A series of random
late night tweets one night and I found myself gatecrashing a yarn crawl in
London - visiting new-to-me yarn shops and making great yarny friends into the
bargain.
A wall of wool, at Prick Your Finger |
The route was carefully planned to include Prick Your Finger, Loop,
Knit with Attitude and Wild and Woolly, ending in a pub - of course - and a
knitting quiz.
The perils of
childcare meant that I could only stay for the first 2 shops but the carefully planned itinerary meant that I was able to duck out after Loop and catch a bus back to Liverpool St.
Prick Your Finger was
a shop I had heard much about but hadn't yet visited and so I was really
pleased that we went there first. The owner, Rachel was really welcoming and we
spent a happy time browsing her beautiful collections of yarn. She has a
passion for supporting British and local producers and that really shone
through in her choice of yarns. John Arbon, Excelana, Blakcer Yarns and others
were all wonderfully displayed. She also stocks, buttons, jewellery, drop
spindles and much more and we could have spent much longer there.
My carefully curated haul - much joy |
Mini skeins kindly gifted by Amelia |
Specially made stitch markers by OfBlitheSpirit |
Next on the list was
Loop in Islington. A true 'destination' yarn shop I had been to Loop once or
twice before but I never pass up the opportunity to go and this time I was on a
mission. I want to make the Laneway tunic by Veera Valimaki in grey and I knew
that Loop stocks an impressive collection of The Uncommon Thread's sockweight
yarn. No one does grey quite like Ce Ce and I was indeed spoilt for choice.
Indeed I fear I embarrased myself somewhat by laying out all the different
shades on the floor to better examine them.
Anyway, after much
deliberating I made my selection and spent the rest of the visit with them
clutched protectively to my chest. It was lovely to chat to the staff there and
to put names to faces. The yarn crawl continued without me after that but I know that they had a great time - check out the hashtag #4plyyarncrawl on Twitter and Instagram to see what we got up to.
The midway point: Our collective haul |
Huge thank you to Rae, Amelia and Alitzah for making the day such fun - we will have to do it again soon.
xx