Knitting and Stitching Show at the Ally Pally

Last Saturday my Mum and I went to the knitting and stitching show, by coach. The journey took three hours most of which was spent sitting in traffic in London, but it was so worth it.

It was packed, and the necessary tea stops were fraught with seat finding difficulty. At one point we had to sit on the wall of the palm tree bed to eat and drink. This wall sloped back into the bed and it was with extreme difficulty that we prevented our drinks and food, and indeed us, from sliding into the soil. But we didn't care.

I spent an inordinate fortune, the Colinette stand was wonderful and an incredible throw kit threw itself into my bag. We saw all the big names there, including Golden Hinde (a dragon goldwork kit), Jamiesons of Shetland (bag pattern and a purse kit), Toft Alpaca (wasn't allowed to stop at that one)and we also met Jane Crowfoot, crochet blanket extraordinaire (both of us are finishing 2011 and have signed up for 2012). But I have to admit that the crowning moment for me was meeting Sasha Kagan. She was so lovely and made us laugh when she realised I was photographing her signing the book I bought, that she said, "not in my glasses" and whipped them off. She allowed me to photograph all of the lovely garments on display on her stand and gave me advice on how to increase the size of some of the stuff that I would dearly love to make for myself.

A lot of stands didn't allow photography, and some included sketching in this as well, but I was able to get some wonderful shots of stitched pictures and the knitted storks, that I just adore. And I've completely forgotten the name of the designer, which is a crying shame as she had also produced a knitted cover for a stand lamp which I would love to own.

Pictures below of our wonderful and expensive day out.

That iconic television aerial

















Strange Meringue building on Olympic 2012 site












The Olympic Stadium under construction

London skyline from the Alexandra Palace