Harrogate Spoils

I stopped off and raided Jamiesons stand for these. I was particularly drawn to the opal which is kind of variagated and am looking forward to seeing it once I've knitted it up.

I yet again raided HipKnits of these two

and completely emptied the collection of banana yarn. I'll be combining this little lot with that I bought last month at Ally Pally.

These three I bought for a special project which I need to finish for January. Pictures will finish as soon as the recipient is wearing the spoils 8-X

I also bought several packs of beads and a new wheelie trolley but not too much else. Was nice seeing old faces from last year as well as regulars for the last time this year. What am I going to do now that show season is over?

Cardiff Sheep For Sale

On my first morning in Cardiff walking up to the Cardiff International Arena I happened to walk past a shop and took a couple of pictures of what they had in the window:

As I was not volunteering for the afternoon I went back and spoke nicely to "the management" and was able to take all of the following pictures. I also have it on good authority (by a sign above their entrance) that it is 150 miles to the right of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantsiliogogogoch.

I also wandered past a novelty joke shop where this was hanging on the door:

They also had something else sheepwise inside but I thought it best not to ask to take a picture of it ;)

Cardiff for Dr Who / Torchwood Fans

After quite a long walk out from central Cardiff to Cardiff Bay I finally got to the Millenium Centre to take these snapshots. Unfortunately it was rather persistently raining at the time so I just took these shots and ran. I also managed to escape from being kidnapped by aliens of both the friendly or unfriendly sort.

Cardiff Pics Part 1

Here we have a myriad of pictures of the stand and the garden.


Including the big bully ;0)

Off To Cardiff

Tomorrow after work. Back late on Sunday. I hope to be able to post all my purchases etc from Ally Pally, Birmingham and Cardiff before I tootle off to Harrogate next Thursday. One good thing about Harrogate though is that it is my local show so I get to sleep in my own bed each night!

See you soon.

PS Hopefully I will not be having any problems with trains this time.

Birmingham Update

Well this weekend saw me at the NEC. I wasn't sure what to expect this time round and there were due to be three or four shows all in adjacent halls. I took this with me for payment for lodgings:

This just happened to catch my eye on the train so more sheep to add to Wooly Wormhead's collection:


Situated behind us was a stand called Meiflower. As I was playing with knitting I decided to buy some piggies and some little pink beaded hearts from them and this was the end result.





I had also brought along with me this book that I was given at Birmingham in September and I and Noonie both rushed up to one of the author's for her autograph.
I guess she thought that we were both a pair of really loonies but she did agree to sign although offering her £1000 at the time seemeed to help......

Here are the jars of treats on display at one of my favourite non-yarn stands:

Here is the Big Boss Lady modelling one of my pieces. She gave me the plastic piece last month at Ally Pally and told me to "go play" and see what I came up with. I went and bought a ball of the variagated alpaca and made a belt. I had intended on using the toggle as a a belt loop but because it only had one hole in and I wasn't feeling brave enough to make another it has become a knot cover. The plastic is quite marvellous in that you soak it in hot water for a while and it relaxes back into a plain wedge and while it is warm you can reform and twist it and when cold it holds the shape.

After handing the piece over to her and her modelling it I was then given these to play with instead. I've got no ideas what to incorporate them into but although I have until February when I will next be seeing her has anyone ideas?

I also bought this bag from her to add to the collection

which contained:

And this was a special one that I bought because I liked it

Bully wasn't co-ordinating at this show so we had reps from Rowan instead. Sally is on the right who was there for Friday and Sunday. Rachel (the lady sat in the middle) was another of our volunteers who is teaching a young lad to knit. You can also see the open doors in the background. I lost track soon enough as to how many times I threatened the NEC staff with 20mm needles if they didn't close the doors.

A close up of Sally's jumper that she made herself:

The stand immediately opposite us was that of the NAFAS (National Association Flower Arranging Societies). I would like to have bought a couple of their arrangements but being ladened with luggage and a train journey it was unfortunately not possible so here are a couple of their arrangemnts.

Here are Jan and Mave again. They're hoping to coming up to Harrogate so fingers crossed.



At one point on the Sunday they slipped this into my hand and it is most welcome although I have still to decide where I can put it indoors which came from this gentleman

During the course of the show I slipped into the Christmas hall and went picture snapping for Woolly Wormhead

I then also bought this cute little fellow (there were three but I gave Jan and Mave one each):

Then here is Noonie stood next to the greensleeves Christmas tree.


I dread to think about the number of hours that it took to make it because it was a lot larger than I had anticipated. I am just glad that I'm not the one that has to clean up the needles on this tree. For a picture of it in all its glory it can be found .

Ought to say that Noonie is modelling her secret pal scarf exchange scarf.

We also had a brief foray into the sugarcraft/cake hall on the Saturday. We didn't get much of a chance to look round as it was just sooooo busy but I did manage to take a snapshot of this:

Finally, just down from our stand there was the nature preservation stand and I had to take a picture of this hedgehog as he was just cute.