Knitting and Stitching Show

I was a bit late photographing my purchases yesterday, hence not posting the pictures til today.  We had a good day.  The drive down was uneventful as you would wish it to be. We parked and had time for a coffee before our timed entry. A vaccine passport or negative test was the requirement for entry so it made you feel more comfortable to know that the risk of infection was minimal.  The stalls were well spaced out, which meant there were a lot less vendors but the stalls all looked to be doing good business.  We did pop on masks on some of the busier stalls rather than run the risk.

I bought a sweaters worth of yarn to make a cardigan for me.  And of course I couldn’t resist a couple of skeins from Pigment and Ply, such beautiful yarn.  These will become shawls at some point.  I actually have a fair bit of “posh” yarn now so I need to match them to patterns and get knitting. But first the cardigan. 

Sod 60!!

Yesterday was my 60th birthday.  

60! I still can't quite believe it.  

When I was younger 60 was old.  

I'm told now that 60 is the new 40.  

I certainly don't feel 60 and I don't think I look 60, others may disagree!!

To help me get over the fact that I have reached the next decade, my family spoiled me rotten.  On Saturday evening Peter and the girls took me out for cocktails and dinner which was great and yesterday I got to spend the day with my wonderful grandchildren and their parents.  We had a 50's style lunch party complete with sausages on sticks, cheese and pineapple (whats not to love) and even a game of pass the parcel!!  I love to see the children's faces when they hope they won't have to let that parcel go, of course there was a gift for everyone. 

Talking of gifts this was one of mine, hence the title of the post

I also have 3 trips to look forward to -  first being a day out in London at the Knitting & Stitching show with Rachel on 5 March.  Then Chelsea Flower Show with Rebecca in May. Followed by 10 days in New York with Peter in June. See what I mean spoiled.

I had so many flowers, my sitting room looks like a florist shop, all beautiful, different.

from Rufus and Laurie

 Daffodils from Jessica

From Rebecca and Tim

From Andy & Mel

from Judy & Stephen

 Then finally....... this beautiful birthday cake made by Stu's aunt Beckie, such a talented lady.  I have tried to take photos from every angle so you can see everything on it.  Laurie was fascinated by the scissors, everything is edible..... so much sugar

The cake is a rich fruit with marzipan and the balls of yarn are chocolate truffles!!  It was a real shame to cut it.  The perfect end to a perfect day

In black

My mood hasn't been that great over the last few weeks, understandable as you can imagine.  So to match my mood I knitted in black, not my favourite colour to knit especially in night light.  However, I am pretty pleased with how this shawl turned out.

The pattern is Reyna, and the only change I made was to do a picot cast-off as the pattern cast-off is very plain.

The yarn I used was some I bought at the show in March.  An aran weight thick/thin yarn

Tickets have been purchased for the October show and I need to check stash, see what I "need", who am I kidding, I'll end up buying whatever takes my fancy!  So watch this space to see what I buy

Knitting - Spring Knitting and Stitching Show

Yesterday was the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show outing with Rachel.  We had a wonderful day, full of chatting, sunshine (all day), yarn, good food. and ................ scroll down for the and

The show -

My purchases - the Filati da Collezione yarn was from the Abakhan stand all 3 packs for £22.99.  The only problem I can see with it is that it doesn't tell you the name or weight of the yarn so I will have to break a rule of a lifetime and knit a tension swatch to find out what it is! If anyone recognises any of it then please let me know.

100% organic cotton

30% wool and mixed fibres

50% wool and 50% acrylic - yummy colour

50% merino 50% acrylic

And dress shopping for the wedding - so hard.  I did actually find a dress I like, in fact I have three at home now, two of which will go back, the choosen dress, I now need to find a smart cardigan or jacket to go with. As the wedding is a casual affair to be held in our garden I don't want to go over the top but would like to look half way decent!! I'll keep you posted on what I decide.

A yarny day out

The annual Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace has come around again.  We went yesterday and had a great time.  Stayed the longest we ever have. Possibly bought more than usual, though maybe not. We took a newbie with us yesterday - Jan, who is Stuart's mum, she's not a knitter but loves to sew. There was plenty there for her to enjoy.

Rachel wearing her new top.  Lots of admiring glances, though it may have been for
the baby bump

The first thing to greet us with this yarn bombed taxi - great job Cate and Co.

The picture quality is brilliant as I only took my small Sony, as this fits easily into my bag, but I have no lens control, basically what you see is what you get.

Black Sheep Wools - what did I buy more on that later

Some aisles were a bit of a crush

Toft Alpaca's knitted toys

No sorry I will not make this!

Jan purchased one of these kits

Interesting!!!!!!

 Then a walk through some of the design and needle art displays

Rachel's top was much admired, in fact one lady saw her earlier in the day, then came back to "find" us so I could tell her the name of the pattern and yarn.  She was very complimentary, its great feeling.  Another lady felt it was perfectly acceptable to stroke Rachel's baby bump, she was actually lucky that Rachel didn't deck her!  What makes people think they can do that?

So on to the purchases - these were from Black Sheep Wools, I love their yarn piles

100% wool - £19.99 reduced from £29.90

80% bamboo 20% wool - £16.99 reduced from £39.90

85% cotton 15% kapok - £19.99 reduced from £49.90

 Then on to the buttons, some bright fun ones for a change

4 packs for £10

perfect fit

 Then just some acrylic for a couple of projects on my list

Next, we saw this dress knitted up and Rachel really admired it.  So being a good Mummy I said I would knit it for her.  She purchased pattern and yarn immediately. There is just enough detail to stop it getting boring, plus aran weight so should be a fairly quick knit.

Jan and Rachel bought lots of fabric for a baby quilt and mobile.  We actually got a bit fabric'd out by the end of the show. As usual we ended the day with dinner in Green Lanes. Same restuarant, same meal, we daren't go off piste for fear of being disappointed, and at this place we never have been.

It was a great day out and many thanks to Rachel for driving us and to Jan for joining us, hope you both enjoyed your day as much as I did.