Mother and I spent a very enjoyable day yesterday at the Knitting and Stitching Show at the NEC near Birmingham. I didn’t go to this show last year when it started so this was my first time, and it wasn’t quite what I expected. I had been expecting basically the same exhibitors as go to Ally Pally and so was initially rather disapointed by the noticeable lack of some exhibitors, particularly Get Knitted and Jamieson’s who I had on my list of people I wanted to visit. All was not lost however, I discovered some new-to-me gems, and some old favourites, and had an unexpected opportunity to catch up with friends who I hadn’t realised were going to be there. All in all a very good day 🙂

Now onto the important subject of what did I buy 🙂 First up the books and magazines:

From left to right we have: Knitted Lace by Sonja Esbensen and Anna Rasmussen bought from The Home Workshop. This is a book of lace doilies, but I thought that knitted up in thicker yarn on larger needles they would make very nice shawls. Next is Designing Worksheets: Presentation Techniques for Textile Students by Jan Messent, bought from a company I now can’t remember the name of – something like Yorkshire Book Company (apologies to them for my utter lack of brain). This is to help with my City & Guilds course – presentation is something I find very difficult. Next along is the April 2005 edition of Lace, the magazine of the Lace Guild. They were giving away old issues for free and this one had photographs of the most fantastic knitted lace in it. They also had the original lace framed on the walls of the booth – very beautiful. Lastly on the right I finally have my copy of issue 2 of Yarn Forward Magazine.

Next up the yarn:

The packet of white yarn underneath is Spree by Sirdar (chunky weight, 60% cotton, 40% acrylic). This is going to be a surprise for a friend of mine. I’m not sure that she reads the blog but just to be on the safe side it is going to stay a secret for a while. I had a lovely discussion about this project with a very nice Irish lady and her daughter, and have got some good ideas that I need to try out now. The bottles at the back have nozzles and I thought I would get them to play with dyeing some yarn, they are from Art Van Go. The cone and the skein are both from Riverside Spinning (he doesn’t have a website as he doesn’t actually exist between the shows 🙂 ). The skein is undyed and is going to be part of my dyeing experiment, it is 100% wool and in thickness somewhere between a 4ply and a DK weight. Apologies for the darkness of the photo – it has been rather grey here today, this was the best of the photos I took. The rather dark cone is 100% wool, 4ply in shades of dark green. He had two cones so me and mother had one each.

More yarn:

At the back we have a ball of Fortissima Colori Socka Color, colour: 2419, 75% wool, 25% polyamide, 4ply weight. This was from Web of Wool and will probably become socks. As will the two balls on the right, they are Admiral degrade by Schoppel Wolle, 75% wool, 25% polyamide, 4ply weight. The colours are 1309 and 1352 and they are from Knit ‘n’ Caboodle. You may have noticed that this yarn is suspiciously similar to Trekking sock yarn, and that is because it is made in the same factory and is to all intents and purposes the same (but not at the same price 🙂 ). Knit ‘n’ Caboodle were a company I hadn’t come across before and I am very glad I found them! Lovely helpful people and some very nice yarn – I am already composing my next order. The final yarn at the front left is Pura Lana Ecologica from Uppingham Yarns. This is an aran weight 100% organic wool yarn, the colours I got are called Mushroom and Earth which makes them sound not nearly as desirable as they actually are! This yarn is beautifully soft and cuddly, I got two balls of each colour and think I am going to make a nice cosy hat for the winter. At £2.00 for a 50g ball this seemed a very good buy.

I am also glad I found Knitting 4 Fun. Unfortunately by the time we got to them I was rather tired and incapable of making a decision. They had some absolutely beautiful Wool / Silk yarn but I couldn’t decide between the Kingfisher or the Teal Green, or decide how much I needed to buy. Luckily she sells online so I can work it all out in the comfort of home. Bev the owner was a delight to talk to and had a beautifully displayed stand – with a great view of the art at the entrance of the exhibition.

I found the whole show very inspiring, and the temptation to cast on for about 300 new projects is very great. I have managed to restrain myself so far but it is only a matter of time! I will be good and finish off my City and Guilds homework for Sunday first though – I have been putting off the drawing part of the homework but need to just bite the bullet and get on with it.