Suffolk Holiday Knitting

I'm hoping you didn't notice my absence from the blog last week. I was good and actually wrote a few posts in advance to pop up whilst I was away. It has caught me up (I think) with the backlog of things I needed to talk about and it gave you something to read while I was away on holiday.

I had a lovely time on my holiday, staying in a cottage in Suffolk, a place I've never visited before. It's a gorgeous place and we will definitely be going back.  I won't fill this post with photos of my holiday, but if you are curious enough about what it looked like, here is a link to my holiday photo album on Flickr.

One of the things about not being in perfect health is that there is lots of sitting around recovering from days out, whilst on holiday. We chose the cottage for it's views as well as it's location. My OH (other half) could go for nice long walks just from stepping outside the door of the cottage, whilst I could lie on the sofa knitting and enjoying the view.

The View From My Holiday Sofa

It worked out brilliantly in that respect. Of course I had to have crafting to divert me whilst laying around, so I chose my projects carefully. I decided to cast on Mayura by CrystalRose. Not many people have made this shawl yet but the colour of the sample copy reminded me so much of some Wollmeise Pure that I had bought, that I really wanted to use that yarn with this pattern. Let's face it, knitting with Wollmeise yarn on holiday has to be a nice knitting treat.

Aren't those colours wonderful? The orange one is Sanguinella and the turquoise one is Turkis. I was originally going to create my own pattern using these skeins of yarn but Mayura appeared in my suggested patterns feed on Ravelry and it seemed perfect. The pattern is written so that there are sections of very straight forward knitting interspersed with "thinking about it a bit" knitting. It's perfect for a holiday knit. I could cruise along with the easy bits whilst reading or chatting and then do the trickier bits when I needed a little bit of mental exercise. Plus it was in garter stitch. I love Wollmeise yarn in garter stitch, it drapes so beautifully.

The shawl is divided into sections that have increases and decreases to create zig zags. This alone would make it a striking shawl, but then there are the added fun bits, the mitred squares. These are very cleverly done, but I decided to make a slight tweak to the pattern. In the pattern the edges of the mitered squares are picked up so the picked up stitches show on the RS and the WS of the knitting. I decided I wanted a balanced appearance and decided to pick up the stitches from the back of the work when I was on the WS. This means both the picked up chains of stitches are hidden on the back of the work.

As a result, the front of the work looks like this:

I prefer having a uniform appearance for my mitred squares! I did make one mistake with this shawl. I got my MC (main colour) and my CC (contrast colour) mixed up. I ended up having to rip back several inches of work, which annoyed me because it was a silly mistake to make. However, I've got back now to where I was, before the mistake was discovered.

Of course the other project I took with me was socks. I wanted something small and portable for the long car journey to Suffolk and back, plus it would be good handbag knitting for when I was sat somewhere and my OH went off exploring. I wanted to make vanilla socks but with nice yarn. I decided to cast on some special yarn I got recently. Stockinette Zombies had a discount code for Desert Vista Dyeworks, a dyer I wanted to try after hearing so much about her yarn. The discount code meant the yarn would drop down under the customs charge threshold and make it affordable for me. Of course I bought a skein!

The yarn is Viso, 75% merino and 25% nylon, 4 ply weight, but with a good yardage of 462yds/422m. The colourway is Peter Max. I didn't know when I bought the yarn that Peter Max is an artist who is known for his psychedelic colour palette. Now I know! I just bought it because I like the colours.

I managed to get one and half socks done whilst I was away. Vanilla socks really are the best car knitting, because I don't have to look very often at my hands, which means I don't get car sick.

The yarn is very light and bouncy. It doesn't feel very strong and I am a bit worried about wear. However I don't go out very often so my socks are generally worn as slippers most of the time anyway. It is lovely yarn to knit with and the colours are fantastic. I've enjoyed working on the socks and now I only have the cuff on the last sock left to do.

I used the opposite end of the yarn for the heels as I do all the time now, for striped socks. I really like how it maintains the stripe sequence on the main part of the sock. With the Fish Lips Kiss Heel, which is my favourite heel to do now, I knit the first stitch of the heel in the main yarn and then switch over to the yarn from the opposite end of the skein and use that for the heel. Then I drop that yarn and pick up the main yarn again on the last two rows of the heel where the last two twinned stitches are picked up at either side of the heel. This technique seems to minimise holes.

I really want to finish these socks so I can wear them, they are so squishy!

On holiday I also took some spinning, but I shared a picture of that recently. I'll talk about that more next week when I've got it finished.

I was pleased with what I accomplished on holiday, but I'm also pleased that the knitting and spinning I took worked out well for enjoyment and the level of difficulty. It's not often I get my holiday knitting right!

Spinning on my Holiday

I have been on holiday, which is why I've been so quiet online.  I went to Cornwall for a week.  We stayed in a self-catering "lodge" on an holiday park.  It was near Lostwithiel and quite close to the Eden Project.  We managed three days out, of the 7 we were there, because I had to rest up on the in-between days.  It worked out quite well in terms of weather, and the days we went out were really nice and the days I rested were a bit wet.  Here is my favourite photo from the week:

This was a really quiet little beach, just North of Newquay, at a place called Watergate Bay.  Apparently Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall restaurant is on this beach, but I didn't see it until after we were leaving the car park.

Of course, we went to the Eden Project.  I love that place.

I won't inflict any more holiday photos on you, but if you are interested, here is the link to the rest of the album.

Whilst I was on holiday I did some knitting and some spinning.  Spinning, in particular, is perfect for a lazy holiday.  You can disengage your brain and just twirl your fibres.  I'll talk about the knitting later in the week.  Today I thought I'd talk about the spinning, simply because Sarah from Crafts From the Cwtch is doing a Spinning Show & Tell  feature as a regular event on a Tuesday and as she seems to blame me for feeding her spinning addiction, I thought I'd keep showing her more pretties!  I say it is a reciprocal feeding of the spinning bug though ;-)

The fibre I have spun is from EasyKnits.  It is Polwarth/De-Haired Camel blend in the Exterminate colourway.  This colourway is a complete departure, for me, from my usual colours.  I think this is part of what made the spinning so pleasurable.  The other thing \I enjoyed was the fibre itself.  It is such fluffy fibre.  I really need to learn more about spinning terms so I can describe what I mean by "fluffy".

As this fibre felt so plump I decided that I wasn't going to fight it's nature and try and spin a skinny lace weight yarn.  I divided the fibre in two and then each of those sections into three, using a scale.  I then spun each of the six sections into quite fat plies and then plied two sets of 3-ply yarn.

After a good soak and a solid thwack, I have approximately 140m of fibre.  I really wish I knew how to get an accurate measurement of the gauge of the fibre.  I suspect it's an aran weight.  I have heard about spinning apps that help you work out gauge.  If anyone knows what one is called, I'd love to know.

Here is the yarn I've ended up with.

And a close up, so you can see the plump and fluffy plies.

I am so pleased with this yarn.  It's incredibly warm and soft.  Initially I was going to use the yarn to make a Rebecca Danger monster, because of the bright and cheerful colours, but now I really want to make an accessory out of it.  I think maybe a hat or a cowl.

after enjoying this Polwarth so much, I bought some more fibre to spin.  I ordered it from Countess Ablaze.  It is so pretty and as it is pure Polwarth I'll get more of an idea of what it is I liked so much about it.

I don't know what to begin playing with next, from my growing fibre stash.  It's a tough call, but I think I should choose something with different fibre content so I can keep on learning what I like to spin and why.  I've subscribed to Spin-Off Magazine from Interweave Knits, so hopefully that will help me as I go forward in my spinning career. I may also invest in a copy of Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook to help understand a bit more.  Hopefully my posts will become more informed over time!

Back from Holiday

I just wanted to let you all know that I am back safe and sound from the most wonderful trip to Cyprus.  I have to say I fell in love with the place.  I don't normally want to revisit holiday locations because there are so many more to see, but Cyprus is definitely on my "must see more of" list.

I won't bore you with a massive list of what we got up to or millions of photos, but if you are interested in how pretty it all was, I have uploaded the photos to an album on Flickr.  I've embedded it below.  I hoped this way if you are interested you can have a look, if not, you can just ignore them!  I have given fairly full description on each of the photo, which summarises pretty much everything we did.

I will be back with more crafting soon, as my holiday has recharged my mental batteries, even if the physical ones are drained.  Hopefully I'll be back in balance soon!

If you want to see the photos individually or read the notes I made, you can do so by clicking here.  That will take you to the Flickr set I created.  I'm so glad I wrote this up while my memories were still vivid.  Hopefully it will remind me in years to come of this wonderful trip.

Please leave a message after the tone......

I feel a bit like this blog is on answerphone mode.  I don't seem to be able to get myself together to blog recently.  I don't know why.  I have lots to blog about.  I have made lots of new and fabulous things, but I just don't seem able to put the projects and the camera together at the same time.

Part of the problem is that I am focusing my attention away from the internet.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still reading and commenting on other people's blogs and still getting lots from them, but I don't seem to be able to put the same effort into my own writing.  Actually I think it is the photographing that is slowing things up.  I hate to blog without photos.

I think because I have been crafting so hard, I have not had the energy to actually do the photography bit.  Normally I have a couple of projects to talk about at a time, which means that I have a nice crafting/photographing/blogging balance.  Everything ticks along nicely.  You increase one element of that and the other elements automatically decrease.

I'm also trying to prepare for my holiday in a few weeks.  I have discovered that crochet hooks are acceptable on airlines even though knitting needles aren't.  I want to pick the brains of all you lovely crochet divas out there.  Come on don't be shy, you can admit your skillz.  I need a simple project that I can take on the plane that doesn't use tonnes of yarn, so maybe something in Double Knit or 4 ply.  It does need to be relatively simple as I am not a confident crocheter, I'm ok once I get going, but it does take a while to get back into the swing of things.

So step up people and please recommend something for me to try, maybe a scarf or some such thing.

All suggestions are gratefully received!

Turkish Hexes

When I was on holiday in Turkey, I managed to find a yarn shop. My OH muttered something about me being able to find yarn in a jungle and wandered off to buy a drink. The shop was down a back street and I could smell the acrylic fibres from 20 paces (I think that is how I found it). It was a very cheap yarn shop. But I was not to be deterred, I knew there must be a hidden gem in amongst the static. There was indeed some very nice cotton yarn, in some lovely bold colours but these were the ones that caught my eye.

The yarn is Alize Bahar and it is a sport weight yarn. I bought three balls of each colour and it cost the grand total of 10 Turkish Lira which roughly translates to £4.40 for 600g of cotton! I told you it was a cheap shop. It's really soft and smooth cotton and the colours made me think of Turkey, which is why I chose them.

We were staying in Antalya which is a coastal city surrounded by mountains. Everywhere you look, there are blues and greens, both close at hand and in the distance. The above photo was taken on a very short boat trip out of the Marina looking at Antalya from the sea. When the sun is out, the view is stunning.

So you can see why I was inspired by the colours even, if I wouldn't normally go for this kind of yarn. I normally find self striping yarn limits the type of project you can make and to be honest I wouldn't be seen dead in the cardigan on the ball band.

It may be all the rage in Turkey, but it isn't my cup of tea at all. None the less I itched to own this yarn, especially when I found out how much it cost. So with lots of pointing on the part of myself and the vendor, I managed to buy my yarn and when I next sat by the pool I decided to play with it. As I had with me the grand total of one set of knitting needles and a crochet hook, for picking up dropped stitches, my playing was rather limited. After half an hour I gave up and decided to wait until I got near a stitch dictionary, but I had decided that crochet would be my craft of choice.

Anyway to the hexes alluded to above - I'm a little bit obsessed with them at the moment. I think it is the fault of lots of bloggers out there who are inundating me with hexagons in all shapes and forms.

Firstly there was Bitter Purl's Half Hex Quilt in all it's linen loveliness. I also love Tintocktap's Hexagon blanket, and of course the colourful glory that is Attic24's Hexagons. I had these ideas and more floating around in my head without even realising until I bought this yarn.

This yarn made me think I could make nice granny type hexagons with different colours in, but without having to change the yarn! I played around with a couple of patterns until I settled on one for a Wheel Hexagon from The Encyclopedia of Crochet Techniques by Jan Eaton.

This is the book that I learneed to crochet from. It is a great book full of clear directions and pictures. I has both written instructions and diagrams, so that you can learn both methods of pattern reading.

I chose the Wheel Hexagon because it has a nice open centre, but quite solid edges. This gives the colours a chance to shine and still keep the finished item light and airy. To add to the airy quality of this project, I went up a hook size or two from the one recommended to 4mm. The hexagons produced are soft and drape beautifully. This is what I have from two days hooking.

Do you like my nifty collage? I've only just learnt how to do that! I think the two colourways will blend really well and will look like there are many more involved than actually are. I sort of laid them out to see how it would look and this is one of the options.

I'm getting around 6 hexagons per ball of yarn, so I plan to make a wrap with my Turkish Hexes. Only when I have all of them complete will I be able to make a call on how they will be placed. They may be random, or I may group darker colours together at the ends, I don't know. I will all depend on how the yarn unravels.

Until they are all done, I will enjoy the piles of drapey hexagons that make me think of lily pads.

Hexagons are a great way to get back into the swing of crafting after a week in the sun. I highly recommend it.

Back from Holiday

I am back! I know you didn't think I'd been gone very long, but I was away a whole week, due to the wonders of Blogger scheduling posts. I love this feature and use it when I have vast quantities of stuff to show you, so I can spread it out a bit. This time I thought I'd use it for when I was away and recovering.

I don't want to bore you stupid with holiday snaps as ruins and sea scenes are lovely but probably a bit dull unless you are fascinated by vaguely tolerable landscape photography and the Turkish coast. But there were a few bits and bobs about the holiday that I will share over the next few posts.

As I am still recovering from a tummy bug that hit just after I got home in the UK, (at least I didn't waste any holiday time) I will leave you with some cute photos of animals.

Our hotel had a whole community of cats that strolled around like they owned the place. They would even come and sit at a spare chair at a table while you ate your dinner. We fell head over heels with one who hung out at the bar, but I never got his photo. The ginger one above was so friendly and toured around the pool purring and trying to jump onto the loungers to be petted.

The restaurant terrace had a flower bed running round the outside like a barrier and there was a nest of kittens hiding in there. Momma cat was often round and about, but occassionally a kitten would poke their nose out of the undergrowth. I managed to get this snap of a tiny kitten, just above the chair on the left. Not great of the cat but I love the colour of the purple shrub so much I thought I'd include the picture anyway.

For the dog lovers amongst you, this little puppy was found bounding around the ruins at Phaselis. He was adorable and I wanted to steal him away. He romped around the ruins and along the beach with his older dog friend having the best fun a puppy could have. I think he belonged to one of the staff at the ruins, but he was was one happy and friendly pup. Oh, and doesn't he pose nicely?

Hope that makes you smile a bit and makes up for the lack of craft. I really didn't do much on holiday at all, despite taking some knitting. Ah well, I started something when I got back, so maybe I'll show you that in a few days. Until then, enjoy the animals!

Knitting in a Field

I love knitting in public (or KIP as the knitterati like to call it). I have had lots of positive comments from total strangers because I have been knitting in a place that some people find unusual. Conversations start about knitting and end up being about everything and anything. I think this weekend was taking knitting in public to the edge. I actually knit in a field, surrounded by thousands of people all watching music. I was at WOMAD, a world music festival held at Charlton Park in Wiltshire. This was not our first attendance at WOMAD, I think it was our 4th actually, but it was our first at this site.

My OH and I travelled down to the festival on Thursday afternoon and got pitched before the rain started. The actual festival proper started on Friday, but we like to arrive the day before, so I can recover from the journey and we can find a pitch. In this instance we were very pleased to arrive in time, because there was hardly any space left by the end of Thursday night.

Most of Thursday evening was spent lying in the tent and reading, with this as our view.

It was a mite depressing that the rain set in so early. The weather forecast had not filled us with hope either. However, I did find time to start knitting as we sat out of the rain. The first thing I made was an i-cord necklace on which to hang my scooter key. I got sick of losing the key in my bag after the first 2 attempts. So that was Thursday night's project.

On Friday we woke up to find that though the sky was grey, there was no rain - yay! Of the bands I saw on the first day, the one that really stood out for me was Caravan Palace. They are a French group who take swing music and add some extra ooomph. It was fantastic music with fantastic performers. The tent was definitely hopping.

On Saturday we actually had some sunshine. I took a couple of photos as the site was looking so pretty.

One of the things that always makes me think of WOMAD, is the the beautiful flags they have all around the site, in different colours. The other thing is the big blue Siam Tent.

This tent has provided shade in blistering sun and shelter in pouring rain, and housed a great many amazing performances over the years.

The first stand out performance for me on Saturday were The Black Swan Effect, who were a replacement act. They are probably much more mainstream rock/pop than alot of the audience were expecting, but they were fantastic. They reminded me of Manic Street Preachers, both in sound and the singer's voice. The other great act on Saturday were Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

The attitude of this group was all "gangsta rap stars", yet they play brass instruments. The music was punchy, toe tapping and performed with passion.

Saturday was my main KIP day. I was able to lay on the grass listening to music drifting over the field, while people walked round me, gazing in amazement as my needles clacked. I was making a festival headscarf. As any festival goer knows, by day 2 or 3, your hair, no matter how dry, is going to get a bit disgusting. There are many techniques for dealing with this, including the scrunchy, the head band and everyone's favourite, the hat. However, I decided for this year's outing I wanted a head scarf. I started off following a pattern from Ravelry but it was a bit lacy. I decided I needed something with better coverage for my hair, as the object of the exercise was hiding it!

I managed to get my headscarf knitted by the end of Saturday, and I was very pleased with my improvised pattern.

I added ties at the ends to allow me to fasten the headscarf more easily.

I think it will get worn when I go camping in August as well, as it certainly did the trick.

As well as my KIP gaining attention, my On Target Bag, got a couple of compliments too. In fact one woman, who was serving us food, got into an in depth interview on how to felt things as her mother had sent her some wool for felting! I really wish I had thought to take some cards with me with the blog address on, as I think I might have had a couple of interested parties.

On Sunday I was glad to have finished my knitting project. Because on Sunday it rained, pretty much ALL day. It wasn't particularly heavy rain, but it was constant and drenching. I was really glad of my rain cape for the scooter, and I think there were lots of jealous able-bodied folk around the site, as they gazed in envy at my mobile tent.

Again, I have two favourites from Sunday. The first is 17 Hippies. The group is from Berlin and perform fantastically Bohemian music. My final recommendation of the weekend is The Apples, who are group from Israel, who are a brass funk combo with two djs. The tent was jumping with this act. It has to be my joint favorite with Caravan Palace.

I am now back at home, safe and sound after escaping from the mud of WOMAD and can lay back on my comfy sofa and surf the net looking for albums to download. Maybe next year it will be sunny in July, I can live in hope!

Knitting in Somerset

I have had a splendid weekend away. It was gloriously sunny (and have the bright red skin to prove it). My partner and I went to Somerset to spend some time with his family. His parents have just moved in to a new house and we went to have a nose around. The new house is great, but what is even better is the location. They live in a village in the middle of nowhere and the views are stupendous. This is is the view from their back garden.

Even the garden is pretty, with flowers like these.

We took my mobility scooter with us, and I was so glad that we did. On Sunday several of us went for a roam around the country lanes and enjoyed lots of fresh air. Everyone was so friendly and we were acknowledged by everyone we met/saw from across the fields. I suppose in the countryside you don't have to say hello very often, so you still do.

I feel very relaxed after my trip, but also very virtuous because whilst other folks played with the Lego, I managed to get my BSJ finished. This little jacket is adorable and I am almost tempted to cast on another immediately. I won't though because I have other things on my needles. I won't post a photo of the jacket, because there is a very vague possibility that the recipient may see it. If you are on Ravelry here is the project.

Whilst in Somerset, I took advantage of my SIL and MIL. They both have the same size feet as me, so I made them try my Sweetie Wrapper Socks on. Both of them said that the socks didn't feel loose and they should stay up, even though they were designed to fit my much wider feet and calves. I also got my SIL, the gorgeous Juliana to be my foot model. Her legs are much more attractive than mine, plus its easier to photograph someone else's feet, don't you find?

After discovering my socks would stretch and contract for a range of widths, I have decided that other people with UK Size 7 feet may be interested in my sock pattern. I will try and fit in getting the pattern all written up, and I will add it to my new pattern section of the blog. I don't know when I will fit this in, as it seems there are now three patterns I am intending to write up. Why do I set myself these ridiculous goals?

Playing Catch Up

Because I was away for a chunk of time at the weekend, and I've been feeling a bit ill (with a cold rather than the normal stuff) I have not done much knitting in the last week, so yesterday I had a bit of a session.

I managed to complete two whole scarves, a big chunk of another one and start my next kitty swap cat. Phew, it was an awful lot of stitching for one day but it was worth it. The two finished scarves are to be Christmas presents for my friends back home. They normally get something boring like a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates, so a scarf has to be an improvement. All three scarves are in the blue/purple spectrum but are radically different styles so I have to choose which one, will fit which friend's personality the best. That will be almost as much fun as the knitting of them. For those of you with Ravelry, here are the project links Scarf 1 and Scarf 2, as I don't want to show them out here in the public where the recipients may see them (unlikely but possible). I am also a lot further along with this scarf. I hope to finish this final scarf by the end of the week.

I feel I can share the picture of the Kitty Swap cat, which is made from the pattern by Elizabeth Jarvis, better known as BettyKnitter on Ravelry. The pattern is for a Swapsie Cat but I think mine is going to look a lot different from the original because of the mad yarn I am using.



This yarn was in my bag of loot from the Harrogate Show. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for my next Kitty Swap because it is so unusual. It made me think of Pumpkin who kept me company in York, though it is a mite fluffier, and a smidgeon yellower. So this Kitty Swap will be named after my companion in York, he is to be a Pumpkin Puss.



I think when he is stuffed and sewn up he will be fab, there is just something about fluffy wool that always makes me smile.

I have my Knitting Group at Mary Clare this afternoon, I must decide which project to take. I think it may be Pumpkin Puss, because do like to share unusual things.

Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show 2008

Pretty much everyone who knows me, has had to put up with my giddiness over the last few weeks in the lead up to my trip up north to the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show. I have been giddy for two reasons, 1. I was going to visit my family for a slightly longer than normal visit, and 2. I was going for a day out with lovely crafty stuff.

I stayed with my brother Stephen and his lovely fiancée, Emma. She not only brings joy to my brother but shares my love of crafty pastimes. She enjoys more stitch based crafts and is currently starting on learning to quilt. Her forays into this particular craft make me want to have a go, as did the lovely fabrics at the show, but I know I do not have enough time and energy at the moment to stray from wool based activities.

Stephen and Emma made me feel very welcome and I had a very comfy bed, and my own personal companion during my stay.... Pumpkin.

Pumpkin is a very sweet cat, who seems to like feet for some reason. He kept me company throughout my visit in exchange for fuss and treats. In this picture, he is curled up on a gorgeous quilt, made for Emma by her incredibly talented mother, it has a tiger on it, which may be why Pumpkin is so fond of it. I wish I had taken a better photo of the quilt as it shows why I have been tempted to stray from the wool based path.

I had planned my big day out very carefully. I arrived on Thursday and rested on Friday before going to the show on Saturday. I had withdrawn some cash and my Dad had also given me my Christmas present, of cash, early (great timing Dad, thanks!!!) I had also arranged with my Mum to buy a magazine subscription if there was a good deal at the show. If there was I would take out the subscription and she was pay towards it when she saw me. Stephen and Emma also said they would get me something from the show if I wanted for Christmas. I was so pleased with all these offers of presents that I was sure that I wouldn't spend all the funds I withdrew from my bank account. I was so very very wrong!

I shall start at the end of the day with a picture of my haul. It is impressive isn't it. I'm very glad we had a wheelchair, not only for me to sit in, but also to hang all our goodies on while going round the show. Emma was a trouper shoving me round, as she is only little, and I am not. Mind you every time I got out the chair to stretch myself out a bit, she dived in for a sit down. There was a distinct lack of seating at the show, so I don't blame her in the slightest.

Here is the list of things that I bought:

• Magazine subscription to Let's Knit Magazine, this came with £75 worth of goodies including pattern, project bag, yarn, beads and buttons etc. (this will be from my Mum, and from my Dad and his wife). The pink bag in the above photo is the bag full of stuff that I got from this deal.
  
• Lovely aran type yarn in self striping wool that will felt from Riverside Spinning

• Gorgeous shot silk fabric from Bombay Stores (I'm sure I will used this one day, but until then I will just take them out to look at occasionally). Sorry about the quality of the photo, but it gives you the general idea.
  

• Beginners needle felting kit from knitshop.co.uk.

• Beginners wet felting kit plus some more yummy wool tops to go with it.

• I am enjoying fulling so much I really wanted to try needle and wet felting to incorporate these two techniques into the work I was producing. These starter kits were perfect to have a go and were only £5 each. This type of thing was all over the show and a great way of finding out if you get on with a new craft without having to shell out great quantities of money.

• Some Shetland wool from Jamieson & Smith Shetland Wool (this is coming in the post and I can't wait cos it's lovely)
  
• Fancy yarns from Bee Bee Wools to make an interesting scarf for the Christmas pile and and also to make a shawl for Emma. She picked out the yarn and begged me to make it for her, so I couldn't refuse her after all she had done to get me to the show, now could I?
• Several items for the Christmas present pile that I will not list in case their recipients are reading this.
• Lantern Moon needle case from The Amore Group, which is my Christmas present from my brother and Emma, which I love but am not allowed until Christmas. Can you believe how harsh that is.... I thought they were joking.... but they weren't. (sobs).

Here is the list of things that I wanted that I didn't buy...

• Wool from Biggan Design, (oh the colours!)
  
• Tops from Black Hills Ltd, (so soft!)
• Dye starter kit from DT Craft & Design, (I want to dye my own yarn one day)
• Great sock wool from Web of Wool, (I have so much sock wool, and I have knit hardly any socks)
• Shawl kit from Jamieson & Smith
• Stuff bucket from Storage 4 Crafts, mainly because I have so much stuff and not enough places to put it.
• Anything from Choices Embroidery because their kits and threads were amazing. It made me want to return to cross stitch again. I will definitely be going to their shop when I want to start stitching again.
• Spinning starter kit from Knit 'n' Caboodle because spinning looks like fun.

And loads and loads of other lovely gorgeous stuff. The above are just the ones I can remember, and got details of. I have listed them so that I remember what I wanted when I have money again.

We also saw some fab displays of textiles and knitting from students. One of our favourite was Debbie Lyddon who is a textile artist. The item she was displaying was linen with threads cut out and frayed, then painted with acrylics. Very beautiful and interesting textures just made us gawp for ages. Definitely one of our favourites along with Joy Wardell who is a ceramic artist. Her ceramics are made from knitted forms then soaked in clay and fired. Her finished forms are matte and she also uses copper wire to give interesting colour during firing, rather than relying on glazing. Basically she produces the pieces that all potters who knit wish they had thought of first. I couldn't take any photos of these exhibits for copyright reasons. I suggest though, you keep your eyes open for their work in the future.

One of the things I had known about and looked forward to seeing was the Hyberbolic Crochet Reef. The link shows much better photos than mine but they give you a general idea. I love the idea of crafters around the world joining together to produce this amazing work of art. Pictures don't give you an idea of the scale of the project so when I got in front of the reef I was in awe of the amount of work put into it's production.

All the things I have listed in this blog were the things that jumped out and hit me, but I KNOW there were lots of gems that I didn't see. There was a sensory overload from the moment I arrived, until the last shattered minutes when I slumped over in my wheelchair as I was pushed towards the door. Everyone we met during the day, especially the Yarn Forward folks (I wish I was a good enough knitter to subscribe to your magazine) were lovely to us and seemed to be enjoying themselves almost as much as we were. Oh and I got a few compliments from strangers about my Frankenstein Bag. I was well chuffed as they say back in York. I was also glad I had taken such a large bag to in which to stick all the bits and bobs I collected on the way round

I have had some knitter friends tell me that the Harrogate Show is a little disappointing, and I can understand that point of view, if you are only interested in knitting. However as you know I am a Crafty Cripple and all crafts captivate me. I was in heaven wheeling around the stalls, flitting from glittery object towards silky threads. I could have spent so much money in this gorgeous place and I hope that the next time I go to such a wonderful show I have equally good company and slightly more cash!