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Sunday 27 February 2011

Cardigan heaven...

Wow, it's a while since I've had time to post. Last weekend Margaret (Eddy's mum) came to stay for the weekend, and boy did we fill it with lots of things!!

Friday night we went out for a delicious curry. On Saturday we went to the wool shop in Leeds - I'd seen their stall at the Pudsey Lace Event, and really wanted to see the shop... more about that later :). In the afternoon we went to Leeds Industrial Museum then into the city centre for coffee. That evening we watched a movie and knitted. Well, Eddy didn't, but Margaret and I did! Sunday we went on the Keighley valley railway - we did the whole loop on a lovely steam train, then went to Riddlesden Hall for lunch and a good explore of the house. Afterwards we had tea and cakes at Salt's Mill in Saltaire and that evening we ate out at the Calverley Arms... I can't believe we fitted so much into a weekend (which is probably why I was so tired on Monday).

Anyway, the wool shop. The selection of wool was great - good variety of types and colours, and not too much really expensive stuff - which means making clothing wouldn't cost the earth. There was a great table to sit at and leaf through patterns, and lots of models on display, for inspiration. Best of all, the couple running the shop were lovely and really helpful. I came away with some 'sublime' wool in a lovely denim blue, which I'm knitting into a fitted cardigan/jacket. By the time Margaret left I'd already completed the back and one front. Since then I've done one sleeve, and started the other... it's a lovely design by Twilley's of Stamford, and a really easy knit! I especially love the crochet style edging:



While I was there I saw some 'Signature' wool by stylecraft - it's a now discontinued range, and was on offer. We found another great cardigan pattern it would be suited to, but sadly there wasn't enough left in the shop - I needed 24 balls! I did a quick google search at home, and found some going VERY cheap at rock-a-bye-baby... They only had 20 balls but this was the same dye lot as the stuff in Leeds - so guess where I went again this Saturday!! Overall I have to say that I received AMAZING customer service at both shops - which is so valuable in the current climate. I'll definitely keep both as favourite shops...

Speaking of good customer service, the threads I ordered from Thread Bear arrived this week - it's the first time I've ordered from them. I love the fact my stash was carefully wrapped in tissue paper and tied with a pretty red ribbon. Again, I will go back!

So I finally had the necessary Apple Cider for Hedgerow Birds. I've now finished the front, and I've made great progress on the back - it's probably about 3/4 stitched now.




Sorry for the crumpled state of these photos - I've been stitching this in hand.

Well, that's what I've been up to of late... now time to try and catch up on reading everyone else's blogs...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

have I asked you yet if you were on ravelry.com? It's a great place to find yarns because it'll show who is trying to sell their stashes. You can usually find what you are looking for, especially if you are looking for discontinued yarns.

Giovanna said...

Great going on Hedgerow Birds - it's so pretty, I'm going all nostalgic now :-)