Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (3) The other half?

After the Stitch and Bitch, I decided to walk back to my hotel. While I was poking my nose into different shop windows on the way, I saw this...

I guess someone really got a sense of humour in Tallinn, two lost gloves make one pair...

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (2) Stitch and Bitch Tallinn

There is no official Stitch and Bitch in Tallinn, but through Ravelry, we managed to meet up with some Estonian knitters. There were also some German knitters (Susann and Petra, hello!) who happened to be in town as well. So we all got together in Pronksi yarn shop in De la Gardie shopping centre.

We had so much fun together and Anu (the owner of the shop, the one who has blond hair in the photo) is really really nice. There are so many variety of yarn in the shop and many of them are in the cones. The price is also very reasonable. Next time when you are in Tallinn, make sure to check it out.

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009(1) LYS in Tallinn, Estonia

So I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia.

Growing up in the 80s, I spent my childhood watching Estonian rally to fight for their independance on the TV. Little Yarncat thought, 'this place seems to be so cold and so much chaos, I will NEVER go to places like that...' But you can never know in life. It turns out I met an Estonian girl the first day I arrived in Paris to start my European life. We have been good friends ever since. She has been asking me to go there to visit for years but I have yet done so. Now that I have decided to go on the self-employed path, I have more flexibility on my schedule. I can decide whenever I want to be on holiday. So there I go, to Tallinn to see my friend (and yarn...).

My fiber trip started from Tallinn, Estonia.
The first day I arrived to Tallinn, my friend (non-knitter) was already very well aware of the purpose of my trip===> YARN!

So my friend brought me here...

The lady who runs the shop is amazing knitter (she was knitting when I got in) and they have a huge selection of yarn from different nordic countries, Estonia, Norway, Finland, etc. The atmosphere in the shop is very nice and modern. Half of the shop is devoted to sell knitted items, Estonian shawl, sweater, hats, etc.

The shop is very crochet-friendly and felting-friendly as well. There are a lot of felting fiber and felting finished products on display.

To be honest with you, I don't remember EXACTLY the address of Joller Craft and Wool since it is in the Old Town and all the little streets are very confusing. But I can tell you it is around Väike-Karja. Go and ask people around that area, it really worths the while because the surprise is...there are two shops across the street of each other!

Across Joller, there is another yarn shop which is more old-fashioned, there are a lot of novelty yarn and stuff. But if you are into stocking up on needles, they have a huge selection upstairs. You have to ask the people downstairs to show you up in their warehouse. Addi Turbo is like 4 Euros a pair.

Knitting and Stitching Show Dublin 2009

Since I started my own cat care business, I am very well aware of the fact that holiday seasons will be the peak time of my business. I probably won't be able to spend as much time celebrating holidays anymore and even less travelling. So I decided to take a break in November and do stuff I like, which at the end, leads me to take part in whole series of yarn-related events.

I started my yarn holiday by attending a workshop at the Knitting and Stitching Show Dublin 2009.

I have attended the Lucet workshop by the Lucet master Ziggy Rytka.

The class was fun and opened my eyes to a new craft. I am looking forward to use some cords in my knitting and sewing projects in the future.

The surprising news is, I didn't even get much yarn from the show this year. First of all, there are still yarn from last year's show in my stash. More importantly, I was going to Estonia to see my friends and will visit Latvia and Finland. I knew I would have more than enough yarn to buy during this trip! (It turned out I got more than I thought I would of course...) I will tell you all about the trip in the coming days, there will be knitting tram event and knitting supermarkets I visited and so much more!

Cork City continued

The second day during our stay in Cork City, we have visited the university...

And we ran into more cats...

This is probably the biggest can of Beamish I will ever see in my life...

After passing by the Beamish factory, it reminds us to have our one drink too! The big one for the Man and the small one for Yarncat...

Cork City

So that's where we stayed in Cork.

We got a really nice view from our window. Very calm and peaceful. To me, it is very European.







The next day, as usual, we just like to relax and walk around the city. We went to the English Market.









There is even a joke store, it is so Irish.



We also walked around the market place...



there we've found them...



Can't see what I mean? There they are...



Next time, if you pass by this shop in Cork, say hi to them...

Hi after so long!

Hi everyone! (if there is still anyone out there)

Sorry for not blogging for soooooooo long. It's been really busy for the past few months as I started my cat care business since last post.

Nothing is really stable yet and I am still worried about how money is going to come in and more importantly go out.

Also, I got married a few weeks back, so it has all been crazy over at Yarncat's home!

Since I am a professional cat sitter now which means I will not be able to travel on holiday seasons, so I decided to take a break after the past few months of hard work.

I haven't done much knitting neither, but I am catching up big time. If you keep an eye on this space, tons of finished knitting projects will come up.

I started my holiday by going to Cork with my new husband.

On the way to Heuston Station, we realised there was no Luas, we didn't know what it was, we decided to walk, then we were stopped by something...



...Dublin Marathon.

It was impossible to cross the this crowd, so we waited...



I got really excited by the festive atmosphere and started taking photos for everyone...



...but the Man was annoyed...



Finally we did get to Cork...









By the time we got there, it was kind of dark already, but I know what is important, I went to Vibes and Scribes.

I got some corn fiber yarn and some alpaca yarn, my knitting inspiration started to come back to me and it turned out to be a series of incidents when whole bunch of knitting started to rush back into my life...(to be continued)