Thursday, June 09, 2011

Bologna for Knitters

It is not very difficult to find yarn and thread in Bologna, Italy. My two favorites are Casa della Lana and Filato Monterosa, two very different shops within easy walking distance of the apartment that is home for a week.

Casa della Lana, on via Augusto Righi at via Gugliemo Oberdan, looks like a women's clothing store from the outside, but on the inside, the shelves are stocked with lovely yarn, mostly Italian. The very finest lace weight is all together. The other yarns are arranged by color, which is not normally my favorite arrangement, but it works here.



Filati Monterosa, on via G. Marconi at about via Parigi, has some yarn but its selling point with me is threads of all varieties, brands, weights, and colors.


I won't list what I bought but it was difficult going down from "one of everything, please" to what will fit in my suitcase.

Buying yarn may be easy but needles, not so much. Yarn shops have some needles, mostly long straight ones. You also can buy needles in mercerie, shops that sells notions such as sewing thread (but usually not fabric), pins, ribbons, buttons, women's underwear, zippers, some crochet threads, embroidery threads, and crochet and knitting supplies (but usually not yarn, except in small towns where mercerie function for both notions and yarn). I am looking for 1.5mm circular needles; so far, 2.0mm is the smallest I have found. Guess I have more shopping to do.

6 comments:

Michael and Nancy Morrell said...

Great photos. Captured the moment.

Bridget said...

Please for the love of God, go someplace boring and awful sometime. You're killing me here!

Jan Crews said...

Sue, saw this post in mid-May, 2012, while in Bologna. Thanks for posting this. I walked into Casa della Lana, speaking minimal Italian. The two Italian-speaking ladies called a clerk from the back who spoke enough English to help me. I told her I wanted some Italian yarns that I couldn't find in the States. She pointed me to several, and even showed me how she casts on one particularly unique yarn. I was thrilled. Thanks for posting!
Jan
Ravelry: jaycie622

Maria said...

I was in Bologna with my family at Christmas visiting our daughter at SAIS. I knew where this shop was on the map and chanced upon it as we walked back from the train station one evening. The lady was so helpful in helping me choose some Italian yarns. I was so excited!
Maria
Ravelry: Malucruz

prcarlo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
prcarlo said...

Hi, this is link of Casa della Lana blog:
http://casa-della-lana-bologna.blogspot.com/p/english.html