"Lana" Yarn Shop, Frankfurt

"Lana" is a tiny shop owned by Katja LeJeune in Frankfurt's upscale shopping area near the Opera. It is surrounded by cafes, restaurants, and stores like Prada, Akris, Jaeger, Lalique, Salvatore Ferragamo, and other chic boutiques. Walking space inside is maybe 10x10 feet, yet it is fully stocked with beautiful yarn, knitted garments, knitting booklets, and buttons that Katja has collected over the years. I was intrigued by her storage solutions: lots of drawers, shelves, and built-in cases that show sample yarn on the outside and store stock when pulled out.

We went there at least three times - most of the shops are open until 8 or 8:30 these days - and Katja always wore something she'd made.

In a Noro suit-

In her own design

The last day I saw her, she had on a pair of low slung jeans with boots and mid-calf cardigan. Casual chic.

We would recognize the yarn she carried - Anny Blatt, Lang, Lana Grossa, Gedifra, and Noro, among others - yet I've never seen the selections or lines anywhere in the States. We would call many of them novelty yarns, wool and silk stranded with metallic and/or ribbon yarn, sometimes studded with sequins. When knit up, these yarns are subtle, feminine and glamourous. I will be more open-minded about novelty yarn now.

My colleague and knitting buddy, Michelle, bought Katja's last 11 balls of this:

It's Anny Blatt Odysee in "Lagoon." I love it and can't find it anywhere in the States. Yes, we've Googled it. Gedifra makes a colorway almost exactly like it, and I can't it here either. That it's new for spring might have something to do with it. We'll keep looking.

I bought these to crochet some necklaces like the ones Katja had on display. It's Noro "Daria" and Lang "Lame."

I bought this for a summer shell. Kind of nondescript in the ball, but it knits up beautifully.

It's made like the Anny Blatt above with little pebbles enveloped in mesh.

Finally I bought this Lana Grossa booklet. Click on the link to see the contents.

Next: "Unikat"

Wolle Rodel, Frankfurt

My yarn arrived today! I mailed it to myself from Germany. For those of you looking for these posts: sorry they are late. I wanted to post pix of the yarn along the shop photos!

The first yarn shop we visited was Wolle Rodel, located downtown Frankfurt.

I wasn't completely oriented yet - we had only been there a couple of days - I didn't know exactly where we were, but I recognized YARN - it was sitting outside in bins, as you can see. Apparently they have no problem with theft.

These are felt bags in the picture above. Saw a lot them, including some really nice briefcases. I show you those later.


I don't know if Wolle Rodel is typical or not, as it was very different from the other two yarn shops we visited. Wolle Rodel carries a lot of yarn that we have here: Regia, Lana Grossa, Schoeller and Stahl, Opal, Filatura di Crosa, among others.






There was also a basket of ready-made socks for sale.

Loved these buttons. They are about 1.5-2 inches in diameter. I bought a couple for a shrug or cardi. Would have bought more, but as I said, the exchange rate was excrutiating.


We visited the store a couple of times. The very nice Frau Weubel waited on us and allowed me to take her picture in her beautiful Rowan creation.

My Purchases
Schoeller and Stahl Fortissima Socka for more Knitted Pearls perhaps. This is as close as I've seen to Brooklyn Handspun's Hawaii Joy.

Lana Grossa Furetto for "Dashing" wrist warmers. Love the subtle variagation.

and these two lonely buttons. They are about 2 inches wide.

Should have bought this lovely skein, but I can find Mille Fili here in the States.

Next time: Lana and Katja LeJeune.

Frankfurt

Where do I start? I was on a business trip in Frankfurt, Germany, for the last two weeks, where I found a sophisticated city with good restaurants, world class chocolate, culture, great fashion, and great yarn shops, of course!

I also discovered that one of the four colleagues traveling with me is also a knitter. YEA! A knitting buddy for two weeks. I didn't have to explain why I had to go back to the yarn stores several times!

We visited and bought yarn at

Lana

Wolle Model

and Unikat.

The department store Galleria Kaufhof sells yarn, like some in the US used to.

We also shopped at Wachterhauser, which I can best describe as a notions store. They had boat loads of buttons, thread, material, some knitting accessories, trimming, and purse handles.

We spent our evenings knitting at restaurants. We didn't get a second look from anyone. I didn't get the name of one of our favorite places. It had a row of orange plastic chairs that looked out on a small square so that everyone that walked by had an audience.

I never got the name of the place.

I saw lots of metallic yarn, mostly brushed silver and bronze. The effect was very subtle and elegant. Gedifra, Lang, and Lana Grossa made most of the metallic yarn I liked the most. I bought some of course but not a lot because the dollar hit a new low against the Euro while we were there. Everything was almost impossibly expensive.

Traveling Habu.

Y'all have been busy! Looking forward to catching up on your posts.

New York, New York

Habu Towers

New York and New Yorkers look great these days! I couldn't summon Deborah's courage to take pictures of strangers, but take my word for it. Saw lots of great coats, boots, patterned hose, balloon hemmed skirts and coats, and lots of metallics at night.

I was there on business so didn't have much time, but I did manage to go down to SoHo to see what Prada had on display. Prada's theme for spring is very Art Nouveau. I loved this window and the mural inside.

I went to M & J Trimming for the first time and was amazed by the room of buttons and the wall of handbag handles. We need one fo these in DC. G Street Fabrics is good, but no match for M&J.

While in SoHo I ran into another knitter with a bag of yarn purchases in hand who told me The Point was having a radical sale, but I'm on a semi-yarn diet so didn't go. Where would I put it???

You'll note that I said semi. I went to Habu of course and bought some yarn. I bought the stainless steel pictured above and more that I will blog later.

Knitted Pearls

My first finished object of 2008.

They are based on the Black Pearls scarf in Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr, a gift from Olga.

While looking at the pix the first time, I thought this was a necklace for some reason. It wasn't until I started knitting that I realized the smallest "pearl" was going to be 2-3 inches in diameter. And while I think this is an intriguing scarf, it wasn't what I had in mind, so I recast on with leftover Brooklyn Handspun sockyarn Hawaii Joy on US1s. I ran out of Hawaii Joy just two pearls short of the end and finished up with some turquoise Habu tsumugi silk. So my pearls are 24" long rather than 62," and the smallest pearl is less than an inch in diameter.

I'll make a matching bracelet later for summer.

YPF: Habu Tsumugi Silk and Shosenshi Paper

Left: A-1 Tsumugi Silk, Color #70

Right: A-60 Paper, Color #116

Swatched on 4mm circs, for a skirt if there's enough ease. It's going to need a lining.