I finally found the local yarn store, and more importantly, this week I finally managed to be there when it was open. Compared to what we are used to in America, Germans have a different tradition of business hours. Shops (including grocery stores) are closed on Sundays. Many small shops, including the local yarn store, are also closed on Saturday, or are closed by noon on Saturday and by four on weekdays. Add to that the Covid lockdown restrictions, and it feels like I have spent most trips to the city center staring longingly through the window of closed shops filled with things that I would really like to look at (toy stores, pen shops, book stores, fabric stores, antique stores, etc). But I did finally manage to bike by the yarn store at a moment when they were open and the Elf King (in the pull-behind bike stoller) was in a good mood.
Fadenwohl is a lovely small yarn shop with a nice selection of commercial yarns in a variety of fibers. The current owner recently bought it from the previous long term owner, and is in the process of working through previous inventory while bringing in newer yarns. She has a small amount of lovely local wool from one producer and hopes to bring in more.
I managed to restrain myself on the wool buying front, but a display of recycled three ply cotton yarn prompted a desperate need to learn to crochet (I have no idea what came over me - I blame our echoing white walls and our second hand white Ikea furniture; I will cover it all with bright cotton doilies). So now I am watching YouTube tutorials and ripping back as often as crocheting forward, and remembering why I never crocheted back home. And yet still I can’t seem to stop. Travel is for learning something new?
I am still searching for the traditional local yarns, and for the spinners and the weavers. I have a fantasy of finding some crazy East German fiber artist collective, preferably housed in a semi-squat in one of the older industrial buildings on the outskirts of Jena, committed to preserving old fiber traditions while exploring newer ideas, and maybe some blacksmithing, and a few obscure musical instruments. Really I want to find a semi-underground Bauhaus with a fiber focus.
In the meantime, doilies.