Knitting And Stitching Show

I had a lovely day yesterday, it started off when I tried to get into a Range Rover and only being short and without the aid of a ladder I eventually managed it! It gave everyone a good laugh and started the day off in a cheery mood especially a we had an early start. It really made a change as I was a passenger, there was lots of chatting in the car and we missed the turning, but we still arrived early and had a coffee before the show opened! Once inside we split up and arranged to meet up at 3.30 for Afternoon Tea, we set off into the halls packed with all the wonderful things to tempt us, my purse flew open and out came my cash and my credit card and this is what I came home with.

I joined the International Felt Makers Association, I'd spent a wonderful week with Cathy Unwin an ERTF member and Sue Pearl at Janice Gunner's summer school, it was nice to meet Sue again. Janice had a solo exhibition at the show too, I managed to get to say hello to her . The place was buzzing, it's always great to meet up with people you know either in the crowds or on their stands. James Hunting was on the Royal School of Needlework stand, he was a great help to ERTF when we were launching.

East had a lovely exhibition which will be moving to Harrogate K&S in November, next Autumn it will be at the Warners Archive, so there will be plenty of chances to view their work again, Janette and Carole were on the stand so I thought I'd share a photo of them with you! This year there were a lot of knitting stalls which I was pleased about as I had my cousin J with me she was a K&S virgin, she enjoyed the show and came home with wools to knit socks, scarves and even some wire and beads to knit 5 bracelets! I think she's hooked and will going again next year, who knows next year she may even buy some threads and surprise everyone! By the time it got to 3 o'clock, we had done almost everything, so we made our way outside to meet the others for our tea. This is this first time I've done this as usually when I go to this show I don't stay that long, my daughter usually comes with me and we have a system where we walk up and down the isles, buy what we want when we see it and never go back on ourselves. This time we wandered and spent more time looking at the exhibitions, both ways are enjoyable and I thought that we had earned our tea!

Funnily enough when we got back to the car I had no trouble getting in, maybe it's because my purse was much lighter! The journey home was good, talking about what we'd seen and bought, I was dropped off and the others went home. I spent the evening finishing off a pair of socks so later today I'm going to download a pattern for a shawl and get knitting, using my new purchases. I'm going to give the sock knitting a rest for a while. I've also got to work out what to do with soft sulpt, watch this space! I should also say thanks Diane for the lift, Sharne, Jackie, and the k&S virgin for the company!