12-Day ~ Craft Markets & Fiber Adventure (Dec 2013)

Christmas Craft Markets & Fiber Adventure

Join other knitters on this wonderful journey where you'll shop for yarn at some of the best shops in Germany, Austria and Hungry. Visit the Wollmeise "Brick & Mortar" Factory Outlet Store and visit Europe's oldest, largest and most traditionally popular Christmas craft markets along the Danube. Enjoy private fiber events, sightseeing while making new friends, shopping for yarn and a knit-along cruise project with the assistance of an instructor for informal knitting fun.

Germany is fun anytime of year and visiting Wollmeise will make this wintertime adventure one to remember, but when you combine all this with the magic of the holiday season and this festive journey down Europe's most fabled waterway, you've definitely got the ingredients for the trip of a lifetime. Embark on your Christmas time journey in Nuremberg where you'll find the largest of all the Christmas markets before cruising through the region where so many of today's traditions were born. Celebrate the regional differences of enchanting places, each with its own local identity, style, flavor and tradition.

Wollmeise Yarn is unlike anything out there, extremely sought-after and hard to get in the United States. The skeins are huge, most with at least 575 yards for sock yarn and 1140 for lace-weight. Wollmeise yarn is of extremely high quality and hand-dyed using bold colors combined in ways that pop. A visit to their "brick and mortar" store, where you'll enjoy great prices, has been hyped by some as a pilgrimage not to be missed. Once you try Wollmeise this quickly becomes a favorite yarn because the quality is impeccable. This yarn is fantastic for socks, shawls, scarves and hats and this visit will most-definitely be a trip highlight.

Claudia Höll-Wellmann is a color genius and her yarn has such amazingly rich saturated colors it is very popular making it hard to get and therefore mysterious. Many people have only heard about Wollmeise but have never seen it. No picture does this yarn justice because the secret to these colors working so boldly well together is the saturation ranging from wildly gorgeous to lovely subtle tones that are nearly solid giving the resulting cloth shadow and depth.

Claudia is a passionate knitter who finds inspiration in color all around. She is always looking at the newest fashion trends, at nature and at everything she encounters in everyday life to create new colors and fabric textures. It was Claudia's love of color and not being able to find the exact shade she imagined that inspired her creation of colors for yarn that knitters seek. She now creates colors like Rhubarb that will remind knitters of the juicy leaves and shafts of fresh rhubarb.

2013 European Christmas Craft Markets & Fiber Adventure

7- Day Craft Market Cruise w/ Optional 5-Day Germany Fiber Adventure Highlights

• Great prices at the Wollmeise factory store


• Yarn crawls in Munich, Vienna and Budapest


• Guided walking tours with local guides in every port


• Meet Katharina Ritter who authored the popular knitting book "Fairytale Knits" where each unique and original design is based on different fairytales


• Feast on spaetzel and goulash while shopping for the freshest paprika in the world


• Visit an authentic German beer garden to sample locally handcrafted beer


• Visit Cafe Simon in Passau to learn about and sample Germany's oldest and tastiest gingerbread