I had a lovely day yesterday at the Knitting and Stitching Show (NEC), spent with Lucy who is son no.1’s lovely girlfriend. It was a real pleasure to spend the day in such delightful company, one I am desperately trying to convince her to repeat for Ally Pally, sadly she will be back at Uni and will be entrenched in her studies.

We arrived rather early and sat and drank coffee whilst waiting.

and just to add a sense of proportion as I was the one behind the camera, here is a (slightly gruesome!) picture of me.

The first item that greets you is the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef an exhibition designed to bring your attention to the plight of coral reefs. Its quite stunning and my photography really does not do this justice. If I could crochet I would be very tempted to contribute. It always astounds me just how knitters when united (and it doesn’t take much to unite knitters) can highlight issues in such a way that it is not easy to ignore.

Lucy was highly amused by Has anyone seen my knitting? I wondered how heavy the needles were and how many people it had taken to lift them and be able to knit. I wasn’t quite brave enough to try and lift one.

Web of Wool were enjoying the show, Lucy found some black and silver/white scholler & stahl La Ola Stripes which went beyond fulfilling her expectations. Her mission was to find a black and white sock wool and when we spied this, for a pattern called Crazy Fur that she had greatly admired in Anna’s book Fab Feet & Cosy Toes, Lucy was Giddy with excitement and I knew the mysterious yet potent yarn fumes had worked their magic and she had wandered over to the dark side. Welcome Lucy, you’ll never be the same again!

Later Lucy found some polka dot black and white yarn, (Lucy is the polka dot queen!) and she Had to have it, (I know this feeling well) and needed 20mm needles to knit up a lovely scarf with it. We headed back to Web of Wool, even though she is a newbie she exhibits the intense shopping stance of seasoned knitter.

During the afternoon we attended a workshop on how to make a couture fascinator by Janie Lashford. To Lucy’s great pleasure Janie Lashford was working on a fascinator with polka dots! A picture taken with permission.

There were many art exhibitions, too many to photograph, a tree.

A very interesting marine creature.

A bag that was gorgeous.

And then there were bras and basques..

A mirrored bra.

More tea Vicar?

There was shopping… some exquisite sock yarn from fybrespates and some roving/top generously given to me by them, as I was chatting to them about my wish to start spinning.

And a new project, its been many years since I’ve sewn for pleasure, this looked so beautiful and relatively simple, I had to have it.

Then homeward bound, happy and contented although I have to say ever so slightly knackered!