We discovered that iKnit London had moved... closer!! It used to be in Vauxhall but now it’s moved to Waterloo. So we did a test run (walk) and it is now possible for us to walk there in 20 minutes from our office near London Bridge. So that means: 20 x 2 = 40 min walking which leave: 20 min shopping! Hooray! Ofcourse on our first visit we stayed much longer and inspected everything they had. A very nice customer (who was knitting on the comfy sofa they have gave us advice and joined in a chat. What a nice vibe it was. Hooray once more for iKnit.
In the end I bought wooden dps (tiny ones for portability), a pattern booklet with something I liked and something Lousia liked and a skein of lovely yarn: The Natural Dye Studio Dazzle - Blue Faced Leicester 4ply/Sock. This yank reminded me of watermelons, summer, nice bright weather and all things cosy. Talking about watermelons... my Ravelry friend Just Claire posted some very fun watermelon stitchmarkers on her blog! Very nice! Makes me think of getting back into fimo.
After this nice purchase we left to proceed to our next yarn shop: Loop. Ofcourse it rained. It’s London in March what do you expect. It was very windy too and I just managed not to get soaked and not loose my umbrella (or fly away like those horrible nannies in Mary Poppins). The bus (number 341 a direct line to the next stop on our yarn crawl) just didn’t want to come and we wondered if we would felt. In the end we didn’t felt and the bus did come and we managed to find Loop (with the help of a lovely lady. She saw us on the bus and hear us talking about the stop. It then seem the most important thing to her to get us off at the right one. She kept word and we left her happy in the knowledge she’d done her good deed of the day.
Stepping into Loop was completely different from what I expected. It was the tinest little shop and very cute. It was stuffed full with yarn (<- very good), but there was no place to sit and socialise (<- not so good). The vibe was not bad, but it lacked that ‘feeling welcome and at home’ vibe. The single member of staff (owner?) didn’t seem very happy, perhaps because of the weather, but it was a little bit of a let down. We saw the cutest things though like this little felted chick filled with sand that could sit on a ledge with it’s feet dangling down. Soooo cute. We also saw the famous Knitted Vases. I was planning to do a blog post on this, but a pic will do just fine. When you can see there is not much more to add.
Anyway back to yarn. I also found two good candidates for my One Skein shrug that I am planning to make. The first was a very nice fluffy Alpaca (if I remember correctly) that was loosly spun and very lovely. The second and the one that ultimately came home with me was two skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes. The first felt very nice, but the colour of the second suited me better. And I have to say I’m well pleased with my purchase. It’s a bit ropey and looks ‘thight’ not loose and fluffy if you get my meaning. But this means a very ‘structured’ knitted feel to the ‘fabric’ once I knit it up... well I hope.
And finally we stepped into a ‘cornershop’ type yarnshop just around the corner from Louisa and I tell you it’s a good find. It looks cheap and is filled with ‘cheap’ acrylic, but they also carry the good standard brands, like Rowan. And it’s very affordable as they are not overpricing like the ‘posh’ yarn shops. The shop also sells tons of other craft stuff and it’s a good thing we are redecorating and I can’t get my sewing machine out... Such nice notations. Sigh... And on that note I’ll end my long long post. Happy Knitting everyone (and me!!).
If you are not in the UK you can visit these shops online:
iKnit Online Shop
Loop Online Shop
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