found it online for half the price. Hmmmm, I thought, must be the difference without the VAT. It arrived eight days later. Notice the label - 540 m. The other side says 100 gms. 

Happily knitting, this yarn is like a laceweight version of Silky Wool. Working on Chart B of the Flared Lace Smoke Ring:

Something is not right. I hate that feeling, well into a project. I weigh the blue skein in its entirety. 50 gms! A knitting oh s**t moment. Consulted the website, did I miss the fine print? Yes I did, the price stated is for 50 gms. I honestly don't remember seeing that bit of information.  And why does the label say 100 gms? Lost in translation?

The good news, farther into the project, with the aid of a scale, as it's a lacey pattern I'll have enough to finish. The bad news is that I'll have to change my pattern plans for the blue skein. Not so bad.

 

Venetzia

Ahhhh Venice. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. Not the traditional tourist spots, suffocatingly crowded, where even the pigeons posed for pictures.

I preferred streets less travelled. The hidden piazzas and the glimpses of daily life:

  

...in an unusual city where everything is boat dependent. Order some yarn and UPS delivers:

Click on that picture, it's a UPS boat. Where life relies on boats: police, taxis, ambulances, getting the dogs to the vet:

Even a body's last ride. Look carefully at the background in this one:

A beautiful city.

Someday I hope to return.

 

Wollmeise - the dream continues

It's not often you get to continue a good dream. Once you awaken, it's back to the cold hard slap of reality. Let me take you back to dreaming about the feast of colour and comfort.

Driving south from northern Germany we discuss the meaning of the name Wollmeise. The literal translation is wool bird, as in small bird with a name that means something else, as in a titmouse. After all there is a bird on the Wollmeise's label. Our host explains that Wollmeise sounds suspiciously like a German word that means seriously mentally ill and maybe it's a euphemism for "crazy about wool." Who knows? I seriously doubt, as I've heard on occasion, a meaning related to the words pronounced "wool meister."

My travelling companions, non-knitters, generously permitted me an hour an a half of drool time. I, a knitter, permitted myself a generous 150 euro of freedom. Easily overwhelmed with indecision in such a candy shop I made some quick decisions. I wasn't leaving without a skein of laceweight plus their popular sockweight in a denim blue and a skein of two that were different from my usual suspects. 1.5 hours + 150 euro = 8 skeins of sockweight yarn plus one of laceweight.

The review: what is it about this stuff that overtakes people to the point of spending $38 and up on ebay? I've seen skeins go for $100. That is serious wool craziness. My, as they say, humble opinion:

• The skeins of sockweight contain a generous amount of yarn. Forget those brands that say you can knit a pair of socks from under 350 yards. These have 575. The laceweight has a whopping 1140 yards.
• The sockweight appears to be so tightly wound that you'd think you are knitting with string. The finished product, however, comes out softer than expected.
• Many of the laceweight skeins, all seconds, looked like they had pilling potential. The one I bought didn't, but had a label that said there were "rote punkte," intermittent red dots of dye throughout. Haven't found one but haven't looked closely:
• All their seconds clearly define the flaws on their label. Numbers of knots, red dots etc... I've seen reviews that state yarn bought on e-bay at exorbitant prices contain an unreasonable amount of knots. I view these as the possibility of someone selling seconds to over-trusting buyers. 

What's the verdict? If you can get Wollmeise directly from the source, definitely more reasonable than e-bay pricing, despite the unreasonable process of timing scheduled inventory releases and constant screen refreshing to beat others to the goods, go in with a friend, split the shipping and treat yourself to a skein or two. It seems to me that some sort of lottery system would work better than their current procedure. 

And what did my travelling companions do while I was otherwise engaged? The town had plenty to keep them occupied:

This one's long enough. I promise to post about my first Wollmeise FO in the near future. 

Wollmeise - dream analysis

Not just the yarn, the store itself, many a knitter's dream. Mine came true. After planning a roadtrip with friends from Bremen, Germany to Venice, I asked if Paffenhofen, home of Rohrspatz & Wollmeise, was within reasonable distance of our planned trip. It was meant to be, five minutes off our route on the autobahn, and on a day the shop was open. Come with me on a knitting adventure.

What was it like?

A feast of colour. An hour and a half of woolen bliss.

The store is small, three walls and the front lined with windows with a shelf below. Enter the door. The wall to the left is for yarn called "We are not perfect," seconds with slight flaws, each explained on the label. The wall to the right holds current perfect sockweight stock. The middle of the shop has couches surrounded by baskets of laceweight yarn, all seconds. Under the windowed wall are the clearance skeins. 

There were 29 people, 25 knitters (24 women, 1 man), 2 lost men and 2 employees. It appeared there was a scheduled knitting group in progress. Imagine knitting plus a coffee table filled with German baking. I almost had to pinch myself. Am I really here?

Next post: What I bought and a review of the goods.