You may remember when I went to Ally Pally late last year not intending to buy any yarn. But I did. Or perhaps the Duxford Quilt Show earlier this year. Where I went with a budget. That I blew.
Well, yesterday was Fibre East. The plan was to go with cash and leave my cards at home (which I didn’t) so that I wouldn’t blow the budget (which I did).
First up there were a couple of bargains, which really shouldn’t count towards my total as they were ridiculously cheap. There was a stall selling 100g of pure spun silk in 60/2 or 30/2 weight for silly prices. Of course I bought 200g of the thinnest for an heirloom shawl. That’s 6000m of spun silk for less than you would normally expect to pay for half that.
Then there was the baby alpaca for half price. Beautifully soft and just crying to be made into a jumper.
So, if you ignore those two purchases, I really wasn’t all that bad and only missed my budget by £30 
I bought some gorgeous green/blue yarn for a top. This photo doesn’t do it justice at all. It practically jumped off the wall wanting to come home with me. There were only two skeins left, or I would’ve bought 3.
The main reason I wanted to go to the show was to check out Skein Queen as I never catch her updates. By the time we made it around to her stall there wasn’t much left (which was probably a good thing) but I did get a chance to touch the different bases in person to decide which I would or would’t want to order online in the future. And I did pick up a couple of skeins of a merino/silk.
Then I saw Knitting Goddess from across the room. Oh my. I picked up a couple of grey/purple yarn to make a scrummy top.
Then I saw her “Same Difference” yarn. Oh wow, how quirky and what a brilliant idea. You get a skein split in two. Each is dyed in the same two colours with each skein being the reverse of the other as to the dominant colour.
Can you say funky not quite matching socks? So very me So of course, I had to get two colourways
Of course, the day wasn’t all about buying yarn. Mostly but not entirely. It was a fun day with friends where I could blame them for yarn I’d bought, or convince one that she really needed to buy those skeins. There was a picnic lunch and drooling over a beautiful angora rabbit (I may have reverted to childhood and started saying “I want an angora bunny!”). All in all a great little road trip. If by road trip you think of an hour drive each way and most of the time spent shopping and laughing.