My purchases

I went to Ally Pally on the Friday and Sunday. I was helping out at the Aragon Yarns stand and also intent on some serious shopping. My original plan was to buy a Namaste bag from Purlescence then cram it full of goodies but as you'll see from the pictures that didn't happen. I like the colour of one bag but the design of another so I'm waiting for the next shipment to come in. I did visit Robbyn and Arman at least 5 times over the two days and they were very helpful and patient with me.

Aside from the bag, I think I got everything on my shopping list. I wanted a ton of sock yarn, some lovely patterns, some dark blue yarn for a cardigan, and a needle tube to stop me treading on my sock needles and breaking them. On Friday my focus was sock and lace yarn and I went to see Jeni at Fyberspates for it.

When I got home on Friday and started looking at lace shawl patterns, I began to realise I might be hampered by my needle collection. On Saturday I went through all my needles (they are now hung on the light fittings round my living room as decorations) and decided that although I had many needles, I needed a better solution to the right size wrong length dilemma. And I clearly needed more yarn.

So here's what I bought:

Shown above from left to right: 3 hanks of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock for a pair of stockings, two hanks of Fyberspates Nef Lace for a special project, 5 hanks of Fyberspates Scrumptious DK for an office cardigan


Shown above (yarn from left to right): Fyberspates Dream Sock Yarn, Skein Queen Sock Yarn, Brooklyn Handspun Sock Yarn (both from Socktopus), 2 more Fyberspates Dream Sock Yarn, Knitpicks Wooden Options Set!!!
Shown above (yarn from left to right): 4 hanks Koigu KPPPM sock yarn in two colours (it was reduced from £8.50 to £5 at Getknitted so it would have been a crime not to) 1 more hank of Fyberspates Dream Sock Yarn (which I have coveted on the internet for ages so was really happy to get this particular colourway), 12 balls of Sublime Organic Merino, 3 sublime pattern books and a HIPPO

The Hippo eats your sock and if you tread on it you only squish the hippo not the needles. It is bwilliant and I found it at the Web of Wool on Friday. Way better than a needle tube.

I have already earmarked patterns in the Sublime books for the new yarn and some I have stashed away and I feel all inspired and excited and want to start knitting for me again. I have a few jobs still to finish before I can really knit for myself but at least I'll have things to blog about again. The lace project is still a possibility. I have to find the right pattern and then take a deep breath. I don't want to talk about it much in case it doesn't work as lace is such an investment but a member of the family is engaged and I've been wanting a new lace project for a while so a lace shawl for the bride...?

So in total: 1 pair of stockings, 8 pairs of socks, a cardigan, a jumper, a shawl, 3 books, interchangeable needles and a Hippo. Well done me. Can you guess what the damage to my credit card was?

Something I picked up at Ally Pally...

...has left me with a streaming nose and a stomach bug. Which is the bad news. The good news is that I bought a huge haul of goodies and will show you them when I'm feeling a bit better.

New Noblin Designs

Motif Boatneck Sweater for 0 - 5yr olds


Lace scarf
Smiley Sunshine Blanket


I've been working on some designs for Aragon Yarns. I'm just about to email them the patterns and hopefully the prototypes will be on display at Ally Pally. There is another scarf pattern aswell, with cables and bobbles and the sweater has a choice of three motifs.

Check out Aragon Yarns here.

I will be at Ally Pally on Friday and Sunday with a few stints helping (!?) the Aragon Yarns team and otherwise bashing my credit card and eating chocolate. Perhaps I'll see you there!

P.S. Isn't my nephew cute! I took tons of photos but very few were usable as most featured him as nothing but a blur. He also preferred to stand facing the camera but then I didn't get a shot of the actual design feature of the jumper.