Thursday, April 05, 2007
Crafts go international
I went to Barcelona, Spain with my parents and sisters. All crafty in their own right, but let's just say not interested in knitting stores. I found a great link from Craftster sending me around the city in a wild chase in the elusive non-siesta hours (from 12 to 5, it seemed)
This was a little weaving and textile shop in El Poble Espanyol, which is a little village of faux Spanish buildings (think Epcot) near the Olympic stuff on the west side of town. Apparently built in 1929 for a World Exhibition, it is chock full of little craft shops with local people running their studios and selling their wares. We absolutely loved it there!
It seemed as though every little street had a milion specialty shops. Forget Joann. There were little corridor stores carrying very specific items--a store for beads, a store for Indian silk, a store for shoe-making (something I really want to do, but I'm skurrred because it involves pretty precise stuff) and the most incredible--a store for bag making. Actually, 2!! and they were both on the main street between our apartment and Las Ramblas which is the heart of the town.
This was Barcelana--a fantasic yarn shop in the Gothic neighborhood--pretty close to the picasso museum. (which is a skip in my opinion--lots of early drawings, and a few recognizable paintings, but not the greatest collection in the world.) Anyway, lots of great yarn, too bad I'm refusing to learn yet another craft--especially to knit I REFUSE!!!
Check out this embroidery! The window shopping alone was outstanding. We didn't go to any fabric stores--although one craft shop did have quilting fabric--standard country charm cottons for $20 per yard!! Ouch! The exchange rate made everything really expensive, so I bought only what I absolutely couldn't live without.
I'm going to post the addresses for the stores I went to on Craftster soon. If anyone is going and wants them now, just let me know.
I'm in NYC for work--but went to Kate's Paperie last night after training was done--I'll try to post those pics tonight if my hotel's internet connection doesn't go down again!!
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Hi there, you've got some very cool stuff here! I'm in a bit of a rush (this is my lunch break) but I'll be sure to spend some more time on your blog later on.
Keep up the good work!
I have no immediate plans for Barcelona but I'd love the addresses of those shops! Could you put them on your blog too? I can never find anything on Craftster :(