Shopping!

It’s that time of year again, yesterday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate (thankfully it didn’t snow on us this year!) and spent some of my pennies on exciting things…

I was going to take photos of the event, but it was heaving with people after the first half hour or so, and I couldn’t be bothered trying to wait for gaps in the crowd, so my camera stayed in my bag this year. But I’ve made up for it by taking photos of my spoils!

I was quite restrained knitting-wise, there was lots of lovely yarn there, more so than in previous years I think, with more indie-dyers, but I have so much already that I resisted, apart from a kit to make the Autumn Tam from Jamieson’s of Shetland.

Unfortunately when I unpacked it this morning, I realised that I have two balls of one colour and another is missing. I’ve rung them, but the girl answering the phone said she’d have to speak to the people in charge, who are all at the show. She did helpfully suggest that I could just order the colour I was missing from the website, but having spent £29 already, I’m not minded to spend even more rectifying their mistake. Hopefully it’ll be sorted when they get back next week, I’ll keep you posted.

My main purchases this year were fabric. I came across The Silk Route very early on, and after using one of their packs to make a cushion a few weeks ago, I was inspired to buy two more. Sadly the red I bought to back the pack on the right doesn’t match in daylight (it looked okay in electric light) so I need to find something for that. The colours of the silks in the pack are on the back, so maybe I’ll just order one of those from their website.

I spotted the fabric on the left made up into a bag on the Fabrics Galore stand. I wasn’t going to buy any more bag-type fabric from them, only because I have a load I bought last year and the year before still waiting to be used, but I couldn’t resist this, there’s half a metre, so it’ll probably be a bag. Or maybe a cushion, that would be cute. The one on the right was from the Bernina stand, and was on sale at £5 a metre, the circles have sewing phrases in them, coupled with tape measures and cats I thought it would be perfect for little project bags.

I also wasn’t supposed to be buying fat quarters, but this amazing Japanese fabric cried out to me. Irises are one of my favourite flowers, and I love the other colours.

I bought a chrysanthemum FQ from the same stall (I think it was Japan Crafts, but I may be mistaken, I can’t see any fabric on the website, just kits) and two cheap ones for £1 each from someone’s sale basket).

I’ve had a vague plan for a while to use up my handspun leftovers by using them as warp for a woven scarf, so when I’ve got enough I’ll use this cone of thin silk for the weft. Oliver Twists did have some lovely things, but I was good and restrained myself to this. It wasn’t easy!

Texere had a stack of squares of sheepskin, I bought this one with the stiffest back I could find to make insoles for my winter boots. I’ll have cosy feet this winter!

My main spending this year was on dressmaking fabric and patterns. Well, not so much on the patterns, they were from the Sew Today stall and were £2 each, with one free if you bought three, so I got eight patterns for £12, which didn’t seem bad. These ones don’t have fabric yet, but I bought fabric for three of them.

A wool mix to make the coat on the right – three metres for £18, so if it does all go horribly wrong (this isn’t unlikely) it won’t be the end of the world.

A check for the jacket on the left, I think it’s a wool mix again, but I can’t remember! A metre and a half for £14.25 this time, so again not too much. It does say that this one’s easy, so perhaps I’ll start with this one!

And a metre and a half of a gorgeous wool check, I think I’m going to use it for one of the skirts in this pattern, but I might change my mind if I find a better pattern. I do like this pattern though, so I’ll definitely make it with something! This one was a bit pricier, at £14 per metre, but it’s lovely fabric. It’s from Fabrics Galore – I wish their shop was nearer, they do have nice things! I did go once, when I was down in London, if I get on with this dressmaking malarky I might have another trip next time I’m down. We’ll see how it goes.