{"id":2420,"date":"2011-08-06T10:44:35","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T10:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.com\/?p=2420"},"modified":"2011-08-06T10:44:35","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T10:44:35","slug":"wool-shop-hop-or-wool-shop-flop-or-what-zurich-has-to-offer-in-the-middle-of-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/?p=2420","title":{"rendered":"Wool shop hop…or wool shop flop…or what Z\u00fcrich has to offer in the middle of summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mission: to investigate all the yarn possibilities in central Z\u00fcrich<\/p>\n

Participants: Mel and Helen…on a mission<\/p>\n

We set out to visit the 5 shops that I’d tracked down on the internet, only one of which I’d ever been to before, and also I planned to show Mel the amazing button shop in the Niederdorf (old town).<\/p>\n

Shop 1: Vilfi<\/em>l\u00a0(Kreuzstrasse 39) – billed as the biggest and best in the city. Not in an area that I frequent very often, so although I had a hazy idea that it was there and I think I’ve even driven past it, I’d never been inside (I’m ashamed to say). Unfortunately a final check on the web yesterday morning alerted me to the fact that the shop was closed for its 2 week summer holiday. So strike that one.<\/p>\n

Shop 2: Hand-Art<\/em> (Neumarkt 10) – this was the shop I had already been to. Small and a little old-fashioned, but well stocked, although really only with the well-known brands that everyone has here – lots of Lana Grossa<\/em> and Lang. <\/em>Don’t get me wrong, both of these are really nice yarn producers and Lana Grossa<\/em> in particular strikes me as really good value for money and is lovely to knit with. But hand-dyed, interesting yarns? No siree. Not here. But the shop was fairly bustling with nice middle-aged ladies and seems to be doing well.<\/p>\n

I weakened a little and bought these:<\/p>\n

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Purple Lana Grossa<\/em> Merino, which I’m going to use to make a Soay<\/em> cardigan, and turquoise heather Lang <\/em>Donegal together with the shop’s own patten for a longer loose cardigan with cabling in the fitted top part. Both gorgeous yarns, but so far I can’t make head nor tail of the pattern I bought – the pattern is typed all but for the cabling pattern, which is handwritten, illegible and photocopied badly. A little disappointing really, but at least I can go back and pester the shop lady until I understand what I’m doing.<\/p>\n

Shop 3 : Roosens<\/em> button shop (Napfgasse 5) – nooooooo – another one on holiday and closed for 2 weeks. Strike number 2.<\/p>\n

At this point, exhausted from our endeavours we adjourned to the nearby Cafe Schober<\/em> for a little R & R, but through inhuman strength managed to avoid the patisseries…..<\/p>\n

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We did however entertain the other customers by sitting out front and having our very own Blue Peter moment – as Mel, complete with swatch she had made earlier, introduced me to the mysteries of knitting i-cord. I-cord, for those of you who don’t know it, gives the most delightful finish and I’m going to need to know how to do it when I embark on Soay<\/em>. Now I know – and am enchanted by it. Another one of those really brilliant little gems of technique that you come across occasionally in knitting. How have I knitted for so long without knowing how to do this? And does I-cord really stand for idiot cord? I hope not, I think it’s sheer genius cord!<\/p>\n

Isn’t this a lovely little swatch? – what’s more it’s in the yarn that Mel made her Soay<\/em> cardigan in – which looks fabulous!<\/p>\n

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I’m not sure that Schobers<\/em> has really seen the like before….but what the heck…I guess we are of an age when it’s almost alright to be a little eccentric in public!<\/p>\n

We then resumed our mission:<\/p>\n

4) Shop 4: La Maglia<\/em> (Oberdorfstrasse 3) – categorically does not exist. There is a toyshop in its place, which I think has been there for really quite a long time. Why therefore is La Maglia<\/em> still in all the city listings? It’s a mystery to me. Strike 4.<\/p>\n

5) Shop 5: Zaubernuss<\/em> (Augustinergasse No.8 ) – this shop at least exists, but quite how, by merit of a small basket of brightly coloured mohair in one corner \u00a0it can call itself a wool shop is beyond me. Strike 5.<\/p>\n

6) Shop 6 : Unnamed shop near Stauffacher (and to my shame I forgot to write down either the name or the address once we had found it) – woohooo- a wool shop that actually exists. We almost fell over in our euphoria, but quickly pulled ourselves together when we realized that they carried exactly the same sock as Hand-Art, but a lot less of it. But hey, what the heck, it exists and we found it!!<\/p>\n

All in all….well we had a lovely time, I bought wool, I learned to do i-cord, so it wasn’t a write off. Of course Vilfil<\/em> may turn out to be an absolute gem when it’s actually open, but otherwise, it was a bit of a paltry showing for Switzerland’s biggest city. Or does anyone out there know something we don’t?<\/p>\n

Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mission: to investigate all the yarn possibilities in central Z\u00fcrich Participants: Mel and Helen…on a mission We set out to visit the 5 shops that I’d tracked down on the internet, only one of which I’d ever been to before, and also I planned to show Mel the amazing button shop in the Niederdorf (old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQtrc-D2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2429,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420\/revisions\/2429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}