Your LYS in Berlin

Ahem... now that I flooded you with photos of non-knitting matter, it's time to talk yarn. There was embarrassingly little knitting going on during my trips to Germany and Wisconsin, largely because I screwed up that unfortunate Grumpina sock (again!) and spent most of my knitting time not knitting but tinking. I started a little blue something that is, however, still in the experimental phase.

So, rather than showing off projects, I will show off my newly acquired Berlin yarn store knowledge. Ha!

Having had accompanied my mom to yarn stores in the past (ten years ago and more), I was a bit perplexed to learn that several of the places once famous and fabulous had either gone out of business or changed ownership.

This is particularly true about the KaDeWe, which used to have a fairly good yarn section that it has now outsourced to the nearby Idee Creativmarkt. While the KaDeWe is still worth a trip (especially for breakfast at the slightly vintage yet still very classy restaurant Silberterrasse), the yarn department at Idee Creativ isn't.

So I browsed through comments by Ravelry users to find LYS recommendations. The top three appeared to be Fadeninsel, Loops, and Lalaine.

I previously mentioned that I "found" my former English high school teacher, who lives in Colorado, on Ravelry. Sort of unbelievable, but totally true: she was in Berlin last week. We met and decided to check out Fadeninsel in Kreuzberg. (I didn't take photos, but others have, to be found here.) Now, we both *loved* that store! The selection was terrific and went far beyond Lana Grossa, Lang, GGH, Gedifra, Opal, and Regia (your standard German yarn store selection, as I learned) and included yarns of all fibers, weights, and, of course, colors, as well as many knitting accessories, tools, and pattern books. The two women working at the time were both helpful and nice (and funny, too), and we happily agreed to watch the store while they stepped out for a cigarette. During two hours of oohing and ahhing at yarns, Sandra and I had plenty of time to catch up. After retiring from teaching English, she took up working at a fiber mill, Lonesome Stone Fiber, where she now teaches knitting. How cool is that?

My favorite Fadeninsel treasure? A sweater's worth of this:

Sandra and I had such a great time at Fadeninsel that we decided to go across town to see Loops in Prenzlauer Berg (Wörtherstrasse 19, photo here). In spite of serious overstimulation at Fadeninsel, Loops didn't fail to impress us just as strongly. The store appears to be smaller, but it has a second room, which is full of bargains. The sock yarn selection seemed smaller, but Loops has a wider range of felting yarns, as Sandra pointed out. Prices were about the same.

The best Loops deal? Heavenly fuzz for five bucks (70% angora):

It's impossible for me to say which I liked better, Loops or Fadeninsel. Both were grand.

The next day my mom took me to her favorite yarn store, Lalaine in Charlottenberg. The store has every available yarn by the three big brands--Lana Grossa, GGH, and Lang--and every pattern book issued for each of them, but except for some additional Anny Blatt and Opal, nothing else. And the yarn is organized by color. Which I didn't think was helpful. However, my mom loves the store for precisely the arrangement, which helps her to match different yarns when planning her own designs. So, while I remained quite skeptic, she was totally into it. Now, I was happy to look at new fall designs and yarns, and was even happier when Mom said to pick a few pattern for which she'd buy the yarn as a very early Christmas gift (in July!), but I wasn't quite as happy with the staff: both women were flat out grumpy. The younger one warmed to us after it became obvious we'd be spending money, but the older one kept frowning at us. I didn't like that, but since I went home with two bags full of lovely yarn, I didn't really complain.

Yes! Yarn was purchased! Merry Christmas to me!

(That's three sweaters, one silly scarf, and something-that-was-on-sale-and-will-probably-become-a-scarf. It will last me through the end of the dissertation. I'm officially on a yarn diet.)

Lastly I shall mention Handmade Berlin. I accidentally walked by this small, exquisite yarn store in Mitte. Many familiar yarns from the Anglo-American fiber world greeted me, along with yarns from Anny Blatt, Habu, and Taito Pirkanmaa. Since I was in a rush, I didn't take the time to look around, but shall do so the next time I'm in Berlin!