Yarndale!!!!!!

Massive apologies for the atrocious state of play around here recently. I've been gearing up in a BIG way for all the Amy Singer lessons, I'm so excited I feel constantly sick. Lovely Kate Bolin won a free lesson through the competition from last week and she's chosen the Silk Spinning - a noble choice! For the rest of you, all I'll say is, make sure that you sign up to the mailing list for something most most most most exciting coming your way on Tuesday.... There are currently spaces on every event but it's starting to look a bit hairy so if you're umming and ahhing just bloody get on with it - it's a once in a life time opportunity and it's really something very special to be part of. :)

Now, with that out of the way I need to talk about YARNDALE! What an incredible day! I must admit, I was terribly stressy nervous beforehand. I get horrid anxiety about things like this which is why we haven't done anything like it before. I just knew that I had to go to this and that if I was going I wanted you lovely lot there too. Tickets sold out in no time at all so I knew everybody was as keen as me.

On the day we were leaving at half past eight on Mount Street. I met a few people beforehand and we ambled up at around eight there were already at least ten people waiting. Colourful people! We looked so much happier than the other lot who were waiting to go on holiday, naturally. I was a bit worried when the bus was five minutes late or so but it turns out Abdul, our fabulous driver, had gone to the other side of Mount Street (over Maid Marian Way) which is, I think where a lot of us thought we'd be going from too.

The day before I'd realised as I was walking out of the door that I hadn't printed the list of attendees so I hastily hand wrote a list and luckily everyone was on there. Phew! I ticked people off and they got on the coach and we were off!

I got to sit on the pull down seat at the front of the bus so I got the best view. :)

We picked up Rachel and Katherine from Sheffield and Vezza ran to the loo - I'm glad she didn't pop whilst we were there! I am not a trained midwife.

Beforehand I was most excited about using the microphone but when it came to it it made me feel a bit weird so, believe it or not, it barely used it. About half way through the journey there were roadworks on the motorway so we had to take a detour through Bradford which I thoroughly enjoyed - beautiful architecture. And then when we were making the final approach to the Auction Mart we were stuck in a massive amount of traffic. Apparently there were some rumblings further back in the coach about how long it took so Lindsey told me to get on the mic and explain which felt a bit awkward.

Lindsey took pictures of the traffic. Because that's normal... I tried to make eye contact with everybody and ask them if they were knitters and every time somebody said 'yes' the front of the coach exploded in applause. 

So we queued for AGES and then when we finally got there they told us that there might not be room for us! I didn't know what to say but lovely Abdul sweet talked the beardy man at the entrance and we were in. We trundled off the coach, I wanted a photo but people were just. mad. to. get. in. So we forewent the group photo and piled in. I think they liked having such a massive group. :) To be frank there was a distinct lack of photos from my end because I was really conscious of my phone battery and having some in the case of emergency. 

I hung around with Dee and Verity most of the day and people attached and unattached themselves to our little group. There was so much to see and too many bloody people which always puts me on edge but the stall holders were fabulous and there were so many beautiful products. I went with a budget of £0 precisely and ended up spending a good £50. Ugh. But, like Lynsey at Novice Crafter says, you need to go with artisan items in mind, stuff you can't get elsewhere, and if you can't get it elsewhere then it needs to be got now. 

My best purchase was two skeins of cashmere laceweight for £10 each! £10!!!! That is a stunning price and the colours are brill. I think one will end up being a gift. There's more too but I'm still knackered so I'm going to leave you with a load of stolen photos from my lovely customers and try and get some sleep. I'll photograph my haul at some point and show you.

 Lovely Lindsey and a wabbit. For what it's worth, Lindsey's partner, I think she deffo deserves to own one. 

Lynsey's fab photo of us all queuing up, I was at the front shouting about when and where we were meeting. 

 Lynsey's photo of the For the Love of Yarn stall. I adored this stall! All the beautiful sparkly hooks! But by the time I got to it I'd spent as much as I could spend without wanting to die so I'm going to order on the facebook at some point...

Lynsey's photos of the angora wabbits. Ahhhh.

And the alpacas. I avoided them.

Verity looking bloody marvelous at eight months or so. Makes me sick.

 And her hall. Can you tell her favourite colours?

And finally, she made this on the bus didn't she!? Sickening.

Right, I can barely keep my eyes open. I'm going to bed and if I have time I might flesh this out a bit. Remember Amy's coming and this could be your chance to meet her and bask in her amazing talent. < 3

Love Eleanor. xxxx

An Amy Singer Competition!

Win!!!!!!!! Spread the word. :) Love. xx

Ahhhh Bakewell.

I hinted last time that I'd been to Bakewell. Well, when I say hinted, I actually just told you that I went. And went I did! I was taken there as it happens by a fella but I'm keeping my cards close to my chest lest he turns out to be a wanker like the rest of them (aye me... ). I can't make this a massive blog but I wanted to do something because I've had quite a day today (lost in two separate parts of Nottinghamshire) and I want to tell you all about that but I didn't know whether I wanted to talk about this but I definitely wanted to blog in order (like littletinbird < 3) but it's now 18.02 and I'm knicky-knacked and I want to get home and finish the thing that I started in the yarn that I bought in one of the places that I got lost to find. Clear, yeah? :)

So, he drove in his car. And he's quiet so I rambled on and crocheted this:

 

Beauts, yeah? It's some sort of top down crochet jumper that I made up when I was drunk on the birthday in the BEAUTIFUL new King Cole Country Tweed DK - be still my beat beat beat beat beating heart. Oooof, it's good to work with. :)

 

I tried not to go too mad with 'photos.for.the.blog' but I think he thought I was a mental anyway. You know how I like photos of sky though.

 

 

And that was just the back of the carpark!

 

First thing we did was find the wool shop. Obvs. It's not a wool shop, it's a craft shop and it's packed to the rafters with cross stitch and general tapestry:

 

 

Brill!!!! Seriously stunning work but I can't help but think... why??? More than a little bit is a sad waste of knitting/crochet time, no?

 

This was their yarn and pattern selection. It's acrylic dk. Which has it's place but I can't say I was thrilled. Ain't no way I'm buying acrylic dk as a souvenir. Then I found this:

 

 

Brill photo! It's hanks of pure wool in a sort of thick dk/worsted/thin aranish weight but it had no price tag on it. When I asked the lady how much it was, she was like 'uhhhh, it's wool, yeah?', 'right, how much?', 'are you going to knit with it?', 'well, yes, how much?', ' but it's for tapestry', 'I'll survive, how much?'. I forget now how much it was to be honest, a fair-ish price, somewhere around £5.00 for 50g which just on the high side of okay for high quality wool I think. I bought emerald green, navy and cream thinking fairisle but I never seem to carry around circular needles any more so I started a hat in crochet instead. Here:

 

 

Another brill photo... It's finished now but I'm not happy with the decreases so I may take it out to there and start again. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

 

We went for tea. Very civilised but I was too drunk/hungover to pour my own tea without smashing the place up so he had to do it for me:

 

 

Despite my pathetic feminist whinging 'but I don't need a man to pour my tea'. Turns out I did...

 

I balled the yarn.

 

 

Swooooooooon.

 

And then we decided to go to the museum which is my favourite thing to do on days out. He did warn me it was up a hill and I didn't believe him and I honestly thought my head was going to explode before we got up there. But we saw a tractor:

 

 

And lots of little hatch-type doors in stone walls:

 

THE MUSEUM WAS AMAZING! AMAZING! Not too big and not too small. A bit local and a bit national. A bit very old and a bit Victorian old and a bit WW2. I didn't take enough photos because I was just trying to take it all in. I really liked the bit about an elephant in Bakewell. I suppose liked is the wrong word but was fascinated by...

 

There was an exhibition on knitting in the war and that's where all my photos came from:

 

 

I taught the fella to knit. He wasn't very good. But he does understand the Einstein's Theory of Relativity so we'll let him off?

PATONS!

 

What a dresser!!!

 

Blurry photo of a brill looking book. Nothing inside. A metaphor for life?

 

And a nice little display. :)

 

Then we walked down to the pub because my belly was making some weird noises. On the way down we saw this:

 

 

No words.

 

This! Cute!

 

And this! Which is where I bought my tart and he his pudding in the end.

 

 

Lunch was to die for:

 

 

Such good hangover food.

 

And then we headed back to Nottingham. I talked at him all the way home and crocheted. Natch. then we went to the pub where I found a cat that fell in love with me and we discussed the state of the world.

 

 

Awwwww.

 

And that's that. Not as short as I'd imagined but you can't shut me up can you? Oh well. Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, I'll tell you about what I've been up to today. Sleep before then though.

 

Love Eleanor. xxxx









Party People.

Wow! What a party. I've just got back from the shop because we were too tipsy (read: drunk) to cash up properly on Saturday. Good party!!

So, it always starts for me the day before. We have a good tidy and a sort out, get the new yarns on the shelf and clear the chairs away. It's always a late night but June made me start at two so it wasn't as late as it could be. Still bloody knackered though!

The mess. 

The plan.

The (almost) finished thing.

June getting some bloody work done. 

On the day of the party I was miraculously there with ten minutes to spare and because we'd decided not to do balloons so there were no hissy fits this time. Dee came with beyooooootiful cakes, Rachel came from Sheffield and Kayleigh invested in some of the Flash DK. They were happy there: 

Then I spent some time taking photos because I promised I would: 

This is the advent calender I've been making all the way through August. It's from the King Cole Christmas Knits book which is in the shop now and will be on the internet at some point this week. It proved quite a hit at the party!

The King Cole Flash again. I do believe I'm in love. 

And... more Flash DK apparently... but also the gorgeous Regia Mix It which was the undoubted bestseller at the party, which I suspect is because of June's beautiful display. Seriously, I bet we sold as many balls at the party as we have done since we had it in, say, a month ago. I think it's the winter feeling! Ooohohohohoh there's a crispness in the air. :)

And finally, for the sensible photos, this is the donkey tat. My nephew bought it for me at the seaside on his holiday. Looook: 

It's been in the shop for a few weeks but it came into it's own on Saturday as lucky dip cup. And speaking of lucky dips - look who won all of her money off!!!

Only the lovely Annette! We were dead pleased that it was a regular that won and there was much squealing. It was a lot of yarn and a ticket for the Amy Singer Evening and I know that she's dead pleased. 

Then the day got silly. 

Amy Blackwell and Jem Weston turned up. Famous people! Me and Steph were too drunk to behave like normal humans. 

But it was fine when it was just us two. :)

I calmed down enough to have my photo taken with Jem but we still weren't able to get anything normal...

Lovely Jem. :)

The sunset was delicious. And me and June decided to get a photo together but...

I tried to give her a hug and did her back in, she got me back and then we made friends. Still no brill photos. I tried!

At the end of the night I got this photo of the stragglers: 

Lovely Elizabeth and Davina appreciating the wine. 

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE WINE!

On Sunday I went to Bakewell which I might blog about and then this morning I sorted out the till and bought some new shoes from Daphne's. New shoes? Oooh. 

Beauts! 

And that's the story of the Knit Nottingham Party. Thanks for coming, thanks for bringing chocolate/cake/toffee (oh so much chocolate/cake/toffee!!!), wine, yourselves and thanks for making us sell out of three colours of the Ultimate Super Chunky and for appreciated the display and for the laughs. It was bloody fantastic! :)

Love Eleanor. 

Sneaky Peek at What's Going On Sale Tomorrow. :)

OHOHOHOHOHOHOOH! Here's a treat for you! I'm writing this at 13.41 on the 6th of September and at 14.00 precisely I am moving the shop around for the party and to get these beauts on the shelf. I also have to have some lunch in this time so it will be short but sweet but I PROMISE, hand on heart, that I will take a tonne of photos at the birthday party and then I'll do a big long blog for you. And then I'll blog more regularly. And then I'll get my figures done. And then I'll tidy and decorate the cellar. And then I'll give up smoking. And then I'll get to heaven. Ugh. There's not been enough time to get the patterns on the internet either so I'm going to put a photo of my favourite pattern from each range and give you a promise to get them on t'internet this coming week. :)

First and foremost, the King Cole Ultimate Super Chunky. I've said on the shop page that it's a bit like a cross between the King Cole Gypsy and the King Cole Supa Dupa Chunky. And it is, it has the colours of the Gypsy but the heft of the Supa Dupa. But you know what it reminds me of most? The Cygnet Criss Cross which I do believe was a lovely yarn but the colours just weren't up to scratch and me oh my oh me oh my oh me oh my these bloody are! Good old King Cole!!! :)

All the deets are on the shop page - click here. 

And my favourite of the corresponding patterns is this little beaut: 

But.... ugh... ahh... I don't like ponchos. What's happening to me!? 

The next introduction just might be my favourite thing ever in the whole world. The King Cole Flash (ahhhhhhh) DK. I don't think it's an entirely inappropriate time of year to be selling me candy colours but LOOOOOOOK at them! Ha! Doesn't that just cheer you up on a grey day in September?! :) The crochet on the left is a baby blanket I started (and finished... my poor little fingers) yesterday. Can you say obsessive?

All the deets, as before, are on the shop page.

AND MY FAVOURITE PATTERN FROM THE RANGE MIGHT JUST BE MY FAVOURITE PATTERN EVER! LOOK!

LOOK AT THAT CARDIGAN!

And lastly but not leastly, the King Cole Country Tweed. It's a hell of a lot like the King Cole Riot DK but it's got little flecks which I think are viscose. Beautiful! Vezza's fallen in love already. 

And again, all the deets on the shop page. I think you'll love it. < 3

This is my favourite pattern of the lot, not because it's a fantastically amazing pattern but because it's a good bog standard and we need that sometimes don't we? I also like her chubby little cheeks. :)

Right, it's 14.07. It's Lindsey's fault. I'm going to get a sandwich and then I'm getting down to it. 

See you soon with news of the party.

Love Eleanor.

P.s. Look what turned up today! OH YES! AMY SINGER! Bring it on!!!