Oh Gosh – I’ve not blogged for a LONG time  – Sorry!

Multitude of inadequate excuses include:

• Very busy at work (All going rather well though!)…
• Work trip to Budapest, Hungary to do some presentations to the teams out there on what I’m doing (Very successful work trip, fabulous city and OMG – The Boscolo hotel is amazingly beautiful and very reasonable!!)
• I’ve had a really heavy cold followed by Bronchitis  that has knocked me for six. Two weeks later I’m still coughing for England and falling asleep as soon as I get home from work 🙁

So, do you think I’d let a cough stop me having a long awaited adventure to the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally to us London types)?

Ermmm – No!

My fellow Guilty Knitters Jeni and Judie had resolved to “only buy needles” which quickly translated into “I’ll buy this fabulous yarn and it’s classed as NEEDles because I NEED it”! – they are a bad influence 🙂

So let’s cut to the chase – what fabulous things did I buy at Ally Pally?

I saw the Purl Alpaca Designs stand – so many beautiful designs knitted up and beautiful UK produced yarn. I fell in love with this dress – it’s called Icon. I was encouraged to try on the sample – that was fatal -It looked terrific on me (but I’m sure I’d need to wear something under it though) –  I had to have it!

From Ally Pally 2012

From Ally Pally 2012

It’s in the “fine” (4 ply weight” yarn) in the same colour as the photo…

From Ally Pally 2012

It’s knit on 4mm needles so I’m hoping I won’t still be knitting it next summer!

I also bought the obligatory batch of sock yarn – only £2.50 a ball at Black Sheep – always a standby for when I need some boring knitting for a flight or on the train, or when that dress is too big to carry with me.

Ziggy kindly modeled with the yarn, but hogged the photo….

From Ally Pally 2012

Here’s a better one of the yarn, sans Ziggy!

From Ally Pally 2012

And then there was my second significant purchase of the day – a pattern I have wanted to do for years but kinda resented having to buy the entire book of patterns to get it it…I finally gave in when I saw the Jamieson’s stand had the kit in my size…

The Autumn Rose Pullover by Eunny Jang…

From Ally Pally 2012

The colours of the yarns are delicious…

From Ally Pally 2012

This is going to be a stretch for me – I was drooling over this when I decided on the I’m a Little Teapot pattern 2 years ago at Ally Pally – That was a test to see if my Fair Isle was up to the challenge. I loved making the tea cosy but I warn you now – there may be some swearing when I come to knit this 😯

Lastly, because while I’m knitting a huge dress and a complicated Fair Isle sweater I’ll need some “Commuting Knitting”, I bought some more yarn from Nimu to make another Veera Välimäki Shawl – Probably another Different Lines as I was so pleased with the last one.

Don’t you just want to eat those colours with a spoon?

From Ally Pally 2012

The yarn is Ambleside BTW.

Well, that is my haul. Plus I had I really enjoyable day off work, rummaging around the show with friends from the Guilty Knitters,  meeting another group of friend from the John Lewis Woolly Women group for lunch and immersing myself in my favorite hobby.

Cough or no cough – Life is good!