Sunday 11 July 2010

Day Trip

Yesterday I ventured out on a yarny day trip. The Yarn Room was celebrating its first year in business with a sale. I had never been before, so I decided this was the perfect reason to go.

I'm really glad I did, I had a great day! I was pleasantly surprised, it only took me less than an hour to get there using the motorway. This is a HUGE improvement on what the journey used to be!

I'm really sorry I forgot my camera, I would have got some great pictures. I met loads of lovely knitters that I knew from Ravelry and Twitter, but had never met "in the flesh" before.
I met Nic (thanks so much for coming down!), Irene, Serena, Karen, Jenny and of course Stephanie, The owner of The Yarn Room.
We had tea, cake and great fun as well as some serious yarn buying.

Let's get to the meaty stuff, shall we? Ok then!

First up, some Schoppel Wolle Admiral Uni sock yarn:



This was a total impulse purchase, but at €1.95 a ball I just had to. I'm sure my Dad won't say no to a pair of socks made with this!

The rest of the yarn I bought was 10% off. Not bad value really, when I think Stephanies prices are cheaper than most anyway.

I already have some of this in pink in my stash, but the colour is so beautiful I couldn't resist:



Some more Cushendale Mohair Bouclé. Isn't the colour lush? It's called glacier. No clue what I'll use it for, I'm just enjoying looking at it for now.

Then I got down to business. What I drove down to buy:



Zauberball! Yay! Look at the colours. *Love*! Black and grey and cream, oh my! There were loads of choices including a really lovely brown/cream combo, but this one struck me. I think it will make a lovely shawl or scarf. I maybe should have bought another ball to make a really nice shawl, but I chickened out.

Mainly because I got this one too:



This was a real bargain. It's a 150g ball that was delivered by mistake so was the same price as a 100g ball. And 10% off! Oh yes, I had to buy.


Then I got my Unspun Icelandic!! Squee!



I'm so excited to have finally got some of this yarn. I got 3 wheels of each colour. I sense a big comfy Pi blanket for winter tv watching with one of the sets of these, maybe the brown. I've wanted this yarn for so long, ever since I saw EZ talking about it. Yipee!
I also got some buttons:




I got 5 of each of them. I think they're nice. I find it really hard to get nice buttons in Dublin.
Oh, and in case you think that's ALL I bought (as if that wasn't enough!) I also got the 3 Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries I was missing: Vols 1, 3 & 4. Woot!
I'll be flying along now picking stitches and making my own garments. I'm thrilled to finally have all 4 volumes.
All in all I had a really fabulous day. It cheered me up no end to meet such lovely people. I had tea, home made cake, banana bread, the most delicious home made jam (still warm, ooh) lots of chat and some knitting. I ended up staying nearly 3 hours! Everyone was so welcoming and friendly, it really felt like a neighbourhood store.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to try and get down there again when I'm off work for the summer for one of their Thursday knit nights.
Speaking of time off, it starts next week, baby! With luck my boss will let me add on some flexi time and I'll be finishing Thursday lunchtime until August 31st! Oh my God, I'm so excited!
I'm full of plans. Most of them involve sleeping late in the morning :), but once I'm up Alice & I are going to have great fun. Museums, knitting, card making & crafting, playgrounds, cinema, etc etc. I think it's going to do me the world of good.
So, there you have it! A day trip that while it was expensive was worth EVERY penny for the good it did me. Food for the soul.
Good knitting!

4 comments:

Bionic Laura said...

Sounds like a lovely day out. The yarn room is such a lovely welcoming shop. Your shopping looks fab too! Love that Icelandic stuff.

Nic said...

Great to see you at the YR. Let me know when you're planning another trip down!

kelgell said...

Sounds thrilling. My sister and I are heading to Bendigo this coming Sunday for the Australian Sheep and Wool Show. I think I shall have a similar experience. Except there are animals there (knittable ones), competitions and products for sale and obviously yarn and yarning/felting tools. Fun fun. We've both been saving for a while in anticipation. It's my last big spend before I knuckle down and start saving to head overseas. I'm glad you had a lovely day out. We certainly need them from time to time. And have a GREAT summer holiday with Alice too.

Tara said...

Sounds like a lovely day (and a nice yarn haul too, heh). Glad you had fun, and looking forward to reading about your summer shenanigans with Alice over the summer :)