London Knitting Tour

At last I've managed to see for myself some of the famous knitting spots in London. Myself and two good friends from Southsea knitting club took the train from Portsmouth to Waterloo. Here is Caroline knitting away on the train..notice her chevron cardigan, I've knitted it myself.

The day was organised like a military operation in order to manage to see all the targets.

We first stopped at Oxford street to see Liberty which is such a striking old building, inside and out.

To get to the haberdashery floor you must walk first past all the designer bags and scarfs..there I was with my mouth gaping open admiring everything..The wool though was somewhat disappointing , mostly all your usual rowan staff, the salesladies are snooty but the buttons are gorgeous..

Next stop was an unremarkable knitting shop ; All the fun of the fair , not too far from Liberty. All the yarn were sorted by colors. I found there a lovely brown skinny skein without price tag..

Me- excuse me , how much is this skein?

Shop lady- Oh, let me see the fiber content..

(she fondles the skein but eyeing me up and down..)

Shop lady-(sweet voice) £25 please !

Me-Oh !

Shop Lady- Its the cashmere...

Me- only %15..

Shop lady produces a professional smile but is not backing down..

Me-closing the shop door quietly behind me..

We were planning to visit Weardowney , but few attempts to call them were not answered so it was decided to let go..

Next , we were rushing to Loop and there we stayed a while. Its not a big shop and the owners keep most of the yarn in the basement which has no access to customers. I took my time and slowly scanned the shelves; blue sky alpaca, madelintosh, malabrigo, habu ..what a pleasure ..I looted the shop's stock of habu silk stainless steel, ha ha..

No time for proper lunch, we were running up and down on the tube escalators and the last stop was iknit . Expectations were high but stock levels were low , not enough color range on the malabrigo sock yarn.. Never mind its not as if I have anything to knit with..

Lovely day, and now we are planning the summer knitting tour :)