Danish souvenirs

When I was in Copenhagen, I visited a couple of fabric-y, embroidery-y type stores. I had done a bit of investigating beforehand and had marked a map with places I thought that I might like to visit. All textiley, design type shops.

The first day we arrived in Copenhagen was a Sunday. Of course all the shops were shut, however, we found where Sommerfuglen (which means “butterfly” in Danish) was located, incidentally quite close to where we were staying. While I couldn’t go inside, I could see in their windows that it was a craft shop with a focus on knitting. Their window displays were very enticing, so I would definitely need to come back on another day when they were open!

I made my way back there another day, and enjoyed choosing myself a souvenir. They had a range of kits for making cute little knitted things. The kits were designed by Tina Vejlø Andersen, and there were a few that really caught my eye. The one that ended up coming home with me was Nisser, which translates as pixies/gnomes/elves. With the wool that was included in the kit, I thought I might be able to make myself a couple to hang on the Christmas tree as decorations.

Now that I’m home I’ve been knitting them in the evenings. First, though, I had to translate the instructions from Danish! Fortunately Google Language tools was very helpful in that regard. My expected two gnomes turned into six, and then I finished the red wool. I finished putting them all together last night, and then hand-felted them in the bathroom sink today. They’re very cute. I enjoyed making them, and I’ll enjoy having them on the tree this year.

“Nisser” designed by Tina Vejlø Andersen. Each one is about 10cm tall.

On another day, I had a few hours when my family was off elsewhere and had the key to the apartment, so I had to amuse myself. And amuse myself I did! I visited Handler, at Vingårdstræde 19. This is a shop that sells ribbons, braids, elastics, zips and other haberdashery. And they have a very very large range! There are two rooms and they’re both full of lots of fun stuff!

I had spent nearly all the Danish kroner that I had with me earlier that day on books at Greve Museum, and had precisely 26 kroner left. That’s not much. 🙂

I selected a number of ribbons and purchased a metre of each, totalling exactly 26 kroner. Before I let the lady cut them, I asked her to check the coins I had, seeing I wanted to make sure I could pay for the ribbons she was about to cut me. She probably thought I was mad!

I asked permission to photograph the shop. Some shop owners are really weird about that sort of thing, and do not like it at all. However, some are very happy for you to go ahead and post on your blog or Facebook (which let’s face it, that’s what you’re likely to do if you want to photograph in a shop! I can’t see all that many people blowing the photo up huge and sticking it on their wall to admire every day…) Anyway, this shop owner was very happy for me to take a photo, and as I went out the shop door, she shoved a business card in my hand to make sure I had ALL their details! That’s good business sense!

The ribbon and braid room

I like the idea of sewing/embroidery/craft supplies as souvenirs. They’re the sorts of things that are generally small and light, depending on what you choose! And it’s a nice way of working vacation memories into something you make.