European Yarn Shops

[Kimberly]

Hi everyone! Has any one found any really great yarn shops in Europe that should not be missed? I travel a good deal with my job around Europe, as well as travel for pleasure, and would love to be able to find some new shops....I can just picture my blog "Was in Madrid today and found some fabulous wool" or "Was in Munich this week and came across some awesome yarn that could not be passed by....." :lol

I've only found one store here in Brussels that is fairly nice - if not a little bit over priced though! It is "Art & Fils" on Rue Bailli (Pronounced Buy-eee)- which is very near to where I live, so if you're in Brussels, let me know! There is a great cafe around the corner from the yarn shop which is perfect to meet up for a coffee/tea, as well as an amazing tea shop with custom loose leaf tea...a multi purpose stop!

[crochetdiva]

I don't know of any yarn shops, but I like using Wendy Wool from England. They have great patterns too.:)

[AshEgypt]

I agree Wendy is nice! I especially :manyheart the Wendy Velvet Chunky, it's the softest I've felt yet! :)

:frog

[cmr3877]

Here are shops recommended to me in Munich, Germany:
Rundum Tee und Wolle (0 89) 74 94 95 78
Drygalski-Allee 117 | 81477 München

Wir wollen Euch GmbH (0 89) 49 05 97 17
Grafinger Str. 6 | 81671 München

Woll-Wichtl (0 89) 6 11 22 53
Hofmarkweg 4 | 82008 Unterhaching

Wolle & Schönes (0 89) 4 30 87 44
Phantasiestr. 2 | 81827 München

thanks to Kathy Goldy!

Anyone got stores in Salzburg, Vienna, or Marktoberdorf?

[yarnyviolet]

I haven't tried Wendy Wool. I have tried Texere yarns in the UK. My husband is in the UK military so we are posted in northern germany. We just moved to Bergen-Belsen (you know the concentration camp?) in March. I was caught out though. I am pregnant so even though I tried packing all my yarn myself my husband was moving the boxes around in our apartment and saw the amount of boxes I had with yarn in them. Now that the morning sickness has passed I am crocheting baby clothes (and two afghans but they are going more slowly) and trying to de-stash. However, I can't wait to check out Hamburg and Hanover for yarn. Of course after the end of October I won't have much time:) How is Belgium? If you are in the UK, Yorkshire is the county known for yarn I think especially the place Bradford and around thereabouts.


Rachel

[cmr3877]

PAY DIRT!

A BIG hug :ghug and thank you :ty to Stephanie Japel (a true artist of knitting, check out her blog): http://www.glampyre.com/blog/ ) for the hint on what German words to put into Google, and in what order!

Stores in Vienna:

Sillip Ulrike Heinestraße 40 1020
Wien 01/216 44 76

Withalm Christine Josefstädter Straße 14 1080
Wien 01/403 57 35

Natschläger Alserstraße 61 1080 Wien 01/402 86 50
Lachout Strickstube Quellenstraße 138 1100
Wien 01/604 42 66

Fischer Waltraud Lainzerstraße 3-5 1130
Wien 01/877 56 09

Christian Aloisia Hütteldorferstraße 1150
Wien 01/982 46 96

Beck Brigitta Kalvarienberggasse 32 1170
Wien 01/403 72 11

"Wolldorado" Klosterneuburgerstraße 99 1200 Wien 01/330 30 02

Brenner Sonja Stammersdorferstraße 126 1210 Wien 01/29 46 782

Neidhart Peter Breitenfurterstraße 246 1230 Wien 01/865 13 47

[cmr3877]

Brosow Woll-Kistl Linzer Bundesstraße 24A 5020
Salzburg 0662/640481

Hemetsberger Helga Universitätsplatz 12 5020
Salzburg 0662/841 652

Thalhammer Helga Ignaz-Harrer-Straße 39 5020
Salzburg 0662/430310

Graf Robert Schrannengasse 2 5020
Salzburg 0662/876038

Wenatex Münchner Bundesstraße 140 5020
Salzburg 0662/441 676

Gerti's Änderungsstube Hauptstraße 5082
Grödig 06246/75251

Herrmann Alfons Schmiedgasse 61 5541
Altenmarkt (no phone)

Klautzer Juliane Bahnhofsplatz 4 5640
Bad Gastein 06434/2866

[cmr3877]

From the GGH Website

http://216.239.39.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.ggh-garn.at/frameset.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3DGarne%2BSalzburg%2Bwolle%26hl%3Den%26 lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den

:rose Catherine

[jingles96]

Cool links! Thanks!

And um, not to be pedantic or anything, but that's a clickable map of Austria. Try telling an Austrian that's Germany and see what kind of response you get! ;)

[Harvestar]

So I'll be a few days in London this summer as well as a week in Ireland. Does anyone know of any great yarn shops there?

[Kimberly]

I was in Ireland this past weekend (London today but not for shopping :( ) and went to a store on Henry Street in Dublin called Hickeys. This shop is a curtain fabric shop, but downstairs they have a small yarn section that was a nice selection of different yarn types - cotton, acrylic, fur etc. I was not crocheting when I lived in Dublin, so I never noticed any other shops - on a note, if you are looking for yarn shops while in Ireland, it is best to ask where you can by "knitting wool" when talking to a local person!

[jingles96]

When I was in London in April, I went into a department store called John Lewis on Oxford Street - it's not far from a metro stop, but I don't remember which one. I just remember a Nike store being right there on the corner. Anyway - the department store doesn't look like much, but they have a LOVELY yarn section. They call it the knitting section. Full of Noro, Debbie Bliss, Rowan, etc. Nice yarns. I bought 4 balls of Rowan and one ball of thread for about 14pounds. What that equates to, I couldn't tell you. But the yarn is nice. :)

[yarnyviolet]

John Lewis is a department store all across the UK. If you are near Wales Colinette Yarns are absolutely gorgeous. I think they are made in Wales. I love the colours. My husband is british but I don't go there much as we live in Germany. I have ordered cones off ebay and yarn from Texere and a lot of the bulk yarn seems to be from the Bradford area. You are going to London? It is so expensive there. It must be one of the most expensive places to visit in Europe so we tend to stay away from there when we go to the UK.


Rachel

[Harvestar]

Thanks for the suggestions! :) I'm not sure I'll have any room for yarn, but it never hurts to ask or to look around while I'm there. :D

Well, it was cheaper to fly into London than anywhere else (I have a conference in Amsterdam and then my fiance and I are going to Ireland), so I flew into there, then bought two roundtrip tickets (one to Amsterdam, one to Ireland). And it was cheaper to go in a few days early, so I figured I'd see someplace I'd always wanted to go. :)

[Veronika]

In Madrid (Spain)

El Gato Negro
Algodones, lanas y mezclas
Plaza mayor, 30
28012 MADRID
Tel: 913 665 800

:clap

[ThreadHeroine]

I was just wondering if any of you ladies & gents knew of any good shops in Paris/France in general? My boy-toy's going to be going over there for a few months and I want him to bring home some goods ;)

[AnneV]

Here's a link for finding yarn shops in Germany. The site is fairly recent, so the list is far from exhaustive. However, I like it since it allows searches by manufacturer (Marken/Hersteller), post code or just a part of it, or region (Regionale Suche)

http://www.strickshops.com/suche_plz.php

One of my favourite shops is situated in Aachen, just across the German border when coming from Belgium or the Netherlands. www.junghanswolle.de provides for all sorts of crafts and there's a wide variety of bamboo knitting and crochet needles, too.

And I hope that ThreadHeroine is still around for tips for remote-controlled shopping in Paris. General list of shops:
http://www.tricotin.com/paris_1_a_6.htm

and I highly recommend La Droguerie with its hundreds (if not thousands) of different kinds of buttons, beads, ribbons and all sort of lovely things. http://www.ladroguerie.com/ Another great place is the department store Le Bon Marché.

[yarnyviolet]

See, I knew I should have taken that german course.... I cannot believe how bad my german is and I have been here almost 3 years. The french store looks great too (those 10 years of french that I have almost forgotten sort of came back so I got the gist of it). Sigh:( by the time I figure out where all these stores are I will be living back in Canada.....


Rachel

[Kimberly]

One of my favourite shops is situated in Aachen, just across the German border when coming from Belgium or the Netherlands. www.junghanswolle.de (http://www.junghanswolle.de/) provides for all sorts of crafts and there's a wide variety of bamboo knitting and crochet needles, too. Ooooh I just saw this Anne!! I am going to Aachen for the Christmas Markets and would love to combine with a yarn shopping expedition! Good thing since I can only drink so much Hot Wine at one time....oooh now the decision needs to come if I drive or if I take the train......drive = 1 wine while train = too many to count although train = limited packages and drive = unlimited until I fill the car packages :lol

[Vik]

During holidays in Sicily, I found a little lovely yarn house at the pedestrian area in Taormina:
MERCERIA SANTUZZA, di Picone, Corso Umberto 243, Taormina (Italy)
The owner is a very nice lady!

[Mel]

My husband is british but I don't go there much as we live in Germany. I have ordered cones off ebay and yarn from Texere and a lot of the bulk yarn seems to be from the Bradford area.


Rachel

There is a lot of yarn manufacturers around the Bradford area but suprisingly (and disappointingly for me) there are very few yarn shops round here. I am planning a visit to the Texere mill shop soon though. I buy most of my yarn from a little shop in Keighley but she mainly stocks acrylics and the fancy yarns (the furry ones and the like), with a very limited selection of pure wool/wool blends. The selection locally is so bad that I thought I was in heaven recently when I found a small yarn market stall that stocked marino in about 6 colours :lol

[playhookie]

Just wanted to add that there is a lovely yarn and haberdashery shop on Chepstow Road in Notting Hill in London - can't remember what it is called but it is right next to the Nails Inc opposite the Space NK at the junction with Westbourne Grove. Nearest tube stations: Notting Hill, Bayswater, Queensway (all within 5-10 minutes walk).

While the prices are London prices the area is lots of fun for high-end shopping so if you have the money it is a great area to shop in (I tend to spend time rather than money window shopping then going online to see what prices I can get).

[Kimberly]

I have come across two more chain type shops that sell yarn here in Brussels. The first is a chain called Veritas and the second is Phildar. I have found several of the Veritas here in Brussels all around the main shopping areas (Chaussee de Ixelles, Waterloo, Rue Neuve in City 2, Chaussee de Wavre). There is one Phildar that I have found (I think there are others, but I've only seen the one) on Chaussee de Wavre.

While the selction in neither is really big, I have found some lovely yarns and other accessories (beads, hooks, stuffing) in them from time to time!

[Kimberly]

I know that there are lots of new overseas members since this was last bumped up so I thought to do so again.

Most recently I've been to Stockholm yarn shopping - there were some lovely yarn stores there:

Yarn shops - located in Gamla Staden area:

Anntorps Väv
Tel. 08-676 00 23
Österlångg. 11, 11131 STOCKHOLM

This Side Up (I bought some lovely yarn from this store)
Tel. 08-21 83 49
Österlångg. 20, 11131 STOCKHOLM

Dys Boden
Tel. 08-20 96 86
Storkyrkobr. 14, 11128 STOCKHOLM

Yarn shop in Södermalm area:

Sallys Garn och Handarbete
Tel. 08-88 90 09
Ringv. 64, 11861 STOCKHOLM

In Spain I found that one of the large department stores, El Cortes Inglese (I think I spelled that one right) has a yarn / fabric section in their larger stores - I've been to one in Madrid and one in Valencia - I bought some lovely yarns in both, although the selection was not that big!

[fastnet]

For yarn lovers visiting Scotland, try the new
K1 Knitting Boutique (http://www.k1yarns.com/) owned by Katherine Walker. She
is making an effort to stock local Scottish natural-fiber
yarns, and runs a Tuesday Knit at the Movies each month,
where you can meet other knit and crochet fanatics, followed by refreshments
at a local cafe.

We will be visiting this shop on our upcoming fiber tour
to the UK. (http://textiletravel.com)

[Hookerangel]

In Belfast the best places I know of to buy wool are Delaneys on the Springfield Road and Simpsons in the City Center. You can sometimes get fuzzy , aran and double knitting wool quite cheaply in the Pound Stores.

[Kimberly]

I'm not sure if its in all of them across Europe, but my Carrefour here in Belgium (a really large grocery store chain, along the lines of a Super Walmart in that they have groceries, clothes, electronis, appliances, toys etc, but nowhere near as nice or big as a S.W.!) has a small crafty type section. They don't carry much, but I've found Crochet thread, hooks, needles, and some acrylic yarns here along with other odds and ends for crafts.

[Daydreamer-girl]

Some people I know are going to Ireland soon. Is there something particular (books, "special yarn", needles/hooks) I should ask them to buy for me?

[Krakovianka]

I can locate some nice ones in Krakow. There is a great new store located in the Galeria Krakowska (mall) right behind the train station. (The store is on the lowest of the 3 levels.)

There are two really nice little "hole in the wall" shops on Karmelicka Street, just a few minutes' walk from the city center.

There is a good-sized store on the Maly Rynek, not far from the American consulate or the main square.

Someone told me when I introduced myself that they were coming to Krakow in July, so someone might need this information!

[DeNatura]

I find this is a very friendly place. I've recently started crochetting. I'm retired now and started selling wool yarns online. I kindly invite you to visit my site and have a look at handspun, handyed sheep yarns. I noticed you have some troubles to find adequate yarns, so I thought you might like mine. Best to you all, Ana