Last weekend I went over to Purlescence for their first open day of 2013. They had remodelled over the winter break, and the new shop layout is gorgeous. Of course, being overwhelmed with all the lovelies, I completely forgot to take photos, but it is much more open and bright than the previous layout, and the yarns are displayed in all their colourful temptation goodness. I was very good and other than buying a couple of needles I needed after I broke my knitpicks 3mm, 2 Tunisian hooks to make the Anais jacket, cotton yarn to make two more baby blankets and yarn for a birthday present, I didn’t buy anything at all!
I took along the Tunisian Spa Cloth sampler for the Tunisian course, and there was lots of interest from people throughout the day, so that is looking like it’s going to be a really good day.
I also got to spend time with the ever lovely R at her home and talked well into the night about the upcoming courses and teaching and ideas (and yarn and stash and upcoming babies and 80’s children’s shows… you know the sort of evening)
This week has been half-term break for me, which means that I have been insanely busy and running around. I really need to use my camera more because then I could show you photos of the champagne tea I had on Wednesday and the fabric shops I was in on Thursday – though you are probably less interested in seeing photos of the MRI scan I had on Monday, or the packing boxes I was surrounded by at a friends house yesterday as I helped her pack for moving.
Monday’s MRI was interesting. I don’t get the result for a few weeks (11th March), but I did discover that lying on my front, with my arms stretched out above my head and holding them still for 30 minutes is really really painful on the shoulders. Otherwise it was pretty uneventful and standard type medical procedure with lots of waiting about etc..
Wednesday’s Champagne tea was lovely. An excuse to dress up and eat cake, what more do you need? We had champagne, tea (well I had a tissane as I’m not allowed tea on the mix of drugs), finger sandwiches – including a lovely pesto bread, scones with cream and jam and little tiny cakes. The waitress tried to take my champagne before I was finished (I mean the glass was over half full!), and we had a visitor in the form of a little tiny dormouse who created all sorts of excitement for a good 20 minutes, all accompanied by a beautiful pianist doing the best of Rogers and Hammerstein. It was a lovely afternoon, and I can see afternoon tea becoming a regular feature of my annual calendar.
Thursday’s trip I went into town with a friend and her almost teenage daughter who has decided she wants to learn to sew. I’ll be honest, it’s many years since I did some sewing, and have several yards waiting be to turned into several beautiful things, but I was still shocked by how much the price of fabric has increased since I was last buying fabric regularly. OK, we’re talking London prices, but still! Teenage Daughter eventually got some beautiful cotton to make her first skirt, at £12 a meter (!) and I got the thread needed to finish the winter coat I’ve been making for several years. Naturally we did have to go for tea and cake at Camille’s (lemon cake with frosting, delicious!) but otherwise the day was pretty healthy.
All this activity has resulted in very little crafting time (other than on the commutes – so I have several swatches completed). I had started the Anais Jacket, but after several inches I discovered I had made a mistake somewhere, so had to rip back out to row 1. gahhh… Loving how it’s coming out, but of course, in the theme of this week there are no photos!
Today I’m going to be trying to problem solve a friends tension when she crafts, everything she does is far too tight… wish me luck!