Life's a Stitch

Successfully made it through the first day of school with all the expected protests. On the way to school, with the 15 yr old held captive in my car, I decided to brig up the M word; that being Math. He age-appropriately let me know of his mathematical feelings in a silent way by firmly plugging his ears with his fingers. Could have been worse; noisier and more profane. I guess I’m a lucky mother.

On to the lighter side. Why Germany is a knitter’s paradise:

1. In Northern Germany I found many yarn shops with a good variety of yarns, mostly imported from Italy. Does that mean that Italy is even a better yarn heaven? I know that isn’t the case in Denmark, as items made and sold in DK can be more expensive than those exported to other countries due to exorbitant sales taxes.

2. Most shops sold Inox needles, but a few carried Addi’s for between 4.60 and 7.50 Euro. In Canada the same needles range from $17-$25 Cdn dollars. Even with the additional 50% exchange difference, this is a bargain. Addi crochet hooks were 3 Euro, compared to $9 Cdn.

3. I couldn’t find any sock yarn other than Trek and Regia where I was, but the selection of those were amazing. I bought some to make a Bee’s Knee’s baby sweater as, after this trip, I’m not sure I’ll ever make socks again since I found a shop that sold knitted socks from most Regia yarns for 10 Euro. They were beautiful but I didn’t get back to buy any.

4. Germany has a good system of mail order knit shops. Here’s my favourite. Martina’s customer service is wonderful. I don’t speak German, but I could navigate around the site, and Martina graciously e-mailed answers to my questions in English.

5. My best knitting souvenir, the one thing for which my family members cannot understand my enthusiasm, was this tin, which made it dent free across the continents: