Sunday 12 October 2008

Ally Pally and a bit of Natural History

So, what did I get at this year's Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace? Tonsillitis, yay!! Actually, I think it's more likely to have been the crowded tube trains that were responsible, or maybe one of the dinosaurs from the Natural History Museum where we stopped on our way back from the show.


But as well as an 'orrible bug, which is now thankfully on the mend, I did get some much nicer things. Mum and I went on the Friday, and it didn't seem quite as busy as in previous years, so we managed to see a lot in a few hours. I started off by making a beeline for the Socktopus stall, to take the photos that I promised Jooles of her Spindlefrog rovings there.



I've put rings around the Spindlefrog wools. Look Jooles, they're just under the Pigeonroof Studios fibres and to the left of the rovings from Chameleon Colourworks!


I was very very tempted by the Spindlefrog fibres... But I decided to be good as I'm expecting a swap parcel from Jooles soon, wouldn't do to be greedy would it?! I wasn't as disciplined when it came to the tops from Pigeonroof Studios. I see them so rarely for sale, I spent quite a while just staring at them. And then somehow a braid of BFL in 'Caribbean' coours jumped into my hands and demanded to go home with me. I did as it asked, and here it is now:



I did very well during the rest of the show, everything else that I came home with was on my quite minimal shopping list.



On the right is a skein of Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn. It's a much brighter green in real life, my camera didn't like it as much as I do, it's very squishy and hug-able. It's destined for some cabled or lacy socks for me, and I'm going to learn to do them with the magic loop technique so that I can see the pattern more easily as I knit. The ball of red/blue yarn is some Kauni Effect Yarn from the Scandinavian Knitting Design stall, which changes as if by magic through rainbow colours as you knit with it. I'm planning to make one of Cosmicpluto's Simple but Effective Shawls with it. The other packet of fibre is naturally dyed merino from the Natural Dye Studio, gorgeous stuff, it was so hard to choose just one!


And have you spotted the first ever issue of Sew Hip magazine amongst the goodies? It looks like a great magazine, can't wait to see it in the shops like the issues of Yarn Forward that I saw in my local newsagent's this morning (yay for that!!). I've not done any sewing for ages, but some of the projects in the mag are calling me to dust off my sewing machine and delve in to my fabric stash again.


Then, on the way home, we stopped by at the Natural History Museum (one of my all time favourite places) and saw these...


Cute stuffed critters:



A creepy but pretty cool neanderthal skull:



This, OMG why do they let kids see it, huge animated dinosaur (it's blurry because it was moving towards me, and because I was running away, it was that scary and realistic-looking), I swear it was following me:



These familiar-looking fossilised shells (they came from the same area of the UK as the ones I've put in my fossil spindle)



And this set of bones from a Somerset Ichthyosaur, which made me squeak and bounce excitedly because they look very like the vertebrae bones I've found at Charmouth :)



So all in all, a very good day!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Yay Spindlefrog roving playing with the big boys :0)
Thank you so much Karen for taking the photos. Im all smiley inside. Its really good to see them.
Hope the sore throat is better. And I love the photos of the Natrual History Mussuem. You could make a really big plying resin spindle with some of them fosils.

~ Phyllis ~ said...

Thanks for posting about the Ally Pally Show. You are the third one of my blog friends that attended. I'm envious. Looks like a really nice show.
Hope you feel better soon.

bockstark.knits said...

i wish i could've gone! so lucky you got to pet all of that fibery goodness!

BabyLongLegs said...

The spindlefrog stuff was more than just playin' with the big boys!!!!
AP was fab......I really enjoyed it, even though it was the hardest 2 days work I have ever done!!!

Love
S xXx

goldfishgirl said...

Aw Babylonglegs, you were at Ally Pally and I missed you?! Which stand were you on?