After a horrendously busy few weeks at work, on Saturday the 8th of October I crawled out of bed at 7am to head off to The Knitting and Stitching Show.
It’s ages since I’ve been to a large scale craft event – in fact, I don’t think I’ve been to a big one since Handmade Fair (you can read my blog post about that here) – and when my friend Bex suggested I come along to London and make a day of it I jumped at the chance.
Held at Alexandra Palace, it’s a fair of all things knitting, crocheting, and stitching. And when I say all things, I mean all things; there was even a stall selling nothing but high quality lamps to work under, and I spotted one selling just the very very poshest of dressmaking scissors.
Stalls, stalls, stalls!
For crafty enthusiasts it was a total, sprawling haven. Popular names like Rowan and Stylecraft had big (and very popular) stalls, and there were hundreds of independent suppliers of everything from hand-dyed yarn to beautifully patterned fabric, all wrapped up in a wonderful setting.
The best part, though, was the fact that the stalls suited a whole range of budgets. At some fairs like these I’ve found the focus is on hand dyed and hand crafted – so you’re hard pushed to pick up a skein of yarn for less than £8 – but while there were plenty of wonderful sellers with exactly that, there were also those like Black Sheep Wools with huge piles of discounted yarn that had everyone scrabbling for the best deal.
My favourite stall, though, was definitely Toft’s. I absolutely love Toft’s designs (see my posts on making Kerry Lord’s flamingo and stork) and they dress their stall so beautifully it’s impossible not to choose at least something small to take home. The girls working on the stand were so lovely, friendly and helpful, and the ginormous flamingo and monster either side with signs inviting you to take a selfie were so fun.
They were a real breath of fresh air in a room where some of the stallholders took themselves, and their crafts, extremely seriously. I did find a few of the people on the stands were a little snobby towards me and my group of friends, and often assumed we were clueless or beginners (despite the fact that we’ve all been crafting for years, and two of us were wearing hand-knitted stuff at the event!). Mostly, though, everyone was super friendly and made us feel really welcome, and it was nice to chat to a couple of other attendees as we went along, too.
Our crafty purchases
I managed to grab a beautiful pack of Sirdar Click (in this beautiful greeny purpley colour) for just £16 from Black Sheep, while Bex took away a huge haul of £1 balls of chunky acrylic from Marriner Yarns. Lizzy also picked up a bag full of Stylecraft’s basic DK in a range of totally obnoxious colours to make a bright and beautiful granny square blanket.
One of my favourite finds was a sickeningly cute Sirdar Hayfield baby cardigans pattern, which uses the lovely Sirdar Hayfield Baby Blossom Chunky. I nabbed this plus two yarn colourways to make both cardis (and had the first on my needles the very next day).
And of course, to take everything home in, I couldn’t resist popping back over to Toft on our way out to grab their quarterly magazine and the alpaca tote, which is printed with an alpaca crochet pattern on the back!
Into the details
Overall the event was well run. Getting there was easy – we took a train from Finsbury Park – and it was well signposted once you arrive.
The only issues I found were with the toilets and food. Toilet queues were always huge (though they had installed a few portaloos outside to help with this) and there was nowhere near enough space for people to sit and eat – but the food options available were really yummy, including pizzas and roast turkey rolls.
Tickets were about £16 each, which I think was good value. We spent about four hours at the actual fair in the end, and the venue was lovely, though with most of the workshops being another £16 or more on top of this we didn’t feel like we could afford to try any out. There were lots to choose from, though, if you prefer going to these kinds of things to learn a new skill; if I’d had the cash, I probably would have gone for one of the needle felting classes.
So, all in all it was a fantastic day. If you’re worried you missed out, don’t be – there’s another show in Harrogate at the end of November, which is also such a beautiful place to visit around Christmas. Snap up your ticket, and enjoy!
Hook, Knit and Stitch 