yarn crawl, Finnish edition

My time in Finland with friends from university was lovely. I hadn't seen them since graduation 12 years ago and so catching up was lots of fun but that's for another day. 

I flew into Helsinki but did not have the time nor the inclination to visit yarn stores there - too excited! Instead, all 5 of us whipped out our "must do" lists and paired up accordingly. This way we all got to do things we each wanted to, meeting up for meals and to touch base and switch partners. Then we  bade the others farewell and Iscah and I headed north to Jyväskylä, where she presently resides. This is where my holiday really began. It's also the place I had time to visit yarn shops and get up to crafty things.

Our first stop on the yarn crawl was Poppeli

This store carried, among other things, a wide selection of no-nonsense yarns, accessories, roving for spinning and (soap) felting. The lady here gave us the low-down on the knitting scene in the area.

Next was Pikkulinna

 A yarn, fabric, needlework and so much more store.

with friendly and helpful staff.

Our third and final stop on the yarn crawl was TitiTyy 

{with Milja, knitwear designer extraordinaire}

I must confess, I was very partial to this shop; the yarns were right up my street. Unfortunately, it's the one store I didn't buy anything from. We got there half an hour before closing time, Iscah and I were both famished and I couldn't settle on what to buy :-( Sadly, going back there anytime over the next 3 days was not an option as the store was closed for Juhannus, Finland's midsummer celebrations (more on this later).

Our next (and final) stop for the day was

where I was rather excited to see this poster (dunno why) announcing that Veera's knits and pictures of her knits will be displayed in the museum from this autumn until July 2013.

A couple of other pieces of interest included the wall of second-hand dish cloths

and these

The thing I enjoyed most about the day has got to be my non-knitting friend's comments and responses to the colours, textures and layout in all three yarn shops. She was an excellent companion and a lovely crawl guide! 

Later that evening we got to play with some of the day's purchases. Soap felting is the PERFECT craft to teach newbies: quick and simple with guaranteed results.

It was a good day.