Vienna calling...

From one beautiful city viewed mostly in torrential rain to another... I spent last weekend in Vienna, the capital of Austria and former capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today it's mostly about sitting in elegant surroundings and eating cake, as far as I can tell. I was there because my husband was at a precious metal conference, and although I was on holiday, I did attend various functions involving metals types (they do mostly know how to have a good time, if you can keep conversation off the platinum price, and on another occasion we got not only Edelweiss and the Blue Danube, but also a Falco tribute act - he had 3 songs, who knew?). And by doing to had a stroke of enormous luck, for upon arrival at the restaurant where my husband was hosting a dinner on Saturday night, what did I spot but a very Viennese-ly exquisite looking yarn shop right next door?

Next day was Sunday (which I spent very happily watching these chaps), but on returning on Monday morning (husband safely stowed at the conference, listening to metals chat) I discovered I was luckier than I thought, for Wollewien (Vienna wool) had in fact opened just a week before.

 

 

It's located on what's effectively the ground floor of the Greek orthodox church next door (the other side from the restaurant), hence the Romanesque arches & decorative flourishes.

 

The shop sells what seemed to me to be the full range of Lang yarns plus pattern books (not hugely widely available in the UK, so a real treat) plus a good number of Rowan yarns (less exciting for me, but probably more exotic if you're Viennnese). They also had a really wide range of pretty yarns in the shop's own brand, which provided me with a great opportunity to test out my understanding of German words for different fibres ("Baumwolle" - tree wool - i.e. cotton - was a favourite of mine at school).

 

The shop is simply but stylishy laid out, with wavy shelving echoing the herringbone floor.

 

 

The shop lettering also had a nice Viennese Secessionist/Jugendstil flavour to it, though printing it on wine bottles does not help my habit of spelling Wien (Vienna) as Wein (wine).

 



 

As well as looking beautiful, the shop had lots of nice practical touches, For instance, as well as having sample garments, each yarn had a knitted swatch hanging from the shelf next to it.

 

 

The only gaps in the display... the three colours of Lang Asia I selected as my souvenir of Vienna, hopefully enough for a Jugendstil inspired cowl and mitts design, along the lines of the Seville set in the not so distant future.

 

 



Had a lovely chat with the proprietor, who came onto my facebook page later that morning to say Gruss Gott, and off I went into the rain with my 3 balls of Asia, plus some of their own Zakynthos yarn, made from recycled jeans cotton. It was tricky to make a selection from their own wide range, all named after Greek islands (presumably in a nod to the Greeks next door - the restaurant is also the Griechenbeisl, though the food is traditionally Austrian. And where, I must add, we were treated extremely well on Saturday), but BA's luggage restrictions helped to keep my souvenir shopping in check!

 

 

Now of course I could hardly complete a post about Vienna without a picture of some cake in elegant surroundings, so here's the genuine Sachertorte being consumed (by my husband), along with some Sacher Cuvee, in the Blue Bar at the Sacher Hotel.