I Knit Show Or Yarn Heaven

Last Saturday was taken up by a visit to London and the I Knit Show.

My blogger friend Caroline from over on Uniqart and her lovely daugher joined me and we trudged all the way from Waterloo to Westminster and got rather an indepth view of Westminster due to a terrible map (and some map reading errors on our side). However, we finally got there, and, yes, it was definitely worth it and next year's show is already marked in my diary.

The show was held in the lovely Lindley Hall Conference Centre, which is bright and airy and has great facilities including a reasonably priced cafe.

There were tables for people to sit and 'talk yarn' and lots of stalls with gorgeous, lovely, amazing, interesting yarn delights. :-) Yep, it's that bad. Really. LOL

I knew it'd be bad so I'd set myself a budget and resisted using the cash machine in the centre. I only bought things I really, really, neeeeeded. LOL

Here's my stash, partially wound up in balls already (couldn't resist playing with my yarn the minute I got home, footsore and exhausted but happy).

Like Caroline, I bought mostly lace weight yarns.


Below is some feathery pink yarn with black spots interspersed throughout which I'll be using as trim and also the black lambswool laceweight yarn.

This was one of my 'neeeeed-this': beautiful Malabrigo Silk Blend yarn in cherry red.

Rose and green alpacca lace weight yarn.



Feathery fluffy and, oh so soft, 'Guinea Fowl' yarn. Again, I will use this as a trim.


And this is the second of 'had to have' yarns: Louisa Harding Willow Tweed in a soft blue with little white dots throughout. Totally gorgeous!!!

And here's some Filatura di Crosa baby merino lace weight yarn. So soft and yummy. The colour is a pale silver. Very similar to the yarn I dyed - see this post.


Apart from the yarn stalls there were also seminars and stalls with 'made' things. One of the stalls was particulalry memorable. Unfortunately I didn't take a card, so can't remember the name of the lady, but she made the most beautiful sea creatures from knitted, very thin wire. Totally amazing. We also saw some people spinning - with spinning wheels and drop spindles. If there had been a spinning class.... one of the things I want to try before I die. LOL

A great day out. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Sneak Preview - Mermaid Shawl

I've been labouring on the patio in the shade on my mermaid shawl. Here's a quick preview of what I've done so far.


There are still loads of unfinished threads and many more rows of knitting, crochet, many more stitches to embroider, a lot more assembling, and general agonising over what to do next....

However, here are some of the details:

Seaweed fringe at the bottom

Webbing


Little Shell


Spiral Disk Sequins

Shell Sequins


Snail


Anemone


I've used a whole range of yarns in a myriad of shades- from a silvery white to dark blue to every shade of turquoise and teal. The textures range from fluffy kid silk mohair to feathery to silky to glittery to sparkly. Some of the shapes are done separately and then attached to the shawl, others are knitted or crocheted onto the main body of the shawl. Some parts have been embroidered, to others I have added sequins. There are pearls and beads yet to come.

At the moment the shawl is only about a fifth of it's final length... so a lot more to go.