Knitting Fun Day Part One- the purchases

While I am awaiting clearance to use people photos I present you with the first instalment of the Knitting Fun Day out I had on Saturday.
Not only was it a brilliant day, it was very productive on the knitting front and wowee on the yarn front.

Started off the day at the preview of Katharine's new yarn shop www.k1yarns.com (Pix don't always load first time).
India had already beaten me to it and seemed very settled in there, maybe this can be her new spiritual home!
What a lovely shop; quite small but Katharine had made a good job of using the space available, quite a visual feast as you walk in the door.
She has a selection of Debbie Bliss, a selection of Colinette, a good range of Jamiesons, a taster of Noro, a selection of Artesano Alpaca and a taster of Shetland Angora (description, can't remember brand name) all supported by pattern leaflets and books. Needles (including Addi Turbos) to get you going. Apologies if I missed anything, but those are the things which stuck in my mind anyway.
The minute I walked in the door I was drawn to the big baskets on top of her shelving cube units. I didn't know if they were for display only, but K assured me they were Fair Trade baskets and very much for sale. Kerching! First purchase for me.
There were loads of things I could have bought, but I was fairly restrained and only bought two big hanks of Colinette mohair and two balls of a Noro I had never seen before. It is a kind of browny shade with a little metallic thread wrapped round every so often. I thought I should be sensible and only buy things I couldn't get hold of easily elsewhere. Kerching! First debit card sale for Mr. Katharine.
I'm not sure if Mr. India (sounds like something from Mr. Universe) reads this blog (as if) but may I just observe that India bought next to nothing...just a large coracle basket or something....didn't notice anything in it. [;-)]
By then, Heather http://dollydimpleknits.prettyposies.com/ had arrived, made a swift purchase then off to Edinburgh for phase two.

We missed a get together arranged by our knitting meetup group to christen Katharine's shop that day, but we had a long-standing arrangement with Rowanettes Jill and Nancy.

We arrived in Edinburgh shortly afterwards and made our way to Julie's shop. Rowanette Theresa was already there, looking delightful in a KSH short sleeved cardie called Marianne from mag 37. I must admit I hadn't looked twice at that design in the book but Theresa's version was lovely, in a soft green colour. Jill looked delightful in her Martha from the same magazine. I forgot to tell you that India looked delightful in the tank top from the cover of magazine 38. Heather, Nancy and I just looked delightful full stop.
There is a great range of yarns in that shop now, far more than I recalled. As well as a great selection of Rowan, Jaeger, Jamiesons, baby stuff and sock yarns which I do remember, there was some fab new South West Trading Company stuff, some Lana Grossa and some new Louisa Harding yarns. Fabby stuff.
I didn't go too mad, I bought some Kid Silk Spray to go along with the discontinued *Lord* self coloured KSH I am going to use for the cover jumper from Rowan mag 36.
Picked up some soy silk too. Heather asked me what I was planning to do with it. I laughed, "You mean you're supposed to do something with it!" Ha!
I noticed a lady with a red and black handknitted bag who was browsing the Rowan section. Inspector Clouseau that I am I deduced that it was Rowanette Minxxy. http://minxxy.typepad.com/minxxys_world/
She had decided against scaling Arthur's seat with the Extreme Knitting gang and gone for the far more sedate option of spending her pennies in HK Handknits. She didn't buy too much though, she's on a stash-busting mission. Good luck!
Minxxy left us to go and pick up her daughter, then off we went for a bite in the Bruntsfield Hotel. A bite and plenty of the house red Cabernet Sauvignon, which may I add, went down a treat.
Took the second last train home, toting my humungous basket/ crib/bassinette thingy and the long suffering Mr. India dropped me off. Not too drunk because I just about matched every wine for a water. A wee can of Irn Bru on the train set me up too.

Fabby day in great company. For all Rowan International Membership is going up dis-proportionately in price at the beginning of November, I still have it to thank for meeting such fun people.
x K