In the morning I’m up much earlier than PubGuy, intending to do the stuff he’s not interested in on my own, then meeting up for lunch before a tour of Dubalin together and the Hogeye concert at 6. The phone book and the internet agree on the existence of three yarn shops in town. Not very many for a knitting sort of country. I’m sure I can hit two before lunch, and the third is really not very far, not far at all I swear, from the medieval quarter we’ll tour together.
The first one is a real knitters shop (that means a big shop with both high-end and more affordable yarns, lots of patterns and books, tables and chairs you’re welcome to occupy for ages, and a schedule of classes posted). Springwools is out in the suburbs, which online kind of scared me because I couldn’t figure out how far it was - could be all the way to Wexford, you never know. But it mentions bus service from three of the Dubin city lines, so how far can it be ?
I take one of those nifty double-deckers. When I have time that’s one way I go see a city - just hop on a bus and go where it goes. I’d love to sit upstairs, but I don’t know what my stop is going to look like and there’s no map. No list of stops. And if nobody is getting off and there’s nobody waiting, the driver just whips on by before you realize there was ever a stop there. The driver promises to give me a yell.
Which he does, and after only ten minutes, and he even asks me just what I’m looking for. How lucky can I get : he actually knows the very place, and I would never have found it without his direction. It’s tucked away in a light industry/warehouse area, way at the back of a shared parking lot. Easy to miss. Once inside I understand the choice of neighborhood, because the retail area must take up just a small part of the business. Mostly they do mail order and stuff.
Ohhh, I could take half their stock home with me !
Must.....exercise.....restraint......The luggage is only so large.
They’ll ship.
Don’t tell me that !
Here’s our brochure of summer sales. Our website in on there ; you can order from anywhere.
This is dangerous. In fact, I’ve found their website before but I don’t like to buy yarn I’ve never seen and touched in person. The colors are never quite right, and to knit a thing I have to touch every inch of it. And now I’ve seen it, and touched it, and it’s all good.
Escaping Springwools with only moderate damage to my wallet and space still in my luggage, I take the bus back to town, sitting upstairs this time, and spend an hour strollling about the high-end shopping district. My second target doesn’t open until 11:15 (boutique-yarn indeed !)
They have some nice things, but nothing from Ireland. It’s more the Italian-Japanese-American fare you’d find in the States. What interests me most here is the collection of books of shawl patterns (plenty of patterns at Springwools, but in fact there were so many it would take ages to decide on anything). I’m keen to knit a huge wrap of some kind, a project that will take me all winter to make and result in a really special warm wearable. I’ve got just the yarn for it now I’ve been to the other shop.
So from here I leave with a pattern book, just full of things I’m eager to get started on.
It’s noon : time to meet the Brotherman. He’s « not hungry », having closed down the Irish breakfast buffet at the hotel just an hour ago. I’m ready to eat, and our street is full of small fast-food and takeout places. Indian ? Fish&chips ? Burritos ?
Burritos ?
I haven’t had a good burrito in ages. So we do. And it’s quite good, with tortilla chips made right there, and an array of fresh salsas. Funny how many nachos one can eat without being hungry.
I don’t feel too bad about my eat-local rule - this is still food I can’t get where I live.
Now for Dubalin town. We figure we’ll wander up through the medieval quarter, around the castle, across the river to the third yarn shop, down around Trinity College, and eventually to the library where Hogeye is playing at 6. I’ll just give you the photo-tour of most of that.
In fact, I'll give you the photo tour tomorrow because I just found out I wrote this post on the wrong blog, and all the uploads have to be done again. RRRRRRR
1 comment:
Only just discovered these tortilla and nacho things recently. Good, aren't they? Looked at the photos too: you make me want to go to Dublin. I only got to drive through it at night, once.
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