shopping and knitting

sock progress
Originally uploaded by the pig wot flies

Some knitting happened this weekend. The sock grew a few inches, fluffy belle now has 2 fronts, a back and 2 half sleeves. I'm slightly worried that I'm going to run out of yarn. There might be some experimentation with the sleeves as I work out how to make maximum use of what I've got.

I went shopping on Saturday and went for the first time to Loop in Islington. It's a very lovely 'yarn boutique'. They've got a good selection of yummy yarns in gorgeous fibres. No acrylic in sight! I spent ages stroking some beautifully soft Blue Sky Alpaca, but ended up not buying anything. I've got far too many things waiting to be knitted to buy something new. My only criticism would be that they don't seem to have large quantities of anything, although there may well be more stock in the basement. As I browsed, I could hear other customers asking questions of the helpful staff. There seemed to be a lot of new knitters, making their first scarves and cushions. It's good to find a place where you don't feel like you have to be a knitting expert to talk to people.

Loop and my nearest wool shop Teasels, represent to me the two sorts of knitting shops. One is full of fashionable colours and wools and the most gorgeous knitted objects, but you do wonder whether it's just a fashion thing that will fade. The other is a little dusty, with yellow tinted windows and is full of acrylic and washable wool, but the staff have years of knitting experience and are happy to share their expertise (provided you don't horrify them by asking for wool that will felt as I did a few weeks ago). I'd love to find a shop that was the perfect balance of the two - a wide selection of yarns, the big names and the obscure one-woman-two-sheep-and-a-spinning-wheel ones with friendly staff who have years of experience and the enthusiasm to try something new. Probably, like most ideas of the perfect, it just doesn't exist.