Stockholm Redux

The city. The food. The unnervingly attractive and effortlessly chic Swedes and their unswerving ability to speak perfect English. Seriously- I only met one swedish person who didn't speak English immediately upon seeing the unnecessary  Swedish phrasebook I brought everywhere.

Now, let's get down to it, shall we? I planned on visiting 4 yarn shops while in Stockholm, but only got to three. I didn't have a lot of luck finding a variety of Swedish made yarn. The few kinds I found were single ply, rough spun, and a rough-and-tough working yarn that is not particularly soft. I have a high tolerance for wool, though. I will say this- the yarns have a lovely sheen to them, and you can feel the lanolin. Another point- Stockholm is expensive. As in, really expensive. I strongly suspect much of it's gorgeousness and cleanliness is due to the 25% tax that is on absolutely everything. Just warning you now.

As a side note, I also noticed a lot of yarn seemed to come from Denmark, so I wonder if Sweden doesn't focus on yarn production when there are neighbouring countries that produce a large range of gorgeous yarns. Just a thought. 

Litet Nystan
St. Paulsgatan 20, Sodermalm

 This was the first one I went into, and just loved it. Amazing sample sweaters, some interesting independent patterns, and lots of beautiful yarn. I mean, see for yourself:

Sticka
Österlånggatan 20

This was a really beautiful shop, and the biggest one I visited. They have a lovely and large slection of patterns, mostly Drops and Rowan, but some more international magazines as well. The yarns are beautifully arranged, and there are many gorgeous samples all over the store. I could have spent hours in here, there were really so many things to look at (and yarn to pet!).  

Anntorps vav
Österlånggatan, Gamla Stan

The address on Knit Map listed only the street, but it's easy enough to find if you wander down. This was the smallest shop of the three, but very lovely- they had much of the same Swedish yarns, but they did do their own hand dying of a lace weight mohair in the shop. My only warning is that the shop keeper doesn't speak any English- the only person that I encountered there who didn't. At least I got to use my phrasebook!

Below are my modest Swedish yarn purchases:

 The turquoise and terracotta red skeins are a lovely light fingering weight, with about 420 yards in each skein. The grey is a DK weight with about 90 yards per skein. They are all single ply, and rough spun- there are subtle thick and thin portions of the light fingering weight ones. Now- if only I could figure out what these skeins want to be! shawls? scarves? mitts? hats? Hmmm.