A Birthday Treat

This weekend, I was celebrating my birthday and I didn't really want a physical present from LB, instead, I asked her to buy us tickets to this year's Knit and Stitch show, which was taking place at Alexandra Palace in North London. As she now enjoys crochet, she was happy to come along with me for a special Mother/Daughter day out.

I have been to this show in the past, probably 10 or more years ago, with a friend, but it was nice to have the opportunity to go with LB, now that she seems more interested in crafting and we were both looking forward to going.

OH dropped us off in North London on his way to a meeting and we caught a bus direct to Alexandra Palace, which sits on the top of a hill with great views of Central London in the distance. The bus dropped us off right outside the door of the exhibition which was perfect.

We began our visit as we walked in with a look at some amazing work displayed in the foyer. I took a few pictures of some my favourite pieces of work:

You think you are pretty crafty, but when you see this type of work, you know you are just a complete amateur. It's very inspiring though.

After a toilet stop, we headed into the main hall, where the main exhibitors have their stands. We knew we were in trouble as soon as we set foot inside.

I had gone with the intention of not spending too much money, mainly due to the fact that I'm no longer working and have a much reduced income and I wasn't really interested in buying fabric, as I already have so much in my stash that I need to use. It was tempting though. I was particularly drawn to a diverse range of denim fabrics, as I have a project in mind, but one of the main stalls selling denim wouldn't sell less than 1m lengths and I didn't want that much of each of the couple of denim fabrics I liked, so I walked on.

I did buy a 1/4 metre scrap of this olive green denim for £3 at another stall, as I thought it was an unusual colour, but this was the only fabric I bought all day.

My most expensive purchase for me, was this black genuine sheepskin, which was being sold for £10. I love it and intend to drape it over an armchair rather than use it as a rug, to avoid getting it dirty. It should be cosy to sit on this winter, and it was such a great price.

I did spend a little more than this on an Xmas present for LB, but this came out of a set aside budget. She wanted this Pokemon crochet book, so I was happy to oblige.

I also bought this lovely gingko wooden stamp. I love this ancient genus of tree and I am thinking of using it to print on brown paper to make pretty wrapping paper or just small prints. This cost £7.

My only other purchase was this set of two waistcoat buckles for £0.99, which I bought with another future project in mind.

I think I was quite restrained, trust me, it could have been a lot worse.

After walking around the main stalls, we stopped off at the main stage to watch the end of a fashion show where all the clothing had been created by teenagers.  Their creativity was amazing. We then saw another catwalk show of garments made by everyday sewists, although some were very experienced and made some amazing garments. I also picked up a free copy of November's Prima magazine, which was a treat for me as I never buy magazines these days. I'll enjoy reading that at some point.

After watching the catwalk shows we headed to the picnic area for me to eat my packed lunch and have a sit down. (Yes, I took lunch with me, unlike LB who purchased hers at the show. Frugal habits die hard)

We then made our way around the second hall of smaller more niche artisan stalls. We didn't purchase anything else though. I think we were all shopped out by this point. Luckily, half of this hall was laid out to exhibit the works of other textile artists and we saw some amazing work to finish off our visit. Here are another few pictures of some of the works I found particularly interesting.

By the time we'd wandered through all of the galleries, we were tired and ready to go home. We could have stayed for more catwalk shows, but were suffering from crafting overwhelm and were happy to just get the bus home.  The show was really good and I would recommend a visit, but it gets very busy. It's good to see that stitch, wool and other crafts are thriving though, and long may they continue to do so.