Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Wool vs Acrylic : The Final Debate

After the shock of my first wool shop find in Karlovy Vary, The Acrylic Heaven (and literally, I mean shock - how many balls of acrylic can you sift through before everything and everyone gives you an electric shock!) and my yummy lunch, my blitz visit to the Handwork store was every wool lovers' dream.
In every store I enter in the Czech Republic, I ask if they speak German or English. Few admit to understanding English and fewer still want to practice. But the wonderful nice lady in the wool shop preferred and spoke wonderful English. She had a shop full of all sorts of needlework supplies - from Opal sock yarn to cross-stitch kits. The wool set up was the same as the other shop - one basket with every colour from a certain series - one has to choose their wool-type and colour and the owner delves into what must be miles of shelving in the back of the shop to get the amount needed.
This is the best part! The first thing my eyes fixed onto was a apple-bushel basket on it's side full of skeins of 100% wool in natural-looking colours. Nice Shop Lady explained that all the wool in the basket was spun in a factory only 10 miles away and that same factory spins wool for all of Europe. She pulled out a drawer with sample wool and their labels for loads of countries. Here is one for Denmark-Love Garn (how sweet is that?) :
Then, the other best part - 100gram skeins of 100% wool cost approx 2.25 Euro (like $3!). God Bless the Eastern Bloc!
I checked out the web address on the skein labels when I got home and found every single type of wool that ever existed (from sock yarn to fun fur to superwash wool and 100% felter's dream) , and the costs are about half of the shop prices. All of it shippable in the EU - and should be import-tax free up to €200! Woot! Woot! Woot!
The only reason I haven't ordered yet is because my Czech isn't quite up to snuff. But, hey, that's what neighbors are for, right??!! I bet a batch of sugar-glazed cinnamon rolls would butter her right up ;)


Below are my stash enhancers from the acrylic mix family. Can you believe Red Heart has made it as far as the Czech Republic???

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:12 PM

    Oh, you lucky lady. Not only do you live in Germany, but you went to my most favorite town in eastern Europe. I love Kalyvy vary. Please forgive the spelling. I loved it. I went there in 1993 and was into crystal and not yarn, but had a blast. If I remember right they tiled in the river and had a steam bad downtown right by the river. Have fun for all of us. Dee fm KS

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  2. Haven't been to the factory yet - I'm going to try and order online first. I'll update once I successfully manage my way through the Czech website :)

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  3. Anonymous12:59 AM

    Oh how cool! Did you head over to the factory? I would have been there in minute.
    Nice new layout, by the way!

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