Say it with flowers..............................

At the end of last week I was presented with these........



I know the saying is " Say it with flowers" but I did wonder with these if they were saying "The wooden box is arriving with the next delivery"

To be fair they were a table decoration but they do look a bit like they should be on the top of a wooden box about to be put 6 feet under! We did have a little joke about it. They do look very beautiful and I do appreciate them I just thought others may appreciate a little of the humour too.





Oh and the flowers!

I'm a Socktoshopaholic...............

And who would blame me once you have stepped into Alice's lovely new little shop stocked full of all those lovely Socktopus goodies from her website.
Emilie and I had a fantastic afternoon last Sunday, when we went to the opening party, yes I know we are late in posting.











I had popped around on the Friday afternoon to see if there was anything I could do to help but what a transformation by Sunday the whole place was looking fantastic. It was also great to meet up again with so many fellow Socktopods and not to mention finally meet Marianne after all this time (known as Perfecpic on Ravelry). She had been doing one of Diane's spinning courses in the morning in the conference room. There were so many familiar faces and it is hard to belive that it was only a year and a few weeks since Alice originally launched the website. It feels like Socktopus has been around for ever.










Of course there was a big rush for the Malabrigio - in particular the yarn young Indieknits had been dying especially for the shop opening. There was one particular skein we all had our eye on.









And here is Laura with some of the other lovely yarn she has dyed....



.....that is pretty much all that was left by the end of the afternoon and I swear that slot behind had been almost full!

Oh and did I mention that there was cake?







And this is why the trays and stand have gaps in, Ling decided to whisk some cupcakes away in cups!

If you haven't been already please, please go and visit the Bittersweet website, the cakes are just fantastic. I am plotting a pumpkin one. Of course I did my usual bit of baking aswell as I do for all events knitty but I gave the brownies a miss this time and opted for a chocolate beetroot cake, one for the repetoire.



Oh and what did I buy .........well actually I was quite restrained (I think it had something to do with Carl turning up), just a pair of needles, some circulars for socks and some lucious YarnYard fibre that Yoshimi had been using as a scarf earlier. Different colours to the ones she was caught wearing on camera.





And Emilie of course made a new friend. Duece the knitting pug dog!



And did a little bit of knitting.....



Yep more fibre wrapped around necks.

Oh and caught Easy Knitter John stashing away some Hazelknits yarns - but John aren't those colours vaguely familiar? Oh and don't forget those lovely silk hankies too.



There were many more photos taken but too many to post. Can't wait to get myself round to either Tuesday spinning, Thursday knit night or Sunday afternoon knit and cakes. Whoooooo hooooooo!

Where do you knit yours?.........................

Well although I haven't made speedy progress on my hopscotch socks I am making some progress. I took them with me at half term on our trip into London and a quick spin on the wheel.


Here I am knitting away in my pod, getting a few strange looks from those who were trapped with me for the next 30 mins!





























I have nearly finished this first sock now.


Where do you knit your socks?

What I bought at Ally Pally and other yarn confessions........

Well just confessions about other purchases made at Ally Pally that weren't necessarily yarn! But some of them were. Although I spent the weekend on both the Socktopus and Laughing hens stand you didn't think I wasn't going to get some shopping in did you. Of course not that's what the Thursday was for with a couple of little top ups on the Saturday and Sunday for good measure.
I didn't think I really had bought that much until I got the camera out to take a few pics to stick up on the blog. So here they are................

First up a bit of cashmere and some camel and silk from Knitwitches. Beautiful and soft. The cashmere is to knit socks for my FIL for christmas.



I am going to knit the top they had on display with this yarn. Just love those colours.



This is actually a sample skien and doesn't really count as it was given to me by Robynn. I really love the colours in this one too. In fact I did try and kidnapp this skein at her open house session just before Ally Pally.



I thought I might give this a bit of a go on the novice spinner front. It is some finnish wool. Pretty colours again. Just a very small amount to try.



Well at £2.50 I thought it was worth it to try spinning some different classes. I hope Diane is going to be running one on blends in the not too distant future.



Same thing here, and if you dip your hand in the bag it is so soft.


This again doesn't really count as it was given to me by Jenny from Fyberspates. A bit of left over Merino. Well I can tell you now it has been spinning up very nicely and I may even have a skein to prove it very soon.



This was also some leftovers scooped up from off the floor of the Laughing hens stand at the end of the Sunday when tidying up. Andy told me to take it away with me. Who am I to argue. Anyway it has produced a lovely 205 grm DK weight skein and I have just the project for it but I can't say any more at the moment on that one it's a secret.




This is just a little of what I got in my £10 bargain bag from Hipknits which included two, yes two skeins of sock weight cashmere yarn. Hurray!





Pattern tamers, one set from Robynn and one set from Alice. I bought one set for myself and one set for my mum for her birthday.



Ahh yes now this was all Ling's fault. She told me where the stand was so I made a quick purchase before the show opened on the Sunday morning. I have now used these to dye yarn for my SeSaSoSwa. Posts later on that after it is finished.



Now again these don't count as purchases as such as they were what I was allowed to choose from the lovely Alice for working the day on the Socktopus stand.



The Jenalou bag is perfect for my bosworth midi and a bit of fibre - yep the stuff from Jenny is spinning up nicely.





This I was so pleased about because I missed out at the Iknit day as I was so busy selling raffle tickets or sending everyone in to the Yarnharlot talk.



Just look at those colours. Definately what you would find in a socktopus garden. John dyed these exclusively for Alice.



Oh and a bit more fibre from Pigeon Roof studios.



Beads, I have to confess there are quite a few more of these but you have done well if you have managed to get this far down the page.



So as I said a bit of a bigger haul than I first thought! Who says I'm addicted?