goodbye November, where did you go?

It's been a fab weekend on the knitting front with another successful weekend knitting meet for Colchester SnB. The wind might have been whistling past the front of the hall but inside was warm and cozy with plenty of tea and cake to sustain us. I finally caught up with a copy of December's Let's Knit magazine too and so managed to check out the Fibreholics article. I had to squeal in delight when I saw they'd used a picture of my yarn to promote it! How cool is that? Actually Fibreholics continues to go from strength to strength - we completely sold out in less than 10 days this time and are planning for next year already but more of that another time.

Actually it was lovely to be able to just sit and knit and gossip all day Saturday with no pressure to be up and doing which I always have at home. Other than me casting on for a pair of much need gloves for me, there hasn't been much knitty progess here at all lately as we've been knee deep in paint and wallpaper and when I've not been decorators mate, I've been in school painting and making for the various Christmas events. Hmm, a bit of a theme developing here. As I type, we've just put the finishing touches to the sitting room walls and I can safely say, I'm all painted out for the moment.

I don't know what it is about our family, we always end up decorating in the run up to Christmas. I use the royal "we" there but it's only me and mum that actually get the work done. For some reason everyone else seems to evaporate about the time that all the stuff gets brought into the house. They're quite happy to be around for the choosing and purchasing part but the actually doing side of it is apparently one step too far. I'm beginning to realise as I get older that I am far more my mother's daughter than I ever thought I was.

Sorry this is turning into a bit of an epic, slightly random but picture free post so I think I'll finish here and be back soon with some pictures. I find that having not posted very much lately I have more to document than I realised. Toodle pip and I'll see you in December, which reminds me I must find that advent calendar for the morning.

Ally Pally or bust...

It's funny, whenever I've neglected my blog for too long I always feel the urge to confess and it makes me giggle. Forgive me readers, it has been far too long since my last contribution .......... and I'm not even Catholic for goodness sake! Anyhow, this year continues to fly by. I honestly have no idea where the time is going. I now have a new internet connection - and one that actually works properly all the time too! So I really have no excuse not to post a little more often. The shop needs restocking too and I can't complain that I can't upload pictures anymore so expect a big update this week.

I made it to Ally Pally again this year and I have to say even though I had a great day, I came away feeling a little bit disappointed. Maybe it's just that my fibre tastes are moving more and more to the spinning side of things at the minute but you could really see the effect of the recession beginning to bite. I got what I wanted more or less but I was able to easily stick to the budget this year. There were several companies that I really wanted to visit but they weren't there. I think that perhaps with more and more of these yarn events happening, I Knit, Rav day not to mention Woolfest and Fibrefest, the yarn stores are being much more careful about where they spend their money.
Here's some of the Colchester knitters at the end of the day in front of the rather impressive knitted ship in the foyer. Looking at the size of some of the bags that people came out with, I was fairly circumspect in my purchases.
Roving from Piiku. On their stand they'd got some really impressive crocheted and felted mats mats made from some of this. I think this one is destined to be a table runner of some kind. I'm still deliberating at the mo. It might end up as a bag.
Jamieson and Smith shetland spindrift, enough for a pair of mittens.
and finally, sock yarn. It's fabulously red and is for a wrap/shawl to replace my ratty pashmina of the same colour. Other than some beads, in the end that's all I bought for me. Still, it;s what I wanted more or less and I certainly don't need any more sock yarn as my stash is overflowing.