…..London, England 9 787 426 people…..
…..Trondheim, Norway 181 513 people….
When moving to London for the first time more than 8 years ago I was so surprised to find that there were less yarn shops in this enormous city than there were in my Norwegian home town. This has changed somewhat over the years, a few new shops have opened in both cities, and a few have disappeared. Earlier this summer, getting ready for our yearly summer holiday back home it occurred to me that I haven’t been yarn shopping in Trondheim for ages. Inspired by the Great London Yarn Crawl, which is happening later this September here in London, I decided to ‘re-discover’ my home town and venture out on a mini yarn crawl of my own.
I wanted to visit some of my old favourites and I heard about a new shop as well, so I created a route including four shops in central Trondheim. The walking distance between them from the first shop to the last is about 15 min.
These were on my list:
Jens Hoff Garn og idé
Trondheim Torg (shopping centre)
Kongensgt 11
, 7013 Trondheim
http://jenshoff.no
Strikke-Bua
Prinsensgate 45, 7011 Trondheim
http://www.strikke-bua.net
Garnhuset
Fjordgata 62-64, 7010 Trondheim
(no website I’m afraid)
Nøstebarn
Fjordgata 28, 7010 Trondheim
http://nostebarn.no
Jens Hoff is a chain of shops, five in total, in and around Trondheim. Their range of yarns is amazing, they’ve got absolutely everything! I’ve visited the one located in the shopping centre Trondheim Torg, and even though I’ve been there before I was struck by how much they have, I’m sure you could fit everything that all of us yarn shops in London have into this one shop.
Strikke-Bua is the new kid on the block! Run by two sisters, it is a more contemporary yarn shop comparing it to ‘the old ones’. Not as overwhelming as Jens Hoff, it is easy to get the overview of what they stock and they are quick to offer you some good advice. I particularly like that when asking how much I would need of something to complete this or that project they could show me finished garments made by themselves to compare the different yarns, nothing beats the advice given by an experienced knitter.
Garnhuset was the third on my list, and unfortunately a visit that left me a bit sad. You see, this used to be my favourite. This shop is huge, and it used to be an emporium of everything knitting. In addition to the yarn, they used to carry amazing hand made creams and lotions for tired hands and other natural cosmetics, hand crafted interiors like huge baskets and chests for your projects and yarns, crafty gifts like jewellery and such, books, all sort of needles and buttons, and best of it all it was an independent shop that was actually making it! Now, I might have the wrong impression being in the middle of the summer, but it all looked a bit empty, yes, even a few shelves that were completely empty. So if you happen to be in Trondheim, please visit this shop and give them your support, remember that this is the only way we can keep our independents, by actually shopping there!
The final shop I visited brought back warm memories about being a new mum (ages ago). This is the company that revived cloth nappies and the use/benefits of natural fibres for baby skin in Norway. Starting out as a tiny family run business Nøstebarn has now grown to a chain of shops as well, located in several of Norway’s cities. I remember how I as a new mum had their lovely products brought to me via mail order, how I wrote emails asking for this and that, and how I always received wonderful personal responses. It was such a joy to visit their Trondheim branch and see all their amazing products beautifully displayed.
And yes, did I say shopping? I certainly did, have a look at what I brought home with me:
It’s my first day back at work typing this up, and along with my mini yarn crawl pictures I’ve flickered through pictures from the rest of our holiday. I’m sitting here with a smile on my face, thinking that this was a good one, I’m back invigorated, relaxed, and ready for the ever so busy autumn. I didn’t get around to do as much knitting as I hoped, but it really doesn’t matter, I still had a wonderful time. How about you, how’s your summer knitting coming along? Did you share your project with us on Instagram? If not there’s still a chance to get your name in the hat. Share your summer knits using #kwasummer to win summery goody bags from Knit with attitude, but be quick, I’m drawing the winners in two days, Wednesday August 27th.
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