The Knitting & Stitch Show - NEC

Had a FABULOUS day out at the NEC attending the Sept Knitting & Stitch show with my good friend, Ann, her friend, June, who I mostly only see at such events! and Ann's daughter, Elizabeth. We met up with a colleague and friend, Heather, but sadly two others attended a different day!

Our plan at these events is always to split up and look around alone for a couple of hours upon arrival, meeting at a predetermined time for a coffee (to discuss stalls of interest and our opening opinions on the variety) split up! meet up for lunch to share goodies we've purchased, split up again for mad shopping and finally we meet to make sure we're all happy we've not missed anything! On this occasion I was grateful for the latter! I couldn't possibly go home without ONE new knitting project! now could I? do you think I could sort myself out? lol.

Although smaller than shows we're used to, we all agreed the mix was right and though we might have liked to see more stall holders with yarn for sale and we might have liked to have seen more sewing/dressmaking stalls, it was pretty GOOD as a show! Plenty of P&Q stallholders and lots of arty ones for those into the embellishing and creative side (which will be MEEE! shortly! I hope!). I bumped into my new *teacher*, Sarah Hazell, who is also a good friend of the store through her association with Rowan yarns and she was pleased to hear that I had indeed confirmed my place at her course the next day! She was buying lots of crafty bits but assured me I wouldn't need to look for anything at this stage which was a relief as the only bit of fancy pack of stuff I'd bought years ago for those "moments of creativity" is still in its pack and I didn't particularly want to waste valuable yarn-money!

Alright. you want to know what bought! what I saw! what I enjoyed!

• Set of 3.5mm DPNs and some rather nifty stitch holders on elastic for my socks from Web of Wool
• Skein of rather SCRUMMY "Coast" - a handpainted sock yarn 70% merino and 30% seacell from Kerrie at Hipknits (rather pricey at £15 for a pair of socks given I don't ACTUALLY wear socks BUT it is as I say, rather SCRUMMY and I have said my mission is to try new and scrummy yarns what ever the cost!)
• Ball of yarn from a stall I can't recall name of who had displayed at the back wall loads of drop stitch scarves which I duly knitted up over the next two nights and wore last night to the *knit&whine* evening! June and Elizabeth bought the same, Ann bought a different type. this cost £4 which I think is a bargain for a rather nice variation on scarves! (I'm told that Bertie the cat particularly enjoyed playing with this yesterday evening and its true to say that I have got several EXTRA dropped stitches which look suspiciously like CHEWED stitches. I will have to keep this well away from him. naughty cat!).
• MAGAZINES! most of which I've now read! but I enjoy collecting and reading magazines and these were very nice with some interesting patterns too! Had a lovely chat with the lady on the Knitting stand - she'd dashed off to buy a skein of rather funky furry white mohair and we all had to fondle it before WE dashed off to inspect! June had the bargain! from this stall she bought some super mohair in dusky pink/cream for £1 each
• Picked up More Sensational Socks from The Home Workshop too! I was hoping for the first of the series, but they didn't have any and although they suggested I contact them, in fact I think this will be sufficient. There were several books I fancied buying but in the end I settled for just one, had there been any bargains or price reductions I'd have bought a couple more. Previously I'd managed to buy almost the complete set of Singer Sewing Reference books from this stallholder at various shows at half the price, but bargains don't seem to be about as much now.
• My main purchase was bought right at the end of the afternoon! From RKM Wools a lovely pattern for a short sleeved shrug type cardigan in lovely scrummy yarn, the people here we ALL decided were the friendliest, the most helpful and also open to negotiation! Elizabeth and I both bought the pattern and yarn for the same project which was on display in the hot pink, she went for that, I went for the softer lilac, and we had the pattern booklet for free! and a discount of £5.00 off the purchase too which was nice!
  
• Apart from bits and pieces like some buttons and yarn sewing up needles that was it!

We didn't get to see any of the fashion shows, we're told that they were good and that a lot of the garments were from the latest Rowan books and looked much better on the models than might look photographed! Sarah's daughter was a model too! her Mum had a picture of her on her mobile phone! but this wasn't on the day that we visited.

As it wasn't the main show for sewists, we didn't see anyone from the *old crowd* of sewing friends that we usually find ourselves bumping into and there were a few notable people missing, eg Gill Arnold and Linton Tweed and Geoff Rosenburg but as we'd gone mostly for the knitting side this was fine!