We have been having a great time! It was wet at the beginning of the week but since yesterday, it’s really begun to pick up. Speaking of yesterday, I hooked up with the fabuloso Glitzfrau! She met me off the U-bahn in a more normal, Turkish part of Berlin (since we’ve been doing museums and sites, what I’ve seen has been very commercial and englified) and she brought me to this great yarn shop that she lives just down the road from! Ah yes, it was wonderful. I loaded up mostly on sock yarn and German mags. Ever since breaking the code that is french patterns from Phildar, I feel most courageous about buying German mags – and not so bad about buying lots of them together because they’re! so! cheap! I was so overwhelmed, I didn’t even take photos. They had big bundles of roving, huge loops of wool that looked handspun that wasn’t balled up or anything, and lots of knitted items for sale too. This impressed me, because if you like handknit stuff but aren’t interested in knitting yourself, you can go in and get yourself some handknit socks, hats and lots of funny felted things (btw: place mats or frisbies?).
We had coffee then to calm down. It was funny to talk to someone else about wool and knitting. I was the only person I knew in realityland that was obsessed! Now it is no more and it feels funny in a good way!
Today, we went to Sachsenhausen (relatively small concentration camp north of Berlin) and did the tour in the searing midday sun. It is about an hour’s train ride so I got a good bit done on my Granny Smith. It’s chugging along nicely! I am dying to get started with some of my new sock yarn 😀 I think I might go for this unpronouncable pattern.
I am planning another YEB (yarn expedition in Berlin) before I go home. Not necessarily to buy more, just to look. They are really into their felting here and I am debating whether or not to invest in a felting needle and some roving.
By the way, I started drinking coffee for the first time in my life this week! I brought tea bags with me but I had no milk, and then when I bought milk (UHT yuck!), I realised I had no mug. Drinking tea out of your toothbrush glass is no fun. So, I tried a coffee and it got me through my caffeine-hangover, and I’ve been drinking it ever since. I suspect the Germans do very bad tea. We get tea at this little Turkish tabac at the end of the street and boy, is it ever strong! But very good with a pastery, legs crossed in the hot train station, waiting for the train to come.
PS there are no pigeons in Berlin.
If you are talking about the “Fadeninsel” shop, then I could provide you some self-taken pictures, just mail me.
Berlins subway and s-bahn is perfect for knitting, I agree, had to take the trip to Sachsenhausen during winter time and it was freezing cold.
You can find the Baudelaire Pattaern here: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTbaudelaire.html