Tuesday 29 May 2018

Woollinn!




What a weekend! In case you missed my last post, I flew to Dublin this weekend to attend Woollinn. Woollinn is Dublin's first yarn festival run by the lovely ladies from This is Knit, a yarn shop in Dublin. The event took place just outside Dublin, right next to the airport in ALSAA, a sports complex. The marketplace was in the main hall with classes running in various other rooms including a squash court.

The entrance!

Thursday 24 May 2018

Preparing for Woollinn




I'm off to Woollinn tomorrow! Woollinn is a new yarn festival this year based in Dublin and is running between 25th to 27th May. I wasn't planning to go originally but after winning two tickets from the Yarn in the City Podcast that was all the encouragement I needed!




Sunday 20 May 2018

Monday already?




Where did that weekend go? It felt like Friday afternoon only happened five minutes ago. But on the plus side it's been a great few days and I'm off to Woollinn this Friday and I can't wait!

So what have I been up to?

Friday

Thursday 17 May 2018

Local Yarn Shop Day




Did you make it to your local yarn shop on Saturday? I don't have one near me at the moment but there is a yarn shop local to my boyfriend in Portsmouth so I decided that it was going to be my local for the weekend! As I'm in Portsmouth a lot I think it may become a regular haunt especially after my experience on Saturday.

I'm not too familiar with most parts of Portsmouth so I Googled the shop and then got Will to drive there! He likes to get an insight into the knitting world occasionally and was descended on by the ladies knitting outside the shop for a chat. Perfect timing for me to look at yarn!


I don't know of any other yarn shops in Portsmouth other than Seeded. They run regular classes in the shop although I haven't had time to try one yet. I tried taking photos of the interior but it was so busy I couldn't get a clear shot. The plus side of this is that the shop was really busy! It's lovely to see similar people gathered for the same purpose. Alexis who owns the shop generously offered 20% off all yarns except Stylecraft for anyone who signed up for Local Yarn Shop Day at the shop. You can find her website for the shop here.

At the entrance cupcakes and a pile of yarn were sitting either side of the door, not that anyone needed any encouragement to go in. I even managed to capture a patient partner heading out of the shop or potentially a knitter?


Directly inside the shop was a heap of finished knitted items which had been submitted to the competition for the day. The rest of the shop was crammed with yarn in various shelves and nooks and crannies but in a way that you could see everything. There was also embroidery thread and ribbons and haberdashery items.

Alexis was very friendly and organised a raffle ticket for every £10 spent in the shop. I won a tote bag with the shop logo on it in gold. Who doesn't love a good raffle? The shop regulars were chatty and very keen for new local knitters. Within the first five minutes in the shop I was invited to the knit night and also any future dinners and drinks that they organize. This natural friendliness and reaching out to new people is one of my favourite parts of the knitting world. Long may it continue.

Aaaand there may have been a little bit of stash enhancement. Only three balls so fairly controlled and already allocated to projects. #winning!

First was a ball of sock yarn by Regia in dark blue with slim lines of orange. I'm hoping to make a pair of socks for Will for either his birthday in July or for Christmas. I've never knit socks for someone else and I'm looking forward to the challenge.



Next was another ball of sock yarn but with a difference. This is Regia cotton in Tutti Frutti. Again something new to me which is knitting with cotton and also knitting cotton socks. I'm interested to see if cotton can be knitted like normal socks or if it requires a bit more elasticity in the cast on and more stitches. Perfect timing for the hot weather we're having here in the UK. I'm thinking two pairs of short socks would work really well.



Last was a 200g ball (cake?) of Stylecraft Batik Swirl. I was attracted to the colours but had no idea what to use it for. The colourway is poppy fields and when I saw the colour mix it really evoked an image of poppy fields in my head. In a complete coincidence, I borrowed Issue 131 of Let's Knit magazine from my local library and their one ball knit for the month is a shawl using batik swirl and pattern looks nice. Sorted.



Did you go to your local yarn shop on Saturday? Any purchases or new knitting friends?

Have a great week x

Saturday 5 May 2018

On the needles




Hello!

I hope your weekend has started off well, whether it's with a night out or a cosy evening in. This morning I am still in bed at 11 with a fresh cup of tea, some knitting and listening to one of my favourite podcasts by the Grocery Girls. Tracy and Jodi are so much fun and every episode feels like a chat with friends. If you haven't watched them before I would definitely try out one of their podcasts.


I'm working on two projects this weekend, firstly the Flax Light jumper by Tin Can Knits.

Thursday 3 May 2018

April - a month of Finished Objects




Now that I’m back in the UK with free time, I’ve been looking at all the projects gathering dust in various corners of my room. There are a few. Well more than a few and suddenly I couldn’t cast on something new without at least trying to finish some of them. I tried casting on a basic hat and I couldn’t without looking at my WIP pile! This had to change. So without meaning to, April has become the month of finishing things. 

The first WIP was my Feb socks for the Grocery Girl Sock Bash. I have no idea why I thought joining a knit-along during the lead up to exams was a good idea! I have now finished the first sock: