Glasgow...

Oh my, what a weekend - I took myself off to the SECC for the Hobbycrafts knees-up (the main stitching one is in March each year) to meet up with the sublime Yvonne again and volunteer for the Knitter-Natter stand where knitters suck people in with siren-call promises of free yarn and lessons in knitting.

So for a show that isn't the main stitching show, and some have slagged off (so I hear) for offering little to the general knitter, here are just a couple of offerings...

T A J Crafts

What you can't see are all the gorgeous books and Alchemy yarns and Kaalund skeins and Lion Brand and needles and buttons and ...... How the heck these people managed to get so much gorgeousness into such a small space I do not know - it was heaven. Yes, I did buy a few little things, ahem (churlish not too, if they have come all this way).

Then in the show there was also Mo Bair.

This photo doesn't do justice to the stand - those skeins were screaming "take me home, take me home, take me..." So naturally I did. The yarns are delectable - the feel and the colours are heavenly, I bought enough of a bobbly, hand dyed, brown-toned mohair to knit a simple wrap from Wrap Style by Allen and Budd (Interweave Press, isbn 1931499918), all I can say is that the yarn is divine.....

Oh, but I was there to work and yep, there was even some of that too (in between the cheese stand and the fruit cordial stand and the roasted nut stand and the curry sauce stand and the home made jams/preserves and ....)

"Knitter - Natter" (Sunday 23rd October)

This of course there is the chance to meet other knitters and (soon to be knitters), it is the volunteer stand, manned by hardened and shameless yarn-junkies. It was a total blast and in there teaching two eager little chicks is the supreme Johanna - Lord alone knows how many people she has now taught to finger knit. During the show she began to finger knit a scarf that grew each day - until the final day it measured over 35m - so if there is a cold snap, Johanna is all set. All I can say to Johanna is "you are the shiniest amongst the most shiny and may you shine on forever..." (Johanna would understand that). And there on the right at the close of show is the finger scarf snaking off into the distance.....

I don't know who these two scary women below are - but they volunteered and I am told (by reliable sources) that you never - and I mean NEVER get between them and a little skein of something from MoBair or TAJ Crafts - NEVER. They are smiling in the photo but two minutes later after some serious fur-flying over those balls of yarn they were both completely bald and sobbing in seperate corners over a ripped ball band.

Oh all right then, this is what I bought - but it was all yarn-rescue stuff. I knew it had to go to a good home so my purchases were an act of yarn-kindness that all knitters would understand. We are talking Alchemy, we are talking Kaalund, we are talking Mo Bair - we are talking hide-it-quick-in-case-the-husband-sees-it (its o.k - he doesn't read my blog).