I took a whole day off work last week, met up with 4 of the Guilty Knitters (Hello to Mel, Judie, Glaucia and Jeni 🙂 ) and had a great day out at the Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching Show. (Or Ally Pally to anyone from this corner of the Globe)
We battled against signal failures on the trains (my 20 min journey took 1 hour and 10 mins!!) tube disruption (took buses) and monstrously long queues for the courtesy bus (took the local bus) but still managed to arrive wound up, excited and yarn hungry. And in need of a loo and a coffee from my new pink coffee maker, strictly in that order.
Did I buy huge amounts of stuff? No!!
We are currently decorating and furnishing my new knit-room (more on that in another post 😉 ) and I have to face the fact that my stash is way too large and contains too much yarn that I “snapped up because it was a bargain” – Kid Silk Haze is excluded from this statement of course. When you start looking at how many wardrobes you need to house yarn it’s hard to ignore the “problem”…
So the idea of the day was to have a fun day out with friend (TICK!), forget about work for the day (half a TICK – got phoned a couple of times), look at all the pretty and be inspired (BIG TICK – lots of beautiful sewing and quilting this year too 🙂 ) and maybe buy some quality yarn NOT quantity.
Wanna see how that worked out??
First I bought some Frilly novelty “Can Can” yarn! Definitely not “Quality” but I can’t resist a bit of fun and I think my Mum will enjoy a play too…
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| From Ally Pally 2010 |
It’s supposed to turn out like this…
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| From Ally Pally 2010 |
Then I spent a long time at the Jamieson‘s stand “Ohhing and Ahhing” over this book of Felted Handbags (Which I bought)…
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| From Ally Pally 2010 |
I was all set to start a yarn buying frenzy to make one or more of the bags when my good friend Judie stopped me,
” Are you going to start it right away? No.”
” Is the yarn the same price online and quickly and easily delivered when you need it? Yes.”
“Do you want to be carrying that yarn around all day? No.”
Thank you Judie for saving me from yarn purchases with your inescapable logic! (I suspect she is related to Mr Spock somewhere along the line…)
I did buy a small kit from Jamieson’s though – this was adorable and irresistible although I rarely drink tea and don’t remember the last time I used a tea pot!
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| From Ally Pally 2010 |
I spent a happy 40 mins trying to choose what colours to make the tea pot cosy! This should nicely hone my fairisle skills and, for the handle and spout, introduce me to the most scary word in knitting … STEEK!
Lastly, I couldn’t leave without one over indulgent purchase. I hadn’t spent very much of the budget I had saved up all year so I felt justified…
“Quality not Quantity” was the day’s mantra…..
I got this – Buffalo Gold!
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| From Ally Pally 2010 |
It’s 100% bison down from the winter undercoat – Apparently the fibres are smooth and don’t have the scales of sheep’s wool so it won’t felt and it’s very strong making it great for gloves that can be machine washed and generally abused….They even had machine knit pairs there for fishermen!
Read all about it…
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| From Ally Pally 2010 |
How much? A stupidly expensive £50 for one skein – but that was my reward for not going crazyand buying packs of half price Rowan!
I was disappointed by the bag they gave me the yarn in though – a thin poly bag which made my luxurious purchase look uncomfortable like I had just walked the dog and picked up the droppings!
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| From Ally Pally 2010 |
Oh, that Jamieson’s will get you! So many colors! So nice to work with! Such pretty fairisle patterns! I’m knitting with it right now to make the Ivy League Vest. It’s incredible.
Wow – I don’t think I would dare to spend £50 on one skein of wool but I’m sure it would make seriously warm gloves. The Can – Can wool is great to knit with once you get used to the fact that you have to tease it out before knitting it but you will knit it up in an evening or two . I have knitted 4 scaarves so far and am on my 3rd ball. Used 7 stitches for first one and 4 for the next – so two scarves = one ball.
Enjoy you purchases.
x Tricia
I thunk the teapot pattern is a great way to have a go at steeking. I might have a crack at that myself, even though like you I don’t make tea (or drink it). I can’t believe how expensive that yarn is though. I don’t think I could bring myself to spend that much. However I look forward to hearing how it knits up.
Lucky you going to Ally Pally! I admire your restraint! I’d like to get some Jamieson’s yarn too – apparently at Loop they have a huge old wooden case showing off all the lovely colours. Will have to drag Mr JK there next time we are in London (and hope there’s a guitar shop nearby for him!!) I have some yarn with bison in it, but it’s not 100%. Yours must be incredibly soft.
I love the fabulous felted bags book! … and the bison down yarn sounds fabulous… soft and warm 🙂
That’s my favorite tea cozy pattern- I have hesitated ordering the pattern largely because I can’t decide what colors to use!
Buffalo Gold….mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!
I think I spotted you in the distance at Ally Pally – were you wearing your Halcyon jumper? – but I couldn’t get close enough to say hello, and I didn’t spot you again.
I had a brief look at the Buffalo yarn, then stayed far far away from it – I spent far too much on fabric!
I did buy some Jamieson’s from Loop though, but from the shop, not AP.
I’m sure the gloves you make from the buffalo yarn will be toasty warm, but they need to be for £50. Your last words made me chuckle, I agree, you would have thought they could have found a nicer bag to put it in for that price.