Monday, October 30, 2006

Expedition Report

Thanks for all the good wishes, folks.

I survived Saturday relatively intact, though I am still recovering from the excitement. I only managed about two hours sleep on Friday night - kid before Christmas, definitely. Yesterday I could have slept all day, and if it were not for Dave and Rippers, I would have.

The Hobbycrafts show was mostly card making, which was probably a good thing. I make cards, but I'm not a maniac about it. Apparently, many of the people there were maniacs, as the two little old ladies I was with both got pushed, shoved and sworn at, sometimes by other little old ladies. No one pushed, shoved or swore at me, possibly because I was dressed all in scary black. I did get anxious at times because it was so busy but I didn't actually discombulate. Great eh? That means I might risk going to the SECC in March for the textile show. I should start saving now :D

I did buy yarn, and I don't know what I'm going to make with some of it. I bought two balls of Rowan Chunky Print (cheap), two balls of Sirdar Frenzy (very cheap), three balls of bog standard acrylic (two red, one bright green, & CHEAP) and 99g of Bubbles hand dyed mohair from Victoria Smedley (not cheap). The Bubbles is a lovely range of purples; I keep rubbing it against my face. I have no idea what I'm going to knit with this but I love it. The Rowan Chunky Print - again no idea what I'm going to use it for, but as it's 100% wool something fulled, I suspect. The Frenzy is going to be a Christmas scarf for some lucky person. The red acrylic was bought because it is a very special shade of red I haven't been able to get in Dundee. I would have preferred this red in a chunky but consider myself fortunate to have found it at all. More on that later in the week. The green acrylic is a cheery green that I've had before but been unable to obtain since, so I had to get it.

I bought some other bits and pieces, such as four skeins of braid/thread stuff that I am going to freeform and embroider with. I also got two plastic canvas hexagons and one plastic canvas heart for experimentation, and a embroidery thread storage box which was much less than I would have paid locally. I think I'll be using it for the findings & beads which I want to use at the craft group because it's a lot easier to cart around than the small 'suitcase' I use for my main collection of beads, buttons, etc.

I surprised some of my fellow travellers by crocheting a complete hat on the journey there. In fact, with my usual Erisian timing I finished the hat just as we were eaten by the traffic jam. Admittedly, I was using Sirdar Nova Super Chunky and an 8mm hook but they were still impressed. I was too tired on the way back to crochet and passed the time by working out how I'd turn the Scottish countryside into knitting. The sky was three separate shades of blue, and the clouds ranged in shade from ivory through to a deep purple grey. Skies like that make me wish I could paint but the fields and hills definitely need something with lots of texture do them justice.

6 comments:

Rain said...

It sounds like you had a great time. I think it does you good to splurge on lovely yarn just for the sake of it every now and then.

Daisy said...

Yay, sounds like a fab day! Are you going to post some pics of your purchases (seeing other people's is nearly as much fun as going to buy my own stuff!)

T said...

Glad you had a great time. Crocheted a hat on the journey? Blimey wars.

KnitYoga said...

sounds like a great day and very productive, too, on the hatmaking side!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for visiting my blog, I just wanted to return the visit.
It sounds like you had a good day.And you managed to do a crochet hat???!! Wow

Nippy Sweetie said...

hello! i'm in dundee too! maybe we could meet up?