When traveling in Europe, one of my favorite excursions is to find a yarn shop and buy a few skeins to make a shawl or scarf while traveling. I always find luscious yarns (and all wool!!!), meet interesting people, and have an experience I’ll remember as one of the highlights of my trip.
I follow the map on my phone down a quiet street in the South of France. I’ve already bought lots of yarn in Paris, but I’ve managed to break a set of circular knitting needles during my travels. Darn, I’ll have to find another knitting shop in Nice!
The quiet street is located just a few blocks from the Mediterranean, and there are only a few local people around, running errands on foot or otherwise going about their business. I find the tiny knitting store, but it’s closed. Peering in at the brightly colored yarns inside, I know it’s the place for me. I make a pharmacie run for wonderful French cosmetics and wait for the owner to return.
A French Knitting Shop
“Bonjour, Madame!”
The knit shop is open, and a handsome Frenchman of a certain age is seated behind a small wooden counter. Several other customers have squeezed inside the shop as well. I get in line and eye some skeins as blue as the Mediterranean, and all wool as well.
“Bonjour, Monsieur,” I reply in greeting, as I’ve been taught to do upon entering any place of business in France.
When the customers in front of me have finished purchasing their yarn and needles, I repeat my greeting and explain in my bad French that I need 3.5 mm needles, circular if he has them.
This is NOT the big box store experience we have in the United States! There are no racks of needles and knitting supplies lining the walls, available in large quantities to pluck off and head to the self-checkout.
Instead, the handsome Frenchman pulls out a drawer underneath his counter, frowns, rummages around a bit, and finally comes up with two sets of circular needles in the size I need. I select the bamboo ones…and point to the skeins of Mediterranean blue yarn as well.
After profuse “mercis” for bailing me out of a knitting emergency, I pay, tuck the needles and yarn in my tote bag, bid the handsome shopkeeper “au revoir,” and I’m on my way.
Shopping the Old-Fashioned Way
Walking back to my hotel, I realize that this was how all shopping used to be, long ago. You didn’t “browse” or do “retail therapy” – shopping as recreation. If you needed something, you went to a specific shop and told the proprietor exactly what you needed to buy. You would have formally greeted the shopkeeper, and he (probably not a she) would greet you formally in return. You would buy something made of natural materials, and you would certainly not stuff your purchases in a plastic bag.
Knitting Memories from Europe
I’ve truly enjoyed all my excursions to buy yarn and knitting supplies in Europe. The yarns are always much higher quality than those on offer in big box craft stores in the U.S., and there’s always that personal interaction you rarely get in the big box stores.
In Montreal, I got to buy small-batch wool from local sheep – and with the name of the sheep attached to the label! In Spain, I got to buy the famous Merino yarns, actually made in the Merino region of Spain and at much more affordable prices than what we pay in America. In Portugal, I got to buy local Portuguese yarn as well, and the shawl I made while touring the country has become one of my favorite souvenirs ever.
The next time you travel, check out a local yarn shop! Even if you don’t speak the language, you’ll meet a local shopkeeper who truly knows their products. You’ll get high-quality yarn, and maybe you’ll make your own precious souvenir to help you remember a wonderful little excursion.
Bon Voyage and Happy Knitting,
Cindy
I’ve started a new travel blog, aimed at women in their “next chapter” after retirement, child-rearing, or other big life changes we all eventually face. Please check it out at www.travels-with-cindy.com.
Do you love knitting and travel? Travel through time through my fictional histories of how Knitting got to Europe and the Americas by reading my books, Knitting Through Time and Knitting Under the Orange Trees, both available in paperback and on Kindle, included in Kindle Unlimited.
Cynthia Coe is the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles and its sequel, The Knitting Guild of All Saints. Her newest novels, Knitting Through Time and Knitting Under the Orange Trees, explore how knitting spread through Europe and on to the Americas. Follow her here on the blog, at http://www.cynthiacoe.com, or on her Amazon Author Page.
Sycamore Cove Knitting 