Spring into Wool show in Leeds

We had a day out to Leeds today, it was nice to get away after all the time I've spent in the house being poorly the last month.  We had been thinking of going anyway to see the Thomas Chippendale exhibition at the Leeds City Museum, celebrating 300 years since his birth. Then I happened to notice an ad for the Spring into Wool Show being held this weekend at the Grammar School in Leeds, so it turned into a day out.

Leeds is about a 2.5 hour drive for us which was uneventful, and we got to the show about 11:30am.  The venue is hugely impressive, a massive independent school campus that apparently was built about 10 years ago but looks no more than  a year old and with facilities which would put some universities to shame.  DH headed into the huge canteen for a late breakfast (opposite the large indoor chapel), while I browsed the lobby stalls before passing the indoor swimming pool to reach the main part of the show in the big gymnasium with purpose built climbing walls in one corner.  I enjoyed the show, there were 78 exhibitors, many of them new to me, and the layout was spacious and well lit, and prices seemed fairly reasonable and everyone seemed really friendly.  I would rate the show on a par with Fibre East or Unravel - it didn't have the strong guild / local group presence of those shows but compensates with great facilities including a very reasonably priced canteen and only £5 to get in.  There were workshops available as well in a separate well lit spacious room.

I enjoyed looking but didn't feel especially tempted by anything major until I reached  The Wool Zone stall, who had some great kits and colours.  I bought a kit for the Scheepjes Yarn Shawl of Secrets by Sarah Knight, in gorgeous colours of Scheepjes Secret Garden Silk Blend yarn (20 silk, 20 cotton, 60 poly) and a ball of Stylecraft batik swirl DK (80 acrylic, 20 wool) because it was so pretty.  And an impulse buy at the till was the West Yorkshire Spinners 'Florist Collection' of patterns because I liked the cover shawl so much and then saw several other patterns I liked when I flicked through.   Florist Collection is a 4 ply range in really pretty spring like colours so I guess I will have to order some of those.

After some lunch, we headed over to the nearby Park n Ride and got the bus into Leeds to visit the Chippendale exhibition.  It wasn't huge but it was very interesting.  I was sad to read that someone so influential had basically died almost in poverty and his son subsequently went bankrupt, largely because their wealthy patrons just wouldn't pay the bills for the work.  There was a mix of authentic Chippendale pieces and pieces that were made by others using the designs from his influential book, and some explanations of his workshop set up and how he worked with clients and architects.  We had tea and some delicious cake in the cafe and I picked up a cast metal 'Chippendale' chair pincushion in the gift shop which I will probably repaint/reupholster.

On the way back to the bus stop I spotted the Handmade Collective at 19 Grand Arcade full of the work of local designer makers which had some interesting things.  This cute little house on a thread spool (combining two of my hobbies) came home with me.

We were tired when we finally arrived back but it was a nice day out, I wouldn't mind going to that knitting show again but I would go on the opening day before things get picked over or shopped out.

Yesterday I visited a local bobbin lace group and did about three hours divided between both my bobbin lace projects.  I spent the last 30 minutes knitting on my 10 stitch triangle shawl and it was only when I was explaining the construction to another lady that I realised I had worked the last corner at the wrong angle (acute instead of square). So I had to pull back the entire side strip to re-work that corner properly.  At least I noticed before I had knit all around three sides which would have been really annoying.  On the car drive today I was knitting on my Scalloway Tam by Marie Wallin , which I started last night from the kit that I bought at the Nottingham Yarn Fest. The colourways of Jamiesons yarn in this design are so gorgeous, you want to keep knitting just to see what the next combination is.

I've done some more on the second bedroom of the Japanese dollshouse  but it still isn't finished as I haven't got the alcove post walls in place yet or made the tatami mats.  But you can get an idea of the colour scheme.  The decorative paper on the sliding doors and cupboard is actual Japanese washi paper from Japan. The wallpaper is some scrapbooking paper I had in my stash.

The weather was really mild yesterday and we enjoyed our first cup of tea sitting out in the garden since last autumn.  Lots of daffodils have come up and for once the slugs haven't eaten all my primroses. The fuschia is blooming as well.

The magnolia tree is just bursting into bloom, it should look

really lovely soon.

I will leave you with a picture of  our silly cat who climbed right into my backpack for a protracted exploration because she could smell the salmon salad I had been carrying in it. Who needs cat toys?

And in front of the silly cat you will see my stash of craft goodies picked up from this week's Aldi special purchase stock, including a couple of A3 self healing mats for my dollshouse room, a craft box, some fat quarters, some scissors and four packs of buttons, all at very reasonable prices. Even DH went over after work and got himself a couple of A3 mats for his modelling room - at £2.99 each they are going to make great work surfaces that you don't have to be too careful with.