Yarn Tourists in Tallinn

Photo from jujukerho.fi

 Ooh, I've visited heaven on earth! Keravan Käsintaitajat, our local craft association organized a day trip for us to Tallinn, Estonia, where we visited Karnaluks, an Estonian craft supply wholesale store.The store is a massive maze of boxes overflowing with yarn, embroidery threads, zippers, buttons, beads, and everything imaginable. If you ever visit Tallinn, this place is definitely worth visiting. It is easy to get to, it is close to the bus station and a few kilometres away from the port, but finding the shop entrance might be difficult for first time visitor. On any given day there is most likely a Finnish bus outside unloading crafty tourists who come from overseas especially to visit Karnaluks, so there's most likely someone outside the building at all times to tell you where the entry is in case you find it hard to locate.

Some of the supplies are incredibly low priced, but some are the same as retail prices in Finland, so if you are looking for a bargain, you better study their website well and look for the bargain deals before you go in. Note also that some of the products don't include VAT regarding you buy over a certain number of them, so keep your eyes open when checking the price tags at the location, buying 10 spools might come cheaper than buying 8, so buying in bulk pays off here!

Photo from jujukerho.fi

Here's my stash:
- 50 skeins of DMC Embroidery cotton, single color
- 25 skeins of DMC Embroidery cotton, variegated
- 6 skeins of Scholler + Stahl Filzi unspun wool yarn
- 2 skeins of Novita Huopanen unspun wool yarn (just because the color is no longer available in Finland)
- 2 zippers
- 7 skeins of Lane Cervinia's Val Gardena wool blend yarn
- 5mm crochet needle

TOTAL: 65€

The yarns I bought were close to the retail prices I'm used to paying, but the zippers, embroidery threads and the crochet needle were more than 50% less. It was well worth the trip!

Adding so much embroidery threads to my stock called for complete make over on my thread box. I spent all day yesterday organizing it but it's much neater now!

 Can't wait to start another embroidery project, my stock looks sooo much nicer now :)