Jon's Knit Blog

Back to the Old Bump and Grind

I'll spend some time uploading the pictures from the trip when I get home from work tonight. In the meantime, I will tell you that I spent all of about 90 minutes knitting while on the trip, and I spent a bit more time trying to find yarn shops in London. I found a few places with yarn, but only with Rowan, Jaeger, Debbie Bliss, and one or two places had Noro. So I was underwhelmed, as it was all yarn I can get here in the states for about the same price, or probably less.

I was really surprised that you couldn't get any "non-standard" British yarn. I really though I'd at least be able to find some lovely traditional yarn to make into an aran type sweater. But no... Someone (sorry, can't immediately think of whom and don't have time to run and check) mentioned that you can't find Colinette Yarns in London and I found this to be true... and for those of you curious about Infusion in Notting Hill, they just have a small stock of Rowan Yarns. Cute store, cute neighborhood, but just Rowan. I mean, not that there's anything bad about Rowan yarns (although sometimes I wonder why they have so much artificial fiber in their yarn). Speaking of Rowan, though, the new book was here when I got home last night. I don't think there's anything in it I'm just itchin' to make. I think if I were pressed to choose one item, it'd be Kim Hargreaves' beaded beret, although I'm sure that if I spent more time in the book, I'd find more things to like.

Here's my one other inquisitive observation regarding Rowan: why are they so opposed to knitting in the round? Gorgeous fair isle designs from Kaffe Fassett and others which all are written to knit in the flat, and in this one, Kim Hargeaves has a pair of gloves done in Kid Silk Haze (or is it Kid Classic, sorry to not remember or want to check at this second), which are knit in the flat -- so every finger has a side seam and so does the hand of the glove, which I find ridiculous. They were lovely gloves, though. Maybe I'll get industrious and rewrite the pattern for DPN's. Then again, I have enough other stuff that I'm working on, don't I?

Posted by Jon at August 23, 2004 11:29 AM