Ally Pally and all That

Well, since I last posted, I've been extremely busy! When I've not been doing office work, I've been working on regular orders, a couple of custom orders for scissors fobs (one for Seahorse Claire which you can see here) and new items for Knitz & Glitz plus finishing off the last little bits of a pattern which, all being well, will appear in the March issue of Knitting magazine! What with all that and fitting in housework, cooking, etc, the last few weeks have seemed a bit like a whirlwind!

I did, however, manage to get to Ally Pally this year, not once, but twice! The first time was on the Thursday and then I went again on the Sunday.


I was relatively restrained with my purchases this year as regards quantity but I do believe I may have gone a bit overboard with the other 'q' as I decided that this year, quality would definitely overrule quantity. This only occurred to me after I espied a skein of Tilli Tomas Mariel's Crystals at Foreign Strand seductively winking at me and being all bedazzling in a Swarovski Crystal kind of way. After I'd succumbed and bought that one skein, I knew that I wasn't going to buy a whole load more yarny purchases! I couldn't wait to start knitting it and, after being told that one skein would make a scarf of reasonable length, I decided on a Japanese feather pattern and set to work.


Yes, (blushing a deep crimson red!) that is a second skein of the same you see in the photo. Problem was that the pattern I chose eats up the yarn like there's no tomorrow so it was a choice between coughing up for another skein or ripping it out and starting again in a plainer stitch. After much deliberation, I opted for the former telling myself that I've worked so hard over the last few months that I deserve a little bit of self spoiling and it will be my Xmas pressie to myself! So there! Nearly everything I knit is given away so it's only fair that, when I do get to keep something, it should be something worth keeping don't you think!?

Apart from another purchase for a gift which, therefore, needs to remain secret for the time being, the only other yarny purchase I made was this Clamshell Patchwork shawl Kit from 21st Century Yarns.


I also bought some of those gorgeous L Nichols handmade vintage glass buttons from Dixie who was there.


Mine were made by Dixie's father in the fifties. If you don't know about Lionel Nichols and his handmade buttons already, you can read all about it here. I was fascinated to learn that when, by the late sixties, buttons were no longer so 'in', Dixie's father then began to make costume jewellery for the hippy boutiques and was "a grandfather figure on the Kings Road and Carnaby Street".

When I went back to Ally Pally on Sunday, I spent most of the time in the Knit & Relax area where I said hello to Yvonne and met Wye Sue for the first time. I also met Gerard from IKnit London who had a table full of blue yarn for his Knit a River project.


I really enjoyed myself making a few squares towards the 'river' and, if you don't believe me, look at the photo here! (scroll down). The magazine in front of me in the photo is Yarn Forward (which is very good by the way) and the look of concentration on my face is because I was following one of the patterns for a Knit a River square published in the mag.

I've had lots of ideas for Knitz & Glitz over the last couple of weeks and one of them involves polymer clay, wood and a dash of rhinestones here and there!


Handmade knitting needles will be appearing in the Knitz & Glitz shop very soon. They will be available in dozens of designs including sheep, flowers, bees, frogs, seahorses, butterflies, snails, kitsch ones, bling ones with rhinestones or beads and the BIG BLING - think rhinestone encrusted. The plan is to offer them in a range of sizes and different types of wood including birch and to offer custom-made designs. So, if anyone wants a design that isn't there or wants something really personalised, they just need to use the contact link via Knitz & Glitz and their wish is our command as they say!