We made it to London, the Derby girls and I, after a shockingly early start and a surprisingly easy drive. Only two hours from Tamworth to North London, door-to-door. We made it to the Knitting and Stitching show on Saturday, at Alexandra Palace, the jewel of Wood Green.
The sun shone (at least it did, later on). It was lovely to be back in London again, and the show was the best ever.
So how did I get on in that competition? First we had to go to the Rowan/Patons fashion show, where the smallest catwalk I've ever seen was tucked into a function room. (The new Martin Storey men's collection is VERY good by the way). After the show, Coats' Head of marketing and the new editor of Knitting magazine invited the four finalists up onto the stage. The prizes were announced in reverse order, leaving me with a knee-knocking reality TV moment as...
I was the last person called up - out came that jacket, and I had WON! (That's me, second right / oops, in my dreams only; that's really me, far left!). We were all presented with a basket of yarn, and treated to a glass of champagne. With my back to the TV screens, I didn't see the other finalists' garments very well (the actual garments weren't there) but they all looked lovely and colourful. So I was very pleased that the judgest picked mine out. They said it had everything they were looking for: presumably that was a digger, dumper truck, bulldozer and steamroller. One of the other finalists was from Leicester as well - it's not the home of the UK knitting industry for nothing, clearly.
Here I am with my supporters, thanks so much ladies, for making the trip. It was some day out!
After all that, we still had all our shopping to do. I couldn't possibly top Dawn's lovely collection, after all I only had half the day left, but there was more yarn, knitting stalls and wonderful knitty things than I've ever seen at the show before. In 2001 I remember having to highlight the dozen or so knitting stands on the plan so I could find them - whereas this year there was something to look at on every aisle.
I always try to get some sock yarn from Web of Wool and I was very excited to find the new Kaffe Fassett line for Regia - the only problem was choosing one; I think this is called Fire:
Also some blue self-striping for Christmas socks for my dad (you read it here, so I'll have to make them). I tried to combine his two loves: the Royal Air Force (grey-blue) and sailing (sea-green).
For a Christmas scarf, once I can find a good pattern for 100g of double-knitting, a lovely lilac/grey from 21st Century Yarns
I love this next one. I've just bought a brown tweed winter coat, and wanted to make a colourful everyday scarf to go with it. I've seen this Twilley's Freedom Spirit being knitted and liked it, so now I have some to play with (you may spot, I've already started one ball). I think this is called Fire too. Can you see a (seasonal) theme developing?
I did spend a long time getting mixed up between this yarn and Elle "the Wool Boutique" variegated merino DK. Are they the Same?
Lastly, because I can never resist a sewing kit at these events, the pattern for some great shabby-chic olde-American style Christmas bunting. It's about ten feet long in real life, I'm looking forward to a bit of stitching on this.
I also received an Innocent/Rowan hat kit, but I fancy the yarn too much to use it for bottle hats! Not sure what to do with that one, but I'd perhaps better send something to Age Concern so they don't miss out, because they are a Very Good Cause.
The new knitting magazine, Let's Knit was launched at the show and I picked up a promotional copy for £1. At first glance, I'd say it's not really my sort of magazine. The layout is too bright and splashy for me, and the patterns are not really to challenge. I think it's aimed at the younger market - aaargh, I feel about 100 years old saying that! Good luck to them anyway, but I'm not sure how we're to distinguish the four knitting monthlies now since they all seem to have a similar tone and look. Having said that, I am seeing Knitting magazine with a new respect now I've met the editor and seen the results of their facelift/re-structuring (and now they have kindly given me a prize too!). There's a rather in-depth article on socks, this month, which is pretty encouraging.
I've updated my work-in-progress gallery but will leave you with a picture of the project I started today: Nicole from Debbie Bliss book seven. I'm just knitting it to hip length, from some long-stashed Maya. After all that shopping and excitement, I just wanted something warm to wear!
