From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Here I am in Dublin at my mother in law's house. The children have gone for a sleepover at their cousin's place and husband has gone to the pub for a drink with his brother. I opted to stay at home and upload some pictures and knit a little.

The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace was fantastic, although I do admit to feeling a little lonely while I was looking at the exhibits and textile art installations. At times I found myself talking to no-one in particular, and then feeling a little sheepish when nobody answered me back.

The venue itself is spectacular, and I was lucky enough to go in the morning of the first day and the crowds weren't too bad. Maybe a few more schoolgirl groups than I'd like, but not a jostling crowd like I've seen at the Darling Harbour shows.

The huge popularity of knitting and yarn was clear - most women were talking about only being there for the knitting - and there were many many yarn stands. I was particularly starstruck by the Jamieson and Smith display - the whole range, all the colours, and the lovely scottish women working there. The Rowan stand had the lot; fabric, patterns, buttons, yarn - it took up four spaces. I met the koigu people (who were lovely), the habu people (from the New York store), the Buffalo Gold man (with his £30 a skein bison yarn) and saw lots of yarn I'vee never seen before; like Spud and Chloe, there was also some fibrespates, and a beautiful English longwool with the most gorgeous lustre that I'm kicking myself I didn't buy.


One of the busiest yarn stalls was a pretty rudimentary affair, presentation wise anyway. Piled on the floor were bags and bags of discontinued Rowan, Sublime, Debbie Bliss, Mirasol and many others. I picked up two bags of Sublime baby cashmere/merino/silk dk for £22.99 per bag.



From another stall I got two zauberball - one lace and one fish - and from koigu, two skeins of koigu in the most amazing purple and gold combination.

I also picked up some fabulous buttons with bees on them, but I didn't take a photo of them.

The textile art installations and exhibits were out of this world. I didn't have a lot of time to really look at them, but they were like nothing I'd ever seen before. And there was an entire wing of artisans chosen by a group called 'craft guerillas' - I haven't done any research about them but the stalls in that wing were the most innovative and fresh textile wearable art peices I've ever seen or imagined.

But, dear readers, I have a confession to make. I've left it right to the end to say it, in the hope that not all of you have read this far.

I succumbed to the lure of a novelty yarn.

But can you really blame me when, just hours after casting it on (you just push the needle through the yarn in a few places to cast on) I had this gorgeous thing?

Ridiculous, I know .. But I love it anyway ..



And, last but not least - do you want to know what everyone is wearing? One of the big trends is - not only in clothing but evidently in everything including yarn in the UK - it's vintage/my fair lady style (or military) - kind of post-war fifties British style of making do - which includes knitting. Everyone is all over wool - they've even yarn bombed Browns Focus!

All the high street fashion shops like topshop, h&m, zara - even M & S - the whole range of clothes have been made made to look old and second hand - it's all crushed velvet, aged denim, tiny floral patterns on dresses, lace up brogues. And chuck out the ghd - straight hair is dead.

Anyway, I'm off to the Irish countryside tomorrow for a pub lunch with the rest of my husband's big family. Sorry about the long post!