If you're a knitter in Korea, or you've looked up yarn stores in Korea at all, you've probably seen pictures and videos of the store with the giant wall of thread cones, artfully arranged by color. It's a beautiful sight. Even though I've been in Korea for 4 years, I'd never visited, until now!
The store is called 바늘이야기, or the shortened Banul for the logo. It translates literally to "Needle Story." I wasn't really sure if it would be worth the hype, since all I'd really seen of it was that one wall, and the cafe upstairs. But I booked myself a weekend alone in Seoul, and made a point to finally check it out for myself.
Blog contents:
Location info
[NAVER Map]
바늘이야기 연희점
Address: 서울 서대문구 연희로11가길 15
Phone number: 02-771-9771 (did you know that you can enter the phone number into Naver to find a business?)
How to get there:
As you can see from the maps, it's not very close to a subway station, and while you can drive there if you have a car, there isn't a lot of parking available either. Personally, I don't enjoy driving in Seoul if I can help it, and I'm recovering from a foot injury, so I opted to take a bus. If you're new to Korea or public transit in general, (hi, it was me too) don't be nervous! Just get a T-money card, look up directions in Naver, and you are set!
Yarn selection
I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and amount of yarn available in the store. It's not only beautifully displayed with great lighting, there is a wide range of weights, fibers, colors, and prices.
Natural fibers
I've gotten questions from other knitters and crocheters in Korea about where to find natural fibers, and while most of the yarns had some synthetic fibers blended in, there were still quite a few that were 100% natural fibers, such as wool, alpaca, cashmere, and cotton. They also had some of the traditional Korean paper yarn.
As you can see from the photos, some things are labeled in English, but there is still quite a bit in Korean, so if you are in Korea but haven't yet learned to read Hangeul, do it! In the case of yarn fibers, if you can just sound out the words, they will sound the same as their English equivalent, so it really will make things easier.
Additional tools and supplies
In addition to a great selection of yarns, there were quite a bit of tools and other things to complete a variety of projects.
Some, but not all were:
knitting needles
crochet hooks
buttons
safety eyes
embroidery needles
snaps
tags
bag bases and straps
rings
stitch markers
Banul Cafe
After you've gotten all your supplies, you can head up to the second floor to the cafe, which has your usual selection of drinks, and cakes that look like buttons, or ice cream that looks like yarn!
I did get a little over-stimulated trying to make a wise choice and excercise self-control with my purchase, so the cafe was a good place to unwind (and knit my gauge swatch) before getting back on the bus.
Overall opinion:
I think it's safe to say I'm a fan and will be back. I have to also give bonus points to the girl who rang up my yarn purchase for asking me if I remembered to check the dye lots on my yarn. So check it out if you get the chance, and let me know what you thought!
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