Life LackaDaisiCal

Wool shops visited while on the Wool, the Fabric of Life tour..... In Edinburgh, after our city tour with a rather annoying tour guide (I wanted to ask him if he had a burr up his kilt LOL) - we had some free time and headed for K1  Yarns Knitting Boutique, a lovely little shop on West Bow street in the "old town". Here is Candice making a yarn purchase - these two are obviously having too good a time talking yarn! I loved the decor of this shop. and really liked how they displayed their selection of Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift - my favourite yarn! Then we went up to Princess Street and popped in to John Lewis to visit the yarn department there! Lots of Rowan to love here - I saw a pattern emerging.... This is where Candice and I did some yarn shopping - we both bought the original Rowan Fine Tweed yarn for the Peerie Flooers hat. Beckside Yarns & Needlecrafts in Clapham, Yorkshire Gorgeous little village - with a raging river running through it when we were there!...

I know it's around here somewhere.... Not in here..... Found it!   The Wool Modern Exhibit in conjunction with the Campaign for Wool - UK Wool Week! Black and White were popular... I checked our Vivienne Westwood's contribution - (the navy black and grey coat) I was expecting something more radical....like this... Candice and Terry made friends with this guy.... While Carolyn chatted with this guy. and upstairs, branches wrapped in wool, turned colour as they absorbed dye from the pots they were standing in. If you'd like to see more photos of the Wool Modern exhibit, as posted to the Campaign for Wool Facebook page.

Visiting London.  If you are a long-time reader of Shades of Shetland, you'll know that I am developing a strong affection for London - this is the third year in a row that I have been in London on this exact same weekend.  The two previous trips were prompted by Alice Starmore attending the IKnit weekends. The Eucalan tour was supposed to end with the IKnit weekend event....but it was cancelled. The group did a bus tour of London for a couple of hours in the morning, ending at the Tower of London, and then they did a few drop offs for groups of us that had plans for the afternoon. We tried to get to Buckingham palace for the Changing of the Guards , but due to traffic difficulties, we got there just a few minutes late. If you are interested in the British Royal Family - they have their own web site with everything you always wanted to know about the British Monarchy . The bus tour stopped at the Tower of London for a restroom break... We found the most amazing little caf...

Alpaca Farm and Shop up the drive... past the ferocious guard dogs... around the front (with a fabulous lake view) to the Mom and Babies paddock....all together.... aaaaaawwwwwwww............ I took about a dozen photos of these two - who were tied up like a pretzel.  Obviously they were young and in love! We were given an overview of how Toft Farm works, and we had a lovely cream tea while we were there. Candice made a new friend. There was a shop - that was swarmed by everyone on the tour - there were a few things left when we were done....but not much. Toft are planning their first knitting pattern book.......the TOFT Pattern Book 1 which you can order...... and while visiting their web site I found this lookbook of their designs.....not sure if these are the designs in the pattern book though as a lot of these we saw in the shop - but gorgeous to look at nonetheless! Then it was the long drive to London.....where we had dinner at the Strand Hotel before arriving at our hotel -...

We stopped to tour Chatsworth House ..... Like everything else in the UK (it seems) Chatsworth House is undergoing a renovation - in this case they are cleaning the stonework - so a big portion of the house was covered over......but unlike a lot of places, they allowed (and encouraged) photographs - and everywhere you looked there was something totally gorgeous or outrageous to photograph! Walking up the drive with our guide. From the entrance staircase.... to the frames of the mirrors.... the chandelier..... and even some windows......were gilded. Turns out the windows on this side of the house are gilded to catch the morning sun - go figure!  This is just a small sample of the photos I took in Chatsworth - what a place - totally modern art mixed in with ancient tapestries......from the sublime to the ridiculous.....with an outdoor cafe and a restaurant pavilion - these guys know how to market themselves!  The parking lot was huge - and it was obvious that this was a day out ...

After some GPS twists and turns -  one which took us down a tiny lane and our huge bus had to back up..... we arrived......Rowan - be still my heart. Sharon Brant came down to say hello to Carolyn..... (L-R - Carolyn, Sharon, moi and Candice) Here's Terry in her "Shetland Woman" Jacket from Rowan Magazine 46 (designed my Marie Wallin)  Terry chose to change the shade used for the ribbing and it looks lovely!  Marie Wallin told us about the process of putting together a Rowan Magazine - from design submission, photo shoot, pattern writing thru proofing. Marie handles all of this for the Rowan publications. Emma Knight and Jemma Weston were our instructors for the day. Our assignment was to knit either the Heart or Union Jack pocket as shown.  We were given 3 shades of the British Sheep Breeds dk weight yarn, needles and our instruction.  Emma gave us some great tips - including how to make a little bobbin of yarn to make intarsia knitting easier - and Jemma worke...

The original Betty's is in Harrogate.....and there is one in York I have been trying to get into Betty's for years....there is always a line up... so on our walking tour of York - there was Betty's and there was no line up! Candice and I abandoned the walking tour and went to Betty's instead! We checked out the York City wall in the afternoon we returned to Harrogate for some serious shopping - we saw references to the UK Wool Week everywhere! We did some wool fondling ourselves.... Cashmere at Hawick of Scotland at their Harrogate shop.......heaven!