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Shaken by two terrible earthquakes in recent history, Christchurch has rebuilt itself magnificently and is still a truly relaxed city, brimming with old-worldly architecture inter-spaced between beautiful modern, crisp glass buildings. Oh, and did I mention they have their own wizard? Whom I managed to insult by thinking he was Gandalf… oops!
[usrlist “Number of Brands Stocked:3” “Size of Store:5” “WOW-Factor:2” “Knit and Natter:0”]
*I didn’t attend a Knit and Natter at this venue.
There’s something about Christchurch that’ll get you hooked so quickly: from the Cardboard Cathedral to the to the Spanish-style New Regent Street. While New Zealand will forever hold a piece of my heart, there’s no place quite like Christchurch…
I love the fact that each street name is a salute to a UK town or city, and on our hunt for free parking, we found Peterborough Street. A was more than impressed as this is his UK hometown, whereas I was thrilled by the fact I had just stumbled upon my first yarn store!
Knit World is located at 189 Peterborough St, Christchurch Central, Christchurch 8013, New Zealand.
First off, let me tell you, that [at the time of writing] Peterborough Street was the only place we could find with free parking in all of Christchurch. Lucky for me, it also meant that we parked right outside the doors to Knit World, and didn’t have far to walk to the City Centre afterwards. It was a roaster of a day, so I’m glad my amount of walking was minimised! But it didn’t mean I was going to stop myself from handling lots of wooly goodness.
If there’s one thing that New Zealand has a lot of – its sheep. I used to laugh when people used to sarcastically say that NZ had more sheep than people – until I went there, and realised it was most probably an understatement. Unlike in the UK, sheep here graze more close together in more ‘compact’ fields. Sometimes you can’t tell sheep apart they’re cuddled up so close! But NZ has a lot of open spaces, so even on a quick to-the-corner-shop drive, you could find at least 3 different types of farm animal grazing along your route.
Knit World is a chain, which I can only assume is the way that it keeps prices so low- thanks to the economies of scale associated with buying in bulk… and it sure does stock a lot of wool. Among the huge shelves, I found some of this cool scrubby yarn which is becoming a global phenomenon for making dishcloths.
The shop is huge, and the selection is vast. I was surprised when I found a large box of Ice Yarns next to the door all the way from Turkey! The selection here is truly global.
However, while you might find New Zealand in general, more British than American (for obvious reasons), a lot of their grocery products, chocolates and confectionery are mainly shipped over from the US – as its one of the closest land masses! But at Knit World you’ll struggle to find US brands, and instead find UK brands such as Debbie Bliss and Patons, albeit in smaller quantities, squished inbetween some truly Kiwi yarns. Zealana, Tree Children and Crucci featured prominently on the shelves, next to their Australian brothers: Panda and FiddleSticks Cake Yarns.
Not bad keeping in touch with their British cousins only…. what, 11,000 miles away?!
Everything is sorted by weight so its easy enough to walk up to a section and pick out exactly the right yarn first time (that’s obviously assuming that you’re in the 1% of the global population who only buys the yarn that they need! Ha!) and the store also runs regular Knit and Natter sessions so you can take a project and brush up on your knit/crochet skills over a Jaffa!
Overall, the shop was nice, the people were all Kiwis (so obviously that means they were super friendly and willing to help!) and beautifully decorated with the odd spattering of knitwear. Even the shop display is super cute!
The personal touches in this store mean that you might actually be a little surprised to find that this is in fact 1 store of 10 spread out over both the North and South Islands. I’d definitely pop in again!
And I definitely plan on popping back to Christchurch… here are some of my photos for you to enjoy!
Have you ever visited any Knit World store? What was your experience like? Can you recommend any other Knit and Natters for me to crash? I’d love to hear your experiences with these types of groups- how they can be made better and what you like most about them? How do they help you with your mental health?
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