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kniteracyOn Tuesday, some of the women from the local knitters' guild took a visitor to Singapore, M, around to some local yarn shops, and I tagged along, since I hadn't been to the two they were starting out with. So now I guess I've seen almost every yarn shop in Singapore, and I'm prepared to give a shop review.
Tell us about yarn shops in Singapore, Harper.
Well, hands-down the best yarn shop in town is Golden Dragon, in Chinatown, because they offer an interesting variety of yarns and they carry clover needles. They also have crosstitch and other craft supplies, but yarn takes up most of one wall of the store. They also have a bargain bin that has some nice stuff in it. It's hard for me to do price comparisons, but they had Butterfly, a Greek stranded cotton yarn, for about $15S/skein, which works out to £5 or roughly $10 US, for enough dk/sport weight yarn to make a complete pair of socks. I forgot to note down the amount of yarn in the skein, but enough to make a pair of socks is definitely worth £5. It's in People's Park Centre in Chinatown.
Second would have to be the little place E. took me to in Ang Mo Kyo, because they had a really nice sock weight wool/nylon blend in really nice colours for $3.50S/50 gram skein, which is just a hair over a pound, or about $2US for a skein. So that's $4USD for a pair of socks. :) It comes in great vareigated colours, too. This same shop had lots of Rowan yarns at good prices as well.
I also really like Spotlight, the Australian chain craft store, which has a big store in Plaza Singapura. They have a great selection of Australian wool, particularly Patons and Cleckheaton brands, at very good prices. I intend to stock up before we leave Singapore. The cleckheaton is about $3.50S per 50 gram skein for dk/sport weight.
The other four yarn stores I've visited all have similar stuff, and they are very, very small. The smallest of them is in the Golden Landmark Centre, close to where we live. This shop has a variety of European yarns at decent prices, but it's really more like a yarn closet, and the language barrier is pretty intense. The day I visited there, there were four women taking a class of some kind, and most of the yarn I was interested in appeared to be in the owner's office. I haven't been back, but I may go, because she carries socka sock yarn, and I can only ever find Regia in the UK. The shop at Tanglin Mall I didn't wander around in too much because I was with folks who weren't so interested in yarn shopping, but I've made a note to go back there.
And now we come to the two stores we visited yesterday, one of which claimed to be having a sale. Their price on the variegated Butterfly cotton was lower than Golden Dragon's, and they had some things in a 30% off bin that were nice, but I couldn't afford enough yarn to make a jumper for my son Tuesday, which is what I'd want to do next. The first store was at Jurong East. The second store was at Jurong Point, and it was a big disappointment-- well laid out, but with almost no selection to speak of.
All in all, I still miss American yarn stores. Mostly, Singapore yarn stores make me miss English yarn stores, if you can believe that. ;-)
Did you say you finished a pair of socks?
Why yes; yes, I did. They're for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
folkmew, and they're made out of that same stranded cotton from Greece that I mentioned earlier.
These are made from the guidelines given in Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy, which is among the best books about socks I have. They were knitted cuff down, with Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' signature short row heels and toes. Because they are made from cotton, I made them ribbed all the way down to increase elasticity, and their elasticity worked pretty well when I put one of them on my own foot for testing purposes after it was completed. Don't worry,folkmew, they've been washed and are hanging to dry right now, before I send them off to you (by the way, I need your postal address).
And what's this about a class?
Well, I miss teaching knitting. I miss it a lot. I wish there were a way I could do it in London, but there really aren't a lot of knitting resources there, despite what you may think if you don't live there-- you'd think a country with so many damn sheep would have plenty of yarn shops and wool, wouldn't you? But nooo. Anyway, this afternoon, E and C, two of the Singapore knitting guild ladies, will be coming over to learn how to make two socks at once on double-pointed needles. I am armed with copies of the Double Trouble Socks pattern (alas, the pattern is housed on a Tripod page, which means popups galore), and we'll talk about making toe-up socks and variations you can make on this pattern to make the joins a little bit smoother. I'm expecting them around three this afternoon, which gives me enough time to run down to Bread Talk and buy some goodies so there'll be snacks here for them to eat when they arrive. And make photocopies, I suppose. Yes, photocopies would be good. At this point I'm wishing I had made an extra copy of the pages from last class, so I could just get another photocopy of those made and not have them copied out of the book. Hm. Anyway, looking forward to that, and since we're working inside the flat, I'll even be able to wear jeans!
And there's all the knittin' news. :)
Tell us about yarn shops in Singapore, Harper.
Well, hands-down the best yarn shop in town is Golden Dragon, in Chinatown, because they offer an interesting variety of yarns and they carry clover needles. They also have crosstitch and other craft supplies, but yarn takes up most of one wall of the store. They also have a bargain bin that has some nice stuff in it. It's hard for me to do price comparisons, but they had Butterfly, a Greek stranded cotton yarn, for about $15S/skein, which works out to £5 or roughly $10 US, for enough dk/sport weight yarn to make a complete pair of socks. I forgot to note down the amount of yarn in the skein, but enough to make a pair of socks is definitely worth £5. It's in People's Park Centre in Chinatown.
Second would have to be the little place E. took me to in Ang Mo Kyo, because they had a really nice sock weight wool/nylon blend in really nice colours for $3.50S/50 gram skein, which is just a hair over a pound, or about $2US for a skein. So that's $4USD for a pair of socks. :) It comes in great vareigated colours, too. This same shop had lots of Rowan yarns at good prices as well.
I also really like Spotlight, the Australian chain craft store, which has a big store in Plaza Singapura. They have a great selection of Australian wool, particularly Patons and Cleckheaton brands, at very good prices. I intend to stock up before we leave Singapore. The cleckheaton is about $3.50S per 50 gram skein for dk/sport weight.
The other four yarn stores I've visited all have similar stuff, and they are very, very small. The smallest of them is in the Golden Landmark Centre, close to where we live. This shop has a variety of European yarns at decent prices, but it's really more like a yarn closet, and the language barrier is pretty intense. The day I visited there, there were four women taking a class of some kind, and most of the yarn I was interested in appeared to be in the owner's office. I haven't been back, but I may go, because she carries socka sock yarn, and I can only ever find Regia in the UK. The shop at Tanglin Mall I didn't wander around in too much because I was with folks who weren't so interested in yarn shopping, but I've made a note to go back there.
And now we come to the two stores we visited yesterday, one of which claimed to be having a sale. Their price on the variegated Butterfly cotton was lower than Golden Dragon's, and they had some things in a 30% off bin that were nice, but I couldn't afford enough yarn to make a jumper for my son Tuesday, which is what I'd want to do next. The first store was at Jurong East. The second store was at Jurong Point, and it was a big disappointment-- well laid out, but with almost no selection to speak of.
All in all, I still miss American yarn stores. Mostly, Singapore yarn stores make me miss English yarn stores, if you can believe that. ;-)
Did you say you finished a pair of socks?
Why yes; yes, I did. They're for
folkmew, and they're made out of that same stranded cotton from Greece that I mentioned earlier.These are made from the guidelines given in Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy, which is among the best books about socks I have. They were knitted cuff down, with Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' signature short row heels and toes. Because they are made from cotton, I made them ribbed all the way down to increase elasticity, and their elasticity worked pretty well when I put one of them on my own foot for testing purposes after it was completed. Don't worry,
folkmew, they've been washed and are hanging to dry right now, before I send them off to you (by the way, I need your postal address). And what's this about a class?
Well, I miss teaching knitting. I miss it a lot. I wish there were a way I could do it in London, but there really aren't a lot of knitting resources there, despite what you may think if you don't live there-- you'd think a country with so many damn sheep would have plenty of yarn shops and wool, wouldn't you? But nooo. Anyway, this afternoon, E and C, two of the Singapore knitting guild ladies, will be coming over to learn how to make two socks at once on double-pointed needles. I am armed with copies of the Double Trouble Socks pattern (alas, the pattern is housed on a Tripod page, which means popups galore), and we'll talk about making toe-up socks and variations you can make on this pattern to make the joins a little bit smoother. I'm expecting them around three this afternoon, which gives me enough time to run down to Bread Talk and buy some goodies so there'll be snacks here for them to eat when they arrive. And make photocopies, I suppose. Yes, photocopies would be good. At this point I'm wishing I had made an extra copy of the pages from last class, so I could just get another photocopy of those made and not have them copied out of the book. Hm. Anyway, looking forward to that, and since we're working inside the flat, I'll even be able to wear jeans!
And there's all the knittin' news. :)
