OK, yesterday was the 2nd annual London Yarn Crawl and I was out there with the rest of the fibre freaks, hitting the Handweavers Studio, Fringe, I-Knit and Mrs Moon. I also walked for miles (literally), so I may have spent pots of money on lovely stuff (which really needed me, so it doesn’t count) but I did manage to shed a few calories in the process.

Of course, the term “crawl” is not to be taken literally – at least, not until the end of the post-event party at a pub in King Cross (The Parcel Yard, Kings Cross Station). To be honest, most of the crawling involved public transport, as well as yarn and needles:

It also led to a lot of interest from slightly bemused bystanders (or, in one case, a bysitter who encountered the group on the tube as we headed to I-Knit from Fringe).

An entire day with so many beautiful things to look at, squeeze, love, buy, just admire because it was so wonderful – see photo from Fringe, where there was an exhibition of felt art.

I know angels and trumpets feature heavily in most of the publically available material on the subject but I reckon Heaven undoubtedly has a fabulous yarn shop and a bunch of yarn crawlers somewhere on site / cloud.

And now I have to return to my purchases as they all need some more love – especially the Sweet Georgia yarn from Mrs Moon – (which sock pattern do I chose??) and the Kaffe Fassett / Rowan Kid Sik Haze, from Fringe. So many fabulous things to play with / knit and so little time.

Today has been a Craft Day with a capital C, i.e. not just another day when I knit but a day when I knit with others.

My current project is a hat for Refuge, which is a charity helping the victims of domestic abuse. And I have spent the day knitting it at a craft day organised to help CALM, a charity which reaches out to young men suffering from depression. AND we were selling odds and ends for a local hospice charity…so a fairly useful and philanthropic sort of day all round.

I would be feeling pretty smug, but the hat I have chosen to knit is quite complicated, so I really had to concentrate. Added to which Dexter, aka The Amazing Andrew (his stage / Kennel Club name), our new puppy, chose to be a bit mournful around 4am and shared his general misery with all around. It is quite incredible how so much noise can come out of such small things – I do recall babies being quite vocal too. Anyway, the upshot is that I really can’t be bothered to be smug – I’m just too tired.

Actually, the difficulties I have encountered with the hat should not have come as a complete surprise given that I have knitted this pattern before. You would think I would remember that the instructions were frequently as clear as mud but old age is creeping up on me and I just remembered how much I liked the end result.

I also need to make it absolutely clear that the phrase “current project” merely refers to the Work In Progress which is receiving the most attention at this present time. There are other current projects and a few which are hibernating. I wouldn’t want anyone to think the said hat enjoys a degree of exclusivity which it really doesn’t deserve. It’s just that I need to get it finished because it has to move to its new home in two weeks time, whereas the rather beautiful jacket I am also knitting in John Arbon merino I bought at Fibre East doesn’t have a deadline. Neither does the yellow cardigan in Colinette yarn which I have finished but which needs to be sewn together and button bands. The aubergine cotton jacket with peplum which equally required button bands is also deadlineless – which is just as well as it has been waiting for the said buttonbands for about a year. These are all pending projects, although some do pend more than others.

I do hate button bands!