Making friends - the Knitters way

A series of random late night tweets one night and I found myself gatecrashing a yarn crawl in London - visiting new-to-me yarn shops and making great yarny friends into the bargain.

A wall of wool, at Prick Your Finger

The route was carefully planned to include Prick Your Finger, Loop, Knit with Attitude and Wild and Woolly, ending in a pub - of course - and a knitting quiz.

The perils of childcare meant that I could only stay for the first 2 shops but the carefully planned itinerary meant that I was able to duck out after Loop and catch a bus back to Liverpool St.

Prick Your Finger was a shop I had heard much about but hadn't yet visited and so I was really pleased that we went there first. The owner, Rachel was really welcoming and we spent a happy time browsing her beautiful collections of yarn. She has a passion for supporting British and local producers and that really shone through in her choice of yarns. John Arbon, Excelana, Blakcer Yarns and others were all wonderfully displayed. She also stocks, buttons, jewellery, drop spindles and much more and we could have spent much longer there.

My carefully curated haul - much joy

Mini skeins kindly gifted by Amelia

Specially made stitch markers by OfBlitheSpirit

Next on the list was Loop in Islington. A true 'destination' yarn shop I had been to Loop once or twice before but I never pass up the opportunity to go and this time I was on a mission. I want to make the Laneway tunic by Veera Valimaki in grey and I knew that Loop stocks an impressive collection of The Uncommon Thread's sockweight yarn. No one does grey quite like Ce Ce and I was indeed spoilt for choice. Indeed I fear I embarrased myself somewhat by laying out all the different shades on the floor to better examine them.

Anyway, after much deliberating I made my selection and spent the rest of the visit with them clutched protectively to my chest. It was lovely to chat to the staff there and to put names to faces. The yarn crawl continued without me after that but I know that they had a great time - check out the hashtag #4plyyarncrawl on Twitter and Instagram to see what we got up to.

The midway point: Our collective haul

Huge thank you to Rae, Amelia and Alitzah for making the day such fun - we will have to do it again soon.

xx

Fibre East 2015

I was really pleased to be able to go to Fibre East this weekend. I have been planning to go for several years now but the fates had always intervened. This year though, I was determined even though it meant going en famille after a busy preceding day at Whipsnade Zoo.

Sunday was unfortunately the wetter of the two days but we were undeterred (we holiday in the Lake District so rain doesn’t faze us) and we managed to see most of the vendors there. The lovely volunteers and organisers did a great job of directing us to make sure we didn't miss anyone out and I was pleased to be able to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones.

Fibre East 2015: Purchases

My first stop was with Rachel of Porpoise Fur as my fluff stash has been seriously depleted and I am keen to keep up with my spinning practice. I was also intrigued to notice that Rachel has an upcoming fibre club starting in September. With a celebration of women in science it seems tailor made for me and so I'll be saving my pennies from my birthday money for that one.

The Knitting Swede Stride sock yarn: Robin Red Breast

 I finally managed to buy some much coveted self striping yarn from the Knitting Swede after a protracted and heated debate with my sons, both of whom were very keen to join in with the stripy sock love. I wanted the yarny yumminess all to myself but they had very definite ideas. However, with some judicious use of grey yarn from stash for heels/cuffs I reckon I can eke out the yarn to provide socks for both me and one boy from 1 skein of yarn - we will see.

Yarns from the Plain Chelford sock yarn: Peaches & Apricot

It was a delight to meet up with Nic and see her relatively newly launched range of hand dyed yarns - Yarns from the Plain. I had seen some of her work online but in person it was a beautiful display with some very tempting bases and colours. I was very drawn to the blue/green shades of her Netherley Alderley base in the colourway Sassenach - no surprises there then and I also picked up a lovely skein of Chelford superwash sock yarn in the Peaches & Apricot colourway for a gift I am planning.

All in all it was a great day and now I just need to find more time in the day to knit All The Things.