Something more cheerful - wool shopping in Germany TOLLE WOLLE

Peter and I have just returned home from a week long holiday in Germany, taking in Nuremberg and Munich (and very briefly, Frankfurt) - it was amazing: I took over 250 photos, mostly of all the stalls and their wares in the assorted Christmas markets in these cities.

Since I became so obsessed with my crochet and all things wooly a few years ago, I always try to find a couple of wool shops whenever we are abroad on holiday. It's a great chance to discover new brands or fibres to try - and so many shops also sell online nowadays so it can be handy for future purchases too ;)

The first one I visited on this holiday, and by far the best, was Tolle Wolle in Nuremberg - they have a great website too - well worth a visit online if you can't make it there in person.

A couple of photos taken from the street -- I knew it was looking like a great place to visit when I could see all the baskets full of yarns outside the shop! I took the second photo later, when I'd realised that I had been so excited and eager to get exploring the inside that I hadn't really taken a proper photo of the outside of it...so that's what it looks like early in the morning before they put the wool outside!

It's what I'd call a 'proper' wool shop - loads and loads of choice, with wool on shelves pretty much right up to the ceiling...every inch of the space is filled with wooly loveliness

The colours of everything were kind of overwhelming - to have so much choice! I could have spent the whole day in there, working my way around...

how do you choose from all this?! (and this was only part of the shop!) I really liked how the staff had already knitted/crochet items for sale too - which meant that you could see how some of the yarns worked out when you work with them; it's a really clever idea.

These are my purchases from this wonderful shop...I could have easily spent twice or three times as much in there.

 Look! the ladies behind the counter gave me this amazing shoulder bag and a gorgeous felted flower too! (I think they were surprised by how much I bought from them)

And we got this wonderful great big shopping bag to hold it all!

It was a really great little shop, full of quality yarns (I just can't abide cheap scratchy stuff) - I would have been happy to have come home with the whole shopful in my bags but we had to be conscious of the weight of it all (flying back home with RyanAir)

We did go to a couple of department stores while we were in Germany - they have the most amazing haberdashery departments, which are full of wools too: but I will put them in a separate blog post ;)