Spitting Yarn

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Before I went to Japan, I did a little research about possible crafty excursions it might be worth making while over there.

Pinku has a great list of yarn and craft stores in Tokyo here (see “News Item 3″), and Jan from over at Bemused was also kind enough to give me some tips for fabric shops to visit.

In the end, I made it to Tokyu Hands, Avril and Yuzawaya in Tokyo and a fabric store in Kyoto, which I think was called Nakamura. I could probably have squeezed in more, but sympathy for DB and fear over what it would do to my bank balance held me back.

Tokyu Hands is a fantastic store over about 7 floors specialising in everything you could possibly need for the home, DIY and crafts, including yarn and a small corner of fabric. There were things for crafts I didn’t even know existed. This store was number one on my list as I knew it was a stockist of the famed Print Gocco home screen printing device. I am so excited that I have got one now. I also picked up some paper punches with my initials and those of DB, some stickers, and 4 balls (2 red, 2 natural) of Irish linen (that well-known Japanese commodity). There were tons of other things I wanted to get, but I held back. Had I wanted to get fake grass, huge pieces of polystyrene, or a lurid orange jumpsuit, I could also have picked those up in Tokyu Hands. It’s a must-visit if you go to Tokyo.

The serious yarnaholics need to go to Yuzawaya in Kamata, Tokyo. It has other locations in Tokyo, but Kamata is the biggest. I nearly had a coronary when I saw this place – 2 entire floors full of yarn.

One section of one of the yarn floors of Yuzawaya

I wandered around feeling somewhat stressed and overwhelmed, as DB will attest. In the end I came away with three skeins of what I think is black linen (the label is in Japanese and I had some communication difficulties with the sales assistant. Linen yarn is difficult to track down in the UK, despite the fact that Ireland seems to produce copious amounts of the stuff, which is why I grabbed it when I saw it. It’s quite soft for linen – if that’s what it is!

What I haven’t mentioned is that Yuzawaya is a multi-building operation. In Kamata, there are a number of Yuzawaya stores next to each other specialising in different crafts, dried flowers, yarn, upholstery and suiting fabrics and fabrics for clothes and soft furnishings. I headed off to check out the fabrics next and walked away with this little lot:

Oh, and I picked up some ribbons.

Avril was a sweet little yarn store in Kichijoji, Tokyo. Kichijoji is a relaxed suburb and provided an interesting contrast to the frenetic pace and lights of central Tokyo. It’s the kind of place I’d like to live, if I lived in Tokyo. Avril was an added bonus. The four walls of the shop, and a central display were covered in cones and skeins and balls of yarns of numerous different fibres, including more unusual yarn incorporating nylon and washi paper. The yarns have a natural feel to them and the palette of the store more often than not veers towards black, creams and earthy colours, although that may also be a seasonal thing. I picked up a chunky skein of 50% silk, 50% wool glossy cream yarn:

Predictably, I have managed to pick up a bug, probably a plane-borne lurgy and I’m feeling under the weather, enough to warrant a day off work. I specialise in aquiring this type of illness. I won’t go into details, but on our return from our last holiday the plane touched down and I promptly filled 2 sick bags, and didn’t stop throwing up for the next 48 hours. Lovely. Thankfully, this time I just have a sore throat, tight chest and general malaise. The upside was that I had an opportunity to play with my Print Gocco. This is my first print…

It’s very easy and good fun. I see much screen printing in my future.

The plane and train journeys gave me a little knitting time. If Badcaul looks like it hasn’t grown much, that’s because I started over. I switched from cabling with a cable needle to cabling without a cable needle and the switch was obvious.

I also started off the final design in Anna’s sock set, Nautilus

Unfortunately, I think I messed the toe up, so I’ll probably be ripping this one back, too. No point wasting good Koigu, eh?

Finally, *here’s* a link to my pics from Japan. There are quite a lot! I’ll save some Japan stories for another post.