The U.K., Part II

Next stop - London.



This trip was much more fibre-related than when I was in London 2 years ago with DH. Then we hit all the tourist sights (the Tate Modern, London Tower, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Old Bailey, Buckingham Palace, etc.) This time, the tourist activities took a backseat to checking out the LYS and meeting other knitters.

We took a train to Bristol to visit the Get Knitted shop.





I stopped by Stash...







and Loop...







and I Knit London...





I did purchase some items from each shop.
(Act surprised, OK?).

From Get Knitted, sock yarn and scarf yarn.





I picked up this Fiddlesticks laceweight at Stash. Whether this will continue to be used to knit the Mystery Stole 3 is up in the air at this point. I really didn't like the last clue, the wing. This has been set aside until I resolve the inner debate.



From I Knit London, I purchased some wool for a child's sweater.



One thing I enjoyed about each of these shops was that each one carries yarns that the others do not.

I met wonderful fellow knitters at 2 knitting groups. The first group meets at the Starbucks near the Golders Green tube station.







The second group was the Liberty ladies, who were temporarily displaced to the café at Waterstone’s.






Yvonne modeled her beautiful creation (and look at that gorgeous shawl pin).



Thanks for the companionship and chats, ladies! All of you who were at the knitting groups, please give a shout out to me in the comments, as during traveling I misplaced your contact information!

Non-knitting activities included touring the V&A...



the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London (no pictures because none were allowed - and as there were soldiers with actual machine guns, I figured I should comply with the rules)...

and the War Cabinet rooms, where I learned that Churchill’s attitude towards his books was the same as mine is towards my stash. To paraphrase him – “If you cannot use all of your skeins of yarn at any rate…fondle them, peer at them, pick them up where you will, then set them back on the shelf with your own hands.”

We were in the country during some historic events. We left York the day it began to rain and flood Yorkshire. We went through Glasgow the day before the bombing at the airport. We arrived in London after the failed attempts to detonate car bombs and we were in the UK during the end of Tony Blair's and the beginning of Gordon Brown's reign as P.M. In spite of these events, I can't wait to return to the U.K. Although if events in November, 2008 are similar to those from November of 2000 and 2004, I may not just visit, but may emigrate to the U.K.