I spent four weeks in London attending the summer school at RADA, which didn’t afford a lot of time for yarn shopping, but i did manage to head to two yarn stores, and of course london has the amazing quality of DEPARTMENT STORE YARN SHOPPING. we used to have that here in aus – i just remember it from when i was little. i managed to score an absolute BARGAIN on debbie bliss pure silk at John Lewis! three pounds ninety or similar. got 12 skeins of one colour  I also picked up a bunch of kim hargreaves pattern books while i was in the UK, since i totally heart her (Precious, Amber and Breeze).

I headed to Loop the weekend before the class started, at a very opportune time as they had 20% off everything! They didn’t have quite as large a range as i envisaged, but it’s a lovely little shop, just near the angel islington. Picked up some more Casbah sock since it was on sale and I was LOVING knitting with it. I also picked up some adorable project bags called Pretty Cheep, with pictures of birdies printed on the fabric. Great for larger projects.

The other yarn store i went to was I Knit, London’s only liscened yarn store! Some of my course mates came with me, one just to drink in a lys – which was a GREAT novelty. It had a fantastic range, a lot of locally produced yarn and fibre, and some yarns from further away – like Biggan Designs from Aus! *proud moment* The whole alcohol policy seems to work – i went a little crazy!

Suprisingly enough, Edinburgh was not exactly crowded with yarn stores. I did snaffle a few purchase – one skein of handspun from a market stall and some of the new Rowan Alpaca Cotton yarn from Jenners department store on my very last day!

UK photos are here and here

1. Cherry Tree Hill suri lace, 2. Rowan alpaca cotton , 3. baby camel handspun, 4. DB pure silk, 5. knitwitches seriously gorgeous, 6. handmaiden casbah in amethyst, 7. DB pure silk, 8. habu cotton boucle

The handspun shetland that i picked up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Markets were transformed in my first weeks back in aus into these mitts – they are super warm and toasty! It’s totally natural colour and the cables look perfect.

*sigh* so that’s my yarn collection from my travels. I am not allowed to buy any more yarn for myself for QUITE a while (besides, when all my stuff comes out of storage, it will be like going shopping anyway!!) I am allowed to buy yarn for presents, since ALL THIS IS MINE, MINE I TELL YOU *crazy laugh*. It’s definitely going to be fun working through it and finding patterns for all of these delicious yarns!