A Bluestocking Knits

I had an afternoon off — all hail the new babysitter! — so I decided to visit some yarn shops in Kowloon kid-free.

Took the MTR from Admiralty to Kowloon Bay, changing at Mong Kok — visited the Telford Shopping Plaza and found these —

Emma Woollen and GB Woollen (sister to the one in Taikoo Shing) — both bright and rather sleek, with a couple of knitters on stools and a saleslady who looked rather pleasantly surprised to see me — at GB, I bought some "Maurice" from Puppy Yarns, a silly name but a lovely single-ply wool in deep jewel tones.

Took the MTR back to Prince Edward Station and walked a few blocks to Fa Yuen Street and Double Knit, now open — quite a big place, to my surprise, with shoppers and salesladies chattering a mile a minute, representative balls of yarn in glass display cases along one side and the rest of the stock in bags and bins along the other side, swathes of samples knitted into scarves hanging from the ceiling, and I found some Jaeger Matchmaker DK on sale for $28 (US$3.60).  A ridiculous price, so I bought rather a lot….

Not far away, I found Nathan Woollen, on Siow Chin’s recommendation —

(I wish I could say that I got these policemen to stand in the doorway as a reference point, but it was a fluke, and they were too busy writing tickets to notice me.)

Obviously a family-run shop, as there seemed to be a set of parents, a daughter, and a granddaughter, a charming little miss of about three, who said "Hello!" politely, and smiled when I replied "Ni hao!"  I bought some scrumptious Noro Silk Garden #82 for HK$49 (US$6.30, retail at home about $10.50). 

I got back home in just under my allotted four hours, not too tired or hot, and very happy!