So I'm sat in bed. It's my day off. I've got to get up and do something but this first proper day off for weeks so this is like heaven on earth. I'll do something useful and then watch lots of Iplayer stuff without feeling guilty. :)
In case you didn't know - we're officially the best yarn shop in the Midlands. THANKS! It's all down to you lot voting for us in Let's Knit and Let's Get Crafting and we're mighty pleased and proud. They invited us down to London to collect our certificate and enjoy free entry into the Knitting and Stitching Show. I wasn't going to go because it was too much money and too much stress and I don't really like London but lovely Lynsey persuaded me that it was cheap (£10 each way), lovely Jazz helped me work out the underground and buses and lovely Verity escorted me. Good customers!
We got on the train at half past 11. Gossip, gossip, gossip, some spinning and some crochet:
We got into St. Pancras at about half one I think. The times are melding into one.
St Pancras is amazing isn't it?! I felt like a right tourist and Verity kept laughing at me. She's much more worldly wise but I've never been to London without a grownup. Ha. Maybe this makes me a proper adult now?
Verity was impressed by some of the artwork:
And the best bit was all the bloody pianos all over the place! Literally just hanging around waiting for people to play. Is that weird or is it just me!??!
We caught the underground successfully:
We caught the bus successfully (no picture of that. Until later. Because apparently I've never seen a bus before...). We got off at the slightly wrong stop and caught a buggy that was for disabled people... Nice man.
Outside of the main entrance was this lovely cab. LOOK!
I heard the lady speak to somebody and apparently it's about getting kids to knit, which is not really my thing folks but a noble idea. And a bloody wonderful cab!!!
Inside was pretty overwhelming so we ate some cake. Natch.
And then we went shopping. I bought some fibre, a Tunisian crochet hook, some little £1 skeins of silk and two balls of the most delicious sparkly but subtle stuff for Vezza's baby. Verity bought this:
I upset a lady that Vezza was buying from by being shocked at the price of some of their needles. Honestly, a fair few of my customers have trouble with paying £6.50 for needles and she was selling some for nigh on £30! Seriously, what on earth were they made from? Ogre bones. I don't believe that's necessary at all, imho...
And then we went in to the awards bit. I think we were both most excited about this bit but if I'm honest it was a little underwhelming... We each got a glass of sparkly wine and a goody bag which was brill. I got the certificate, had my photo taken and a little interview and then we sort of stood around being a bit awkward. Everybody else seemed to know eachother and there were celebrities there like the bloke from Iknit:
And Debbie Bliss. Although, I don't think that was the lady I thought it was. I really liked the look of these two ladies:
But I'd have felt a right tit going up to speak to them. They looked as awkward as we did though. Ha.
Me and Vezza had a rootle through the goodie bags:
And made our excuses to leave.
Don't get me wrong, I'm mega grateful to receive the award and be given the chance to travel to London to collect it but I hate feeling like an outsider (not that anybody was horrid, they just knew each other). It's most of the reason that I don't do law and it's the entire reason why our shop's like it is. Maybe next year will be better? If we win of course... Ha.
So, by this time we were majorly tired so we collected our many, many bags together:
And headed back to the bus:
Appreciating Alexandra Palace on the way. Beautiful place.
We'd gone for the cheapest tickets we could so we had a good few hours to wait for the train and we'd already decided to have some dinner. We had a look at a few menus, serious London prices. How much do these bankers earn!? We settled on Carluccio's which, being the pleb that I am, is probably at the upper end of what I'd like to spend on a meal out and it was delicious. I had pasta, Vezza had chicken and it was all finished up with this:
Which came from this:
And ended up like this:
Seriously the best thing that's ever happened to me. I would have licked my bowl were we not in London...
By this time we were suuuuuuuuper tired and St Pancras is bloody cold. We were both relieved to get on the train and be heading home. I'd brought five projects with me and at that point had worked on precisely two. So I decided to give some time to the linen that I bought at Yarndale and I'm pretty happy with the consequences even if it's really bloody hard to take a photo on a moving train...
And that was our day out in London. I am most excited to be going back to the shop tomorrow. I have shop stuff to do like changing a window, getting some patterns on the internet, speaking to my customers and appreciating the Mansfield Road drunks. It's going to be brill.
Thanks again for voting for us it's bee amazeballs!
Love Eleanor. xxxxx
P.s. I haven't done any of that stuff but the shop is fuller than it was an is an acceptable state of untidy in a way that it hasn't been for weeks. So glad to be back. :)
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