Thursday 28 November 2013

Harrogate 2013 :)

well I finally get a chance to post photos of my Harrogate stash & talk about the trip :) (scroll down if you just want to see stash pics!)

We travelled up on the Friday night after work, dad drove this time as I'm still not massively confident about travelling on the motorway and at night-I'll be working on this next year- We stayed at the Ashley House hotel on Franklin Street, less than a 5 minute walk from the show. The hotel was lovely although the heating didn't work in either mine or my parents rooms and all bar one of the lights in my room were dead-thank god I thought to bring my stitching lamp!

Saturday saw a cold start to the day but we were soon in the queue and through the doors to the show. Mum's back went almost immediately so we (reluctantly) went to the grand hall to sit down and have a cup of tea (I was itching to get shopping but needs must) On display in the grand hall was a 'Knit-ivity' scene (I have photos but they are on my iphone not my camera so I haven't uploaded them yet, I'll try and get them posted over weekend)

Shortly we set off to hall M and the shopping commenced. One day I will learn to pace myself but sadly that day was not Saturday. First stall I visited was West End Embroidery, a reading based stockist of Weeks & GAST threads, and I spent £20 on some Weeks holiday series threads that have been discontinued.

Second stall of the day was Trudy Anne Designs and I spent more money on charts, also bumped into Michelle, Kath & Bev here and made lunch arrangements.

Next stop for me was The Nimble Thimble where I picked up the last few LK jingle charts I was missing and 7 of the CCN Santa's Village charts complete with buttons

Then I was out of cash....so I mooched around with Mum for a bit and then we bumped into the girls for the third time and decided to go for lunch. Lunch consisted of another cup of tea and some flapjacks as we had also arranged to meet Dad back at the hotel and go for something to eat in town. Lunch with Dad was eaten at 'The Den' and was cheesy chips & cider- yum!

After lunch Dad kindly lent me some money and it was back to the show!

I can't actually remember where I bought everything else from, I know I went back to Trudy Anne's to pick up a few charts I had missed the first time round, wool from black sheep yarns and several other bits and pieces from various other stalls.

Soon though it was time to head back to the hotel to collect Dad for a second time as we were travelling to nearby town just outside of Harrogate to visit one of his cousins for tea. Pat was such a lovely character and she collects teddy bears! I was really sad to say goodbye but hopefully we'll travel up again to visit her soon :)

On Sunday we decided to go back into the show as we still had one and a half halls to look round and we'd already bought the two day tickets so it seemed a shame to waste them. I bought more wool and some lovely little gingerbread charms I wanted to turn into earrings to wear over the Christmas period. Soon though we'd finished and decided to get an early start coming home.

So there we go, that's the summary of my time Harrogate for 2013 and to be honest it was all over far to soon, I'd have liked to have had a look around the town itself and spent some more time with Dad's cousin. Now that the words are out of the way I guess all that's left is to show you all what I bought!!

Such cute charms! Gingerbread men will become earrings and the lolly will hopefully be a necklace!

This is a hardback version of two of the 20 to make books 'Christmas Knits' & 'Christmas Crochet' I bought this on Saturday and so didn't have it with me on Sunday when I met Sue Stratford one of the authors :( would have been nice to get it signed but oh well, I guess there's always next year! 

My threads & the fabric I bought from Sparklies, I also bought a back issue of cross stitcher mag for £2 as I wanted another of the wooden stitchable keychains

Measuring tape fabric FQ's, planning on making a knitting needle roll with this as the lining :)

various CCN & LHN charts, I think these were all from Trudy Anne's

various other charts all from Trudy Anne's bar the bent creek 'Snow' & brittercup designs 'britty kitties 2' they were from Sparklies :)

random Lizzie Kate's 

My Santa's Village charts, only need to order the final chart now!

LK's Jingle flip-its, I'm planning on finishing these as individual charts rather than all together 

The wool! Mostly merino wool and mostly DK, the darker blue yarn in the lower left corner is 4ply sock yarn though.

A girl can never have enough scissors!

So there we go, all my stash from Harrogate for this year, not a bad haul but I think next year I'm really going to have to save throughout the year as I had to turn down several charts/yarns I would have loved to have bought! Despite having had a really busy start to the week I've even managed to make something, my gingerbread earrings are complete and ready for me to wear on Friday when the Christmas lights get switched on!
Aren't they cute?

Till next time 
xX Fiona Xx

4 comments:

Michelle said...

Wow a lovely haul there Fiona. It was good meeting up with you and your Mum again. There was also alot more I think I could have bought too so will save a little more for next year xx

Lesleyanne said...

Wow what a gorgeous haul of new stash. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.

Stitching Kath said...

Wow you did buy lots. What lovely charts. I look forward to seeing them all stitched lol it was lovely to see you both. Roll on next year.

Kay said...

Such a wonderful pile of stash. Glad you had fun.