Yarn shops in Stockholm

It’s been a long time since a post about knitting on this blog that has morphed, somehow, away from that subject as a rule. It will come as no great surprise that there are knitting shops in abundance in Stockholm. I managed to get to three and pick up a sampling of Scandinavian yarn from each.

The first was Ekens Garn . Here I bought some stretchy cotton and some wool cotton, having in mind my continuing affair with All Year Cardigan. Permit me to call it my Everyday Cardigan instead. So, a couple of blue ones coming up.

Next up, two in Gamla Stan. I was a bit put off Gamla Stan to begin with, thinking it would be the uber touristy part of town, meaning high prices, bad food, tacky tourist Stuff. Well, there is a bit of all of that, I dare say, but it’s a bit like Venice. It’s all on a couple of the main streets. Just go left or right off them, start wandering and you get to nice shops, cafes, restaurants, things to look at.

Sticka contains quite a range of items that are made of wool, but not necessarily knitted as well as a large stock of handknitted items which handily serve as examples of yarns in practise for those, like me, who aren’t familiar with the local brands. I decided in the end on a tweedy sort of tussah silk in a dull black. Really looking forward to knitting this up for…ermmm….an Everyday Cardigan.

Finally, on the same street as Sticka, is another slightly eccentric yarn shop, again including a variety of handknits called Anntorps The local wool is too harsh for my skin, though I appreciate it must be just the thing for the Swedish winter, so again I went for silk. I think this is also Tussah silk, a lovely ruby colour dyed by Ann herself. Luckily enough I could pick up just the right amount for – YES, you guessed it! An Everyday Cardigan.

I’m loving this pattern. So far I’ve knitted it five times, with several Swedish ones to come.