Saturday, March 10, 2007

SECC Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft


I went to the SECC Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft event today - the boy dropped me off at 10am - I was all spent up by 12! From New Lanark World Heritage Site's stall - a penny a gram for this aran wool in utterly sumptious colours! 2211 grams later ... I think it is still oiled but I'm not sure. Do you wash the yarn before or after knitting it?

I got even more excited when I thought of all the lovely Noro jumper patterns that I haven't been able to knit cos I just can't afford to spend £100 on the yarn. At £21 [I got more weight than the skeins said - score!] I can make 2 jumpers out of this! Yay!

'Weren't you supposed to be knitting from your stash?' I hear you ask. Yes, yes - but my excuse is this - I can't go to Woolfest. Also - at £21 for 2211 grams it would have been criminal not to have bought this yarn. Two Noro jumpers would have cost me over £200 pounds in yarn.

On the way home we had to stop at Toys R' Us to get another part for the Xbox controller [I broke it trying to get the batteries out for the camera.] I decided to stay in the car since 2 hours of crazed bargain-hunting hobbyists had taken it's toll and Toys R' Us is generally not a relaxing shopping experience.

Spotted in the car, all my yarn spread over my lap, sniffing one skein deeply trying to work out whether it was oil, or sheep that I could smell. This was Ibrox Toys R' Us you understand ... perhaps not the best place to let one's guard down and indulge in knittery habits.




Swift and ballwinder hard at work - my swift has developed a squeak though. A bit of Olive Oil helped a bit, but only if I can keep up a certain speed - tired arms but determined to finish.


Ta-daa! Lovely colours - the one next to the sunset yellow is a very dark brown - I think they look fantastically retro together.


In Borders at the weekend to get some more survival guides for Tokyo - the restaurants one in particular is fantastic for someone with food issues - the language course really helps, so that pronunciation will be no problem. Well... I guess I should wait until we're back to gauge that. The trip has been booked on Expedia. Very scary to spend that amount of cash and get nought but an email for all our months of saving.

Central Park hoodie continues. The second sleeve is almost at the cap shaping - since I already posted the last sleeve at this stage I'm not going to bother this time. And that's me - except I have Monday off so I expect I'll be knitting and gaming for most of the day.

6 comments:

Twelfthknit said...

Go! Knitsister!

Flavaknits said...

WOW! You put me to shame - I only bought a measly 300grams - still there is still tomorrow, and I really like the Aran in Blueberry at only a £10!

Anonymous said...

wow - nice colours! i love the red & chocolate brown - lucky you...
you can knit with it as is & wash it afterwards, but it's a good idea to knit a gauge swatch & wash that before doing any sweater knitting as oiled yarn will usually "bloom" quite a bit after washing & might throw off your gauge otherwise. have fun!

Kathleen said...

What a great haul you got. Well impressed by the fact you've got it balled up already by the way. x K

Anonymous said...

Oh - soooo jealous!! Both of your Japan trip (wanna go!) and all that amazing yarn at such an amazing price.

Anonymous said...

Excellent score Elaine ! I think I saw you from the back on Saturday but you were so weighed down by yarn you didn't hear me calling :0)