Great Afternoon of Crochet

I had a fun afternoon/evening out at the official opening of Purl City Yarns. It was great to sit and chatter knitting and crochet with lots of crafty folk. Some that I had met before and others that I met for the first time. When these photos were taken it was late afternoon and so the crowds hadn't arrived by then. Charlotte's Father and Mother came and as the Mayor of Stockton resplendent in his mayoral chains he cut the ribbon that officially opened the shop and the gallery upstairs. There was a film show later in the evening but as it was upstairs in the gallery and it was heaving with people I elected not to slowly ascend the staircase and hold everyone up. Apparently it will be shown again so perhaps I can view it on a less crowded day.

I had a good chat to Sean and a couple of students from the MMU who are studying design and using crochet and machine knitting. Chatting to them and seeing some photos of Sean's work made me think once again about getting my bigger knitting machine cleaned up and working properly again. I have all the gadgets and gizmos for it and it would solve the problem of my slow knitting. Well it will once I remember how everything works. It has been many years since I used it properly. Crochet will always be my first love though.

As you can see from the photos there is plenty of stock to chose from and Charlie is adding more every day. I had a good browse and decided on some King Cole Cotton and a few patterns which I will show you tomorrow. A lot of the people who came bought something so I hope that they will make plenty return visits as it is good to have a quality wool shop in Manchester. I can't wear wool as you know but there are so many people in Manchester who appreciate the chance to view the top end wools in real life. I have ordered many things from the Internet as my shopping ability is somewhat limited at the moment and it is always a surprise when the things arrive as they are never quite the colour that I thought I was ordering. Purl City Yarns has the King Cole Riot in stock so when I need more stocks I know where I can see the colours properly.

For those of you unable to visit the shop I have been told that the website for mail. order will be up and running very soon - possibly next week. I have also put the blog link through my blog title so that you can keep up to date should you wish to do so.

At the moment I am crocheting a hush hush project so I can't update you on my work at the moment. All will be revealed at a later date. I still have the two sleeves to crochet on my jacket but that has taken a back seat once again as I push on with my secret project. I have just been asked by my London Niece to knit a cardigan for her friend. I did promise this friend that I would knit her one a while ago when we were chatting at my niece's wedding but she has had a baby in between and has only just got around to deciding on what she wants. My niece is going to get the wool for me and send it to my address. My niece is away in Spain at a family wedding at the moment but will be back next week.

I will have to be starting my Christmas presents soon as some of them will be knitted and my knitting is far slower than my crochet.

My knee has felt like it has been run over by a bus since the physio. I am back to day one pain wise. I know that it is going to hurt but what is alarming me more is that since my scar healed my knee is starting to swell back up again making the knee bends even more difficult to do. I just feel that if I could get this swelling down then the knee exercises would be a doddle and I would be walking again. I haven't felt much like blogging over the last couple of days. When I hit a down day I try not to inflict myself on other people. My blog would have just been one long moaning woe is me rant and not very interesting.

I have bought another subscription in for the Interweave Crochet magazine and I am hoping that they don't keep up the trend of adding knitting to their magazine. I debated whether to renew but as I find it so hard to find copies to buy in the newsagents I decided to take a chance on the new editions improving.