Monday, 10 October 2011

Ally Pally 2011

This was my first ever trip to The Knitting and Stitching show which is held at Alexandra Palace in London.

The beginning of my blog will be dedicated to the amazing building which is Alexandra Palace as I was really blown away by the beautiful architecture of this building. 

For historians amongst you here is some information on the history of the Palace.

The first thing that struck me was the hugh mast that was part of the building. 





I recognised the mast as a symbolic image for the BBC.  So I researched the and found out some information about this from BBC archives.

Their was also this iconic plague dedicated to  Anglo-German Prisoners of War during the First World War.



From an artistic point of view I completely loved the hugh stained glass window that adorned the building.







On entering the building I was confronted by the Women's Weekly Record breaker




I was really pleased to see Nicky Epstein who wrote this Knitting Block by Block Book among many other books.


I also meet up with lovely Jeni who owns the phenomenal company Fyberspates 




I purchased a ball of gorgeous Sparkly Lace which is a mix of Silk/Merino and Stellina (for sparkle).

I also meet up with my fellow knitting friend/guru Rosee who now works for The Knitter magazine



I also purchased a beautiful lace weight yarn from Nimu yarns a lovely Merino/Silk blend again.



My last purchase was some adorable stitch markers which I find invaluable with lace work from Hand Made Nest they really reminded me of my trip to Turkey.



Another part of the exhibition that I loved was the work of UK Handknitting where they have organised the Textile Awards.  Here is an example of some the very talented work on show.








The final highlight of the show for me was the Coats Craft stand with some truly adorable knitted items and fabrics.









For all those that went and for all those that would like to go I hope you have enjoyed my little dip into this iconic show.

















2 comments:

  1. It was great wasn't it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

    Jeni was always swamped whenever we walked past. I'm gutted that I missed Nicky! (What on earth was I playing at!)

    Whenever we've been to knitting shows, we always walk round first, make a mental note of all the lovelies we liked and then go back and buy all the items we wanted - but it all went wrong and we missed a few things we wanted to purchase (there was tooo many gorgeous items there).

    Can’t wait for next year – though I have thought about going to Harrogate :)

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  2. Quite jealous! Though I have been spoiled with yarn trips this year to Wonderwool and Fibrefest. It looks like it was a brilliant show. DO NOT leave that laceweight yarn unattended at the guildhall . . . just saying . . .

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