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Saturday May 19, 2007
Maxime's rediscovered
Today - during the FA cup final (match went to extra time and Chelsea made it 1-0 at the 11th hour for those who are interested) - I went on a small tour of wool shops in the area, that I have heard about but not yet visited.
First up was Whichcraft in Cheam. They are listed as a Rowan stockist but did not have what I needed (4ply cotton - I need a couple of balls to finish Marble). Apparently they are currently ordering stocks of everything and thus a little low it seemed. But a delightful shop and I shall certainly go there again - although probably telephone first to check availability. I bought a 4.5mm crochet hook just to show willing.
Second was Maxime's, which used to be in Banstead High Street; I was devastated when I saw it had closed. However,it seems it has relocated to Carshalton - which is not quite so convenient, but nice to know it is still trading. The original owners (a delightful elderly couple) retired and sold the business.
Of course, it no longer has the old-fashioned wool shop feeling with wool toppling out everywhere and a peculiar treasure trove of ancient stock; all that is replaced with the new clean lines wool shop image - less stock of course. They had Rowan 4ply cotton in only one colour (Fennel), which luckily was one of the ones I need; even more amazing it happened to be the same dye lot, but that mattered less.
Looking at Maxime's website I see they have a knitting group - I may try and go along although I have little time. I even skipped Creative Fibres today; they were doing a workshop on papercraft (and after a week away I wanted to knit!).
Sadly, despite hugely increasing my carbon footprint in searching for wool, neither shop will stay in business if they have to rely on me (one ball of wool and a crochet hook). Still - you can only support so many woolshops that don't stock what you need.
Once back at home, I ordered a strange set of odd balls of wool from Janette's Rare Yarns, including the extra ball of 4 ply cotton. Janette sells in dollars in her eBay shop, and her prices seem very reasonable.
Posted by Christina at 10:29 PM. Category: Knitting and Crochet
