Harrogate knitting and Stitching

OK, so this is a week late... Last weekend was Harrogate knitting and stitching show. For the last few years I've gone for a good stash shop with Margaret, or with Sonia and Pam. This year I swore blind I wasn't going to go... (it can get a bit 'samey')... and then Phyllis asked me if I'd help with the Lace Guild stall!!!

On Saturday I drove up to Harrogate, arriving a little later than planned due to the snow. I set up my lace table and pillow, and set to work on a little gold and green Christmas ornament as a demonstration piece. I was delighted to realise one of the other volunteers was Jane, who goes to the Christine Springett class in May. It was great fun making the ornament, and talking to anyone who passed by, mostly explaining lace isn't as tricky as it looks, and showing them a couple of stitches.

We had an amazing display of entries to the latest Lace Guild competition - on the theme of 'movement'. The John Bull trophy winner was a map of the London Underground made entirely of lace - it was a real talking point. Irritatingly I'd forgotten my camera, and my phone battery died just as I arrived in Harrogate, so I don't have any photos of the display.

But what about the inevitable stash shopping??? I had a break at lunchtime, when I bought two sweetheart tree charts (Lets get fancy fob and Holiday Holly biscornu), then right at the end of the day I bought a quilting kit from Oakshott (who had a lovely range of shot fabrics), and enough Moda fabric to make another lap quilt (from a pettern I have in my stash). Hmmmm, I've never actually finished anything bigger than a table mat....



Phyllis bought me an Oakshott cotton pack - enough fabric to make either a bag or two simple bowls, with a free pattern - for my birthday.



All in all it was a great day!!

This week I've cut out the Oakshott fabric into pieces for 'Amish Star', and today I have made the first block (of 16). I'm quite pleased with the results:


I wonder how long it will take me to make (I would have made more blocks today, I think, but I've been hit with another winter cold - nothing too bad, but my nose is rather runny, which makes sitting at the sewing machine tricky!!)

Busy!

Wow, life is busy right now. About to head out to London to see Michelle and Julian...

I had a great time at Harrogate, bought lots of stash, and met Kate and Amanda from the UKstitchers BB, which was lovely! I also caught up with Phyllis and Richard. Margaret had a great time too.

On Monday night I hosted another stitch and bitch:


Emma


Me, Sonia and Louise


Sarah and Fiona


Jennifer (known to everyone other than Sarah as Avivah)

It was lovely to meet Jennifer (Avivah), who has come over from New Mexico to stay with Sarah. Odd girl really likes the British rain though.... She was knitting an amazing lace shawl. Well, not sp much knitting as swearing at it - knitting complex patterns with jetlag appears to be bad for one's stress levels!

Harrogate stash haul, new car

It's a week since I last posted??? Wow, time has flown past!

I'll start with sharing my stash haul from Harrogate Knitting and Stitching:

Charts:
Hand in Heart - Herbert
JBW designs - Christmas keepsakes II, A very Merry Christmas
Little House Needleworks - Holly & Berries, Wool needlebook and fob, Blossoms & Blackbirds
Michael Powell - Mini Greek Island 9

Threads:
assorted weeks, GAST and crescent colours. I spent way too much on these...

Lace Making:
Lace Guild - Harrogate K&S fair bobbin, 2008 membership bobbin, 'Introduction to Milanese lace' by Pat Read (booklet)

Quilting:
Monkey Buttons - double star strippy pattern (I need to improve before I attempt this)

Beading:
Spellbound Bead Co - Marina necklace kit (in black) - something new to try!!! (present from Margaret)

Best of all, Margaret bought me a Needle Needs 'Millenium' embroidery frame, with 2 sets of top and bottom bars (22" and 18"??? can't remember and I haven't measured them) - which I love. I think I'll be phasing out my scroll frames....

Margaret bought - a knitting book, 4 huge balls of wool (400g - that's not a typo, each one is bigger than my head!!), a kit to knit a toy camel, a beading kit to make snowflakes and a book on lucet brai making.

The best part of the show, for me, was being able to buy my first ever Michael Powell kit directly from Michael (and have a quick chat about his art work too), and to meet Raymond Honeyman who designs for Ehrman tapestries. I've nver done any tapestry, but his desogns were so wonderful I feel yet another craft coming on... it's great to meet a designer and be so amazed by their (previously unheard of to me) work and feel the need to start somehting new! Sadly I have spent far too much of late on crafts to even consider ordering a kit from Ehrman...

Did I mention it's the Solihull Christmas Lace fair on Saturday. As this falls on my birthday I clearly have to attend and spend copious amounts of money. I've ordered a Richard Gravestock workbox to pick up, just hope my credit card can stand the pounding...

On the theme of credit card pounding, my little fiesta is termianlly ill. A wheel bearing has been going for ages, and now the clutch is sliding, and about to go. Given the car is worth very little, these repairs aren't cheap, and there are a whole host of other 'minor' problems - front windscreen demister only works on the passenger side, setting 3 on the air blowing system doesn't work at all, the rear demister doesn't work, the rear windscreen wiper only works when it wants to, the boot (trunk) leaks water when it rains (I have a bag in there to catch it), the boot doesn't always unlock, the light on the dashboard only works if I hit the dashborad, and now soemtimes cuts out while I'm driving - and possibly other stuff I've forgotten - we've decided to retire it. As of Thursday I will be the proud owner of a 6-month old silver fiesta (zetec climate 1.4 diesel for car nerds). Everything will work, and it has a front heated wondscreen, so lengthy de-icing will be a thing of the past.I just hope the clutch in the old car lasts til Thursday, and that I don't have a snow-related driving disaster... I also need to master drivning a diesel in low gears - I've never stalled so much as I did on the test drive!! I'll run it in driving down to Birmingham for the lace fair.. (yes, this purchase will severely restrict my spending power at the fair, and for the nest 2 years..)

Right, I'll go now. Ornie stitching has taken over my life, and I need to finish Herbert...

Harrogate Knitting and Stitching

Margaret and Paul came to stay this weekend, mostly so Margaret and I could go to the knitting and stitching show in Harrogate. On Saturday we got up promptly and left for Harrogate just after 9. After a short wait to get in the car park we parked and headed to the International Centre, arriving just after the doors opened at 10. The show was fantastic, as always. I'll probably share our purchases in a later post, but I have to confess we spent a fair amount! (but not as much on our recent shopping trip in Solihul!!).

We decided to head to the back of the halls and work towards the front, in an attempt to avoid the crowds. Lots of stalls caught out eyes - for me there was the cross stitching and lace making, Margret is a knitter, and between us we've had a go at many of the other crafts! As always, I drooled over the wonderful quilting patterns and fabrics (especially at Monkey Buttons), but showed a great deal of restraint as I've not used the stuff I bought last year yet! The Spellbound beading stall caught our eyes - and our wallets - so there's a new craft on the horizon! We drooled over knitting patterns, wools (loved the Wensleydale sheep stall, complete with cushion made from unprocessed shaggy wool!), embroidery kits of all types, braidmaking, oh, and the workbenches and storage furniture were amazing - once we buy a house (mansion??) big enough for a large sewing room....

We saw some great displays too - these really caught my eyes:




It's a crocheted coral reef, which is constantly evolving, to highlight the plight of coral reefs and the creatures who live on them. (Apologies for the poor photos - I left my camera at home, so took these with my not-so-high-tech phone!!). We stopped off at the Lace Guild stall and had a chat with Phyllis (my Sheffield mum and lace teacher - Margaret hadn't met her before, which seemed odd!), then we met Sonia and Pam (from the stitch and bitch group) for lunch, where we showed off our purchases and discovered we were doing better than them for stall visiting - we'd managed 1.5 halls out of 4, they'd just completed 1!! I've still not had chance to ask Sonia what they bought in the afternoon as we didn't see them again all day. We dashed back, and managed another 1.5 halls before needing another break. We stopped for coffee in the Royal Hall:


We were amazed that we might have missed such a stunning theatre the previous year - until we saw the display saying it had only reopened in April, after years of refurbishment. Well that expains it! We watched a fun Millinery fashion show while we drank our coffee - amazed at the skill of the students studying at local colleges - then hit the stalls again for one final fling. We only just managed to get through all 4 halls, then had a final mad dash back to a few places for last minute puchases and leaflet collecting before heading home for a well deserved break, and takeaway curry for tea!

More later...