Obligatory Holiday Post

It seems the only things that really inspire me to blog are my holidays (and rants haha). Perhaps I should start a separate blog just for that??! But anyway, here I am making my count of two posts a week come true with a blog about my weekend away. Me and boyf went to York to see the vikings and the wool and it was bloody brill!

I think I'd happened upon York as the place to go when I was looking for my annual coach trip holiday but we decided it'd be much nicer to go on our own so that we could do what we wanted when we wanted (and visit my sis on the way back).

On the Saturday which was the only free day we set off nice and early but boyf got half way to London before realising that we needed to be headed up north. That was a lie but it was the first of three times we got totes lost. We got into York at about 11 I think and obviously the first place we visited was Duttons for Buttons. Somebody had told me about it (I think Lynsey??) and I'd said that I would go but not done any research because I thought we'd be too busy but it was on the high street (Coppergate?) just near the Jorvik Centre so we found it dead easy in the end.

Oh my gosh.

And I couldn't photograph most stuff because there were other humans in the way... There was too much for me, I couldn't make up my mind so we headed to see the vikings and said we'd be back later. 

 There was a bit of a queue to get in so I got my crochet out (natch) which was promptly stolen by boyf because I'd taught him to chain t'other day and he wanted some of that:

 

I didn't mind too much though because the weather was good and there was an AMAZING busking band playing brill songs to dance to. :)

I couldn't work out whether we could take photos at all inside so I didn't bother but what I would say is, on the ride, about half way through there were two models who were supposed to be builders on a break and eating something but one of them was definitely real! I swear he smiled at me! Last night as we were going to bed boyf told me he thought the same thing - without me having to say it! WHAT A WEIRD FEELING! Why would somebody sit doing the same thing all day? How much does he get paid for that!? Are we going mad!?

 I knew after the vikings that we needed to go to the wool shop - Ramshambles. I've followed them on twitter for a while and they seem lovely and I like the name and... oh... why am I making excuses to visit an LYS - of course we were going to go! It's right at the end of the street and it is beautiful!

It really does remind me of my little shop inside. Lots of mismatched furniture and stuff everywhere. There's a lot of King Cole products, some Regia and then some bits like Rowan, Debbie Bliss (I think?) and some bits that are a bit more local and a bit more special.

I plumped for five colours of the Austermann Merino Lace (£2.99 for 350 metres!!!!) and two balls of Aire Valley Aran in a beautiful purply shade for some thick socks for boyf.

I started this in the lace in the car on the way back:

 

 It's a pretty simple half and half scarf which I've had in my head for a while and I'm joining the granny squares as I go and it's the first time I've done that and it's worked out - I think because the yarn is so delicate! I've got all sorts of combos in my head for the Truly Wool Rich 4ply so watch this space for a pattern but I must say I'm pretty taken with the laceweight enough to perhaps stock it? It was on the cards a few years ago but I couldn't justify the price then because most of our customers wouldn't have had a clue what to do with laceweight but you've grown with us and I can think of a million things to do so we'll see.

Anyway, the girls were delightful - didn't take their names because I would never remember. I loved their stock room! One day I'll have my very own:

 

And in particular I luuuuuuuuurved this display:

I hope you do too because we might have one very similar in the not too distant future... ;)

 And I most enjoyed their blackboard: 

The girls were helping other people when we left so I didn't get the chance to do a nice goodbye but I hope that they read this and know that they did a good job - lovely shop! I'll go back one day!

Then we found a bloke on the floor. 

Some sort of street performer obviously but he just wouldn't shut up so we walked off and then he did the thing that he was threatening he'd do just as we turned away. Oh well. Patience is a virtue but I'm sure it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. 

Then we found ourselves back in the button shop where I noticed that they had a sign for wool upstairs! It was in a hidden medieval room that apparently had been forgotten about for 500 years. How does that happen????

There wasn't much wool - I got the impression that they were just starting out so I'm sure it will get better and the stuff they had was perfectly nice. The room was spectacular though!

 I bought what were deffo the best buttons in the whole shop and we went off to find somewhere to eat. 

We totes failed at that. Everywhere we went there were stinking (literally) football fans. Ugh. I can put up with a fair amount of olfactory battering but one pub had me heaving. So we went to a museum instead where we were able to talk about both carbolic smoke balls and liquorice twigs. Got there a bit late for the old fashioned sweet shop though...

Back in the hotel boyf requested that I teach him to crochet properly and he made this:

Which I promise is a granny square if you just ignore the bottom right hand corner. And he enjoyed it that much that whilst we were waiting for dinner he had a go at a ripple!

I think laceweight yarn and working into actual stitches rather than holes was a bit much for him though. At least he tried (and didn't bugger it up too badly so I couldn't fix it...).

On the Sunday we visited Cazza and there's not much to say about that really - lots of gossip, some fish and chips and t'babbeh being a rotter! She did finally get this through the post though: 

Which was the project that I started the day after I said I wasn't going to start any projects until the bridesmaid dress was finished. Oh well. Too beautiful not to. It's the Skull Shawl from ravelry and I used five or so balls of Patons Diploma in black. Dead good.

And that's that! A blog! It's only taken about four hours! Haha. Good little holiday.

Love Eleanor. :)