My husband, his sister, her husband, and I just returned from a terrific trip to Europe. We started with a 14 day cruise across the Atlantic with ports-of-call in the Azores, Scotland, Ireland, England, and France. Then we returned to Ireland for a 10 day road trip, then on to Belgium, and flying home from Brussels. Since my sister-in-law is also a quilter, knitter, and former teacher, we were never short of topics of conversation and were both eager to see the yarn and fabric shops of the places we visited. My hope was to purchase locally produced yarn wherever we could. Sheep greatly outnumbered the population in most of the areas we visited, so I was expecting to see yarn shops everywhere! Not so!
At our first port-of-call, Porta Delgada in the Azores, we finally located one shop that sold yarn but it was all acrylic from Portugal, so we both passed. Though we saw sheep throughout the Scottish Highlands, there was no yarn to be had in the small village we visited. Guess we would have to have gone to Edinburgh for that. Next trip!
The next port-of-call was right up our alley. Avoca, a small village in County Wicklow, Ireland is home to the Avoca Mill, a wonderful place to visit. Some of the most beautiful woven Irish wool is produced here and visitors are able to watch the process. The weather was fairly crisp, so buying a lovely scarf seemed like a practical idea. Enjoy the pictures! More tomorrow or the next day on our search for locally produced yarn.
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