Firenze

I took Tuesday off work this week and went to Florence.  It's just under an hour away from Pisa on the train so it's very easy to get to and somewhere I really ought to go to more often.  I met up with some friends and we had lunch, a walk up to San Miniato and then went to the Palazzo Vecchio which was absolutely beautiful.  Here is a photo from outside San Miniato al Monte looking down towards the Duomo:

 

As you can see it was a beautiful day and the view from the top was well worth the walk straight after lunch.

But what does this have to do with knitting you might ask?  Well hidden in via Folco Portinari, just behind the Duomo is, frankly, my idea of knitting paradise.  Number 23 is home to Campolmi Roberto Filati.  It is the most amazing yarn store I have been to.  The company has been making and selling yarn for over 50 years now and really make good-quality stuff in a vast variety of fibres and weights.  I believe that they own or rent the whole 4 storey building the shop is in and it is filled with yarn.  The public can only go into the ground floor, but even that 1 floor has enough yarn to keep even the most dedicated knitter going for decades!  I have to be very restrained when I go there and usually try to ensure I'm accompanied by at least 1 other person to stop me from diving right in and coming away with more than I can carry.

At Campolmi, you can feel the samples of the different yarns, see how the self-striping (fantasia) colourways knit up and then once you're ready to buy, just give someone a list of which yarns you want and in which colours and they'll disappear upstairs and come back to you in a few minutes with it all.  And because you're buying direct from the maker it's much cheaper than anywhere else.  The range of colours is fabulous, particularly if you just want solid colours, and they're very friendly.  They are particularly good about being patient with my terrible Italian.

I have to go there was a strict list about what I am allowed to buy.  This time I wanted cotton for a crochet bag, yarn for a cowl and yarn for a shrug.  I've already made the crochet bag (more on that another day) in a bright blue to go with a dress I have for weddings.  The cowl I will make in 50% wool 50% acrylic pink tweed and the shrug in some much finer 50% merino 50% acrylic cream DK.

I was inspired by this week's Hoxton Handmade podcast to try and incoporate some non-wool fibres into my knitting.  Acrylic is cheaper and more robust than pure wool, particularly if like me you're obsessed with the 100% superfine merino that's so lovely to knit with, but not so lovely on the bank balance if you're making anything bigger than a scarf.  The shrug I'm going to make will (hopefully) look like it's worth much more than the €15 I will have spent on the yarn to make it.  That's certainly a lot cheaper than the cardigan I recently made which is ever-so soft and warm, but needed 13 balls of rather expensive wool to knit up!  The less I think about the cost of that the better frankly.

So if you ever find yourselves in Florence and you're tired of the wonderful churches and museums, you've stuffed yourself full to bursting with gelato and you've had so much coffee you're bouncing off the walls, visit Campolmi Roberto Filati for a bit of a shop.  And after all, a couple of 100g balls aren't going to make that much of a dent in your luggage allowance for the flight home!