So this Friday instead of going into the office I got up a little later & headed into central London with Fi to attend the knit & stitch show. IT WAS FANTASTIC! There were loads of different stalls there, we started with the colleges, who had a really unusual selection of gowns/materials on show.
We then moved onto the yarn stands, there were some fantastically colourful stalls, my favourite of which was Coolree, a one man business from Ireland who spins and dyes the yarns himself. A purchase from here was inevitable.
Beautiful yarns to be sure! There were also some fantastic patchwork stalls:
(You may notice a slight chicken theme going on here…)
We then went onto the 2nd hall where Fi made friends with a beret wearing vampire bee…
And we found some prime examples of when felting goes too far
Check out the hat! The actual stand was amazing all the work was all based around a little mermaid so there were some fantastical fish
My favourite being this sinister looking shark inside a pirate hat
And an octopus that looked uncannily like Mick Jagger
As well as some Barnacle/shell specimens (the barnacle covered item is actually a dress)
After some serious shopping (mostly yarn, details at the end of the post) we stopped by the quilters guild exhibition to admire the beautiful quilts on display (the below were my two favourites, a tropical reef and some fireworks).
We then headed off to rather nice pub The hand and flower for a reviving glass of merlot,
sock clinic and to admire our purchases. Fi had not managed to supress the yarn fumes from Coolree either and ended up with two beautiful skeins (perfect for demonstrating the concept of yarn beard)
Attention was then turned to the sock clinic, long time readers may remember me starting this sock 2 years ish ago for Jam, this is the year it and its as yet unknitted friend get finished, oh yes!
And with the heel done (result) and the wine gone (boo) we said goodbye to Olympia
(note the new routemaster, which looks awesome) and headed back to Paddington to catch the slow train home. With such a smorgasbord of yarny/fabric delights what did I buy, I hear you shout? Well I was slight negligent of most of the patchwork fabric, just because I’ve put our bedroom quilt on a bit of a backburner plus I couldn’t get close enough to most of the stalls to really separate out the patterns. But in the yarn stakes there were several major scores.
This was probably my buy of the day, some beautiful pure silk from Coolree, hand dyed in Wexford Ireland, the colour is called gale force grey and I love it. It is destined to become a lace shoulder wrap.
I had to look twice at the label for this particular yarn as its called Arucania.
With a couple of these at home (Arucana’s Esme, pictured and her sister Carmen, the colour of my two is called Lavender) you can probably see why the purple Arucania yarn was calling me. This is destined for a pair of long gloves, very probably featuring cables.
I also stumbled across fantastic fabric/inspiration/general joyous publication selvage at the show for the first time as all back issues were half price I came away with a couple.
A silly purchase but one I love, some fake purple/silver fur, I’m thinking I may use some of it to make a hand muff to match a purple coat I already have, the rest will probably be utilised trimming various things (you can never have too much purple).
Last but not least (and my first purchase of the day) was this selection of ribbons.
So with all that tasty swag in my bag I should be kept out of trouble for a bit. Massive thanks to Fi for being my companion for the day and Janey (who couldn’t make it hence why I ended up going). I had such a fab time I think next year we may well be a party of three…
