Skip to main content

I'm back!

Unlike my last big trip, this one was full of fibre highlights. The weather in Dublin was shocking - it was colder than in Melbourne, so I bought myself some laceweight and went and had a beer.
The we went to Portugal, where they sell yarn by weight - unlabelled, but lovely, and super, super cheap. I bought nearly a kilogram of yarn for a jumper for Leon. I ended up posting that back sea mail, which is good because I did quite a lot of shopping later on. I wanted to get a picture of the yarn shop there, but they didn't speak English, and were not overly friendly, so I thought I had better not.
I met up with Jen  in London and she took me on a yarn crawl. It was lovely to see her, and the yarn shops were amazing.

Then I went to Cockermouth and met up with Nicola and her sister Rachel , whose blog I read. It was amazing to see Nicola and so nice to meet Rachel in real life, although I feel like I sort of know her already. Woolfest was amazing. There were some sheep there, but it was more about all the amazing yarn.  So much prettiness! I bought two jumpers worth of British breeds Aran and quite a lot of hand dyed lace and sock weight.

 












O
One highlight was meeting Kate Davies, who is not just a talented designer, but so lovely as well.
Seeing her sample garments made me want to knit everything she has every designed, starting with Warriston, which I did buy the yarn for. 
We spend four days in the Lake district and there were sheep EVERYWHERE. I don't know what breed most of them were, but there was a large variety. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the lovely knitting I did while I was away, but right now I need to go unpack.

Comments

  1. Oh my, you have a photo of yourself with Nicola and Kate Davies! How awesome! It looks like you had a great trip, looking forward to catching up

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did I mention how much I loved seeing you? Please come back soon :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous30 June, 2012

    What a wonderful trip! Meeting Kate Davies, I am so jealous. Those sheep in the picture are Herdwicks. I can't wait to see your holiday yarn. Welcome back.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linky Wednesday - the one with the pause

In meditation it's said that the pause between the in breath and the out breath is a gap, a space to rest. Well, I'm in that in-between space for reading, listening and knitting. This is a random photo of a highlight of my week - I filled up my lolly jar. These are just supermarket party mix. During the lockdowns, we sources a great pick-and-mix delivery service, but at some point they started sending from the UK, which is a bit silly. Rachey messaged me a new one she found, and I impulsed purchased a kilo of mixed lollies, and then she sent me a link to the biggest lolly shop in Melbourne, which also delivers sweets by the kilogram, so i think I'm sorted for the rest of the year!  In reading I've just finished  The Beckoning Lady   by Margery Allingham . It's the second last book in the Summer of Mystery, and I have to admit, having now read nine Margery Allingham books, that they are OK. I wouldn't have read them if they were not connected to this club, but on...

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises. 

Unravelled Wednesday - the one where it's ordinary

This week I finished my first book for the  2025 When Are You Reading? Challenge , which was   The Silence of the Girls   by Pat Barker , which covered the pre 1200 time period. I loved it, it's a retelling of the siege of Troy from a feminist perspective. I haven't worked out what I'm reading for the 1200-1399 time period. Suggestions are welcome. I'm currently reading  Central Station by Lavie Tidhar , which is science fiction set in a future Tel-Aviv. It's good, but there are loads of characters and I'm not overly invested. Although at least I'm having no problems telling the characters apart, they are very district. I just don't overly care what happens to them.   I'm listening to a NetGalley review copy of  Mona Acts Out by Mischa Berlinski , which is the story of a woman unravelling. It's very different from Mischa's other books, but quite compelling. I'm not sure what's next, probably something from Kobo-Plus, perhaps Regrets...