Public Service Announcement

Yarn is expensive in the UK.

I had the opportunity to go into John Lewis in Sheffield on Monday, and I was glad I’d pre-decided yarn wasn’t going to be a souvenir of my England trip. The mean price of a 50gm skein seemed to be £4.00 more or less! That was more than what we’ve been spending on lunch these past few days. And you’d need at least 8-10 skeins for a decent-sized article.

John Lewis is a general department store which also has a craft section. Lots of wool and blends from Jaeger, Debbie Bliss, Rowan. All of them equally expensive. There were some bundles in clearance, but at £1.95 per skein, I’m afraid I wasn’t tempted much there either.
I’m not just multiplying by 84 and baulking. As I said, my lunch was cheaper than one skein. Maybe I’m not a die-hard yarnster? Or just a cheapskate.

The only needles on display were our very own Pony, in the same packaging as we get in India. They had large size Pony straights in plastic (the monster sizes). There were some bamboo straights of a different brand, but again, I’m only looking for circulars in small gauges and long lengths (I want to be able to do magic loop). Like in India, the gauge here seems to stop at 2 mm. I couldn’t find any smaller gauge needles. Perhaps a real yarn store would have some. The only thing I bought was a pack of split ring stitch markers and I’m resolutely refusing to multiply the price by 84. I doubt I’ll be going to a yarn store in the last days of my trip, so that perhaps will remain my only yarnly souvenir.

Is yarn expensive in the rest of Europe, too?

But I’m making lots of memories More photos added to my Flickr account.

Quick update

Here’s a link to my unedited pictures of our trip to England so far.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swapnae/sets/72157600886697074/

Reporting currently from Whiston near Rotherham.

Visiting the UK!!!!

Amma and I are going to be in the UK from the 17th to 31st. The land of Dickens and Shaw and Shakespeare and Austen and Sayers and Rendell and James (PD) and Townsend and Heyer and Francis…. I’m excited.

It’s my first trip abroad, the first time I’m taking a long-distance flight, the first time I’ve applied for a visa. There was some drama with my mom’s passport first, a policeman playing havoc with verification and delaying the renewal until the last minute. But the visa magically came through in three days without us having to travel to Chennai for an interview.

Do you know, my parents and my sister came back to India via Europe when they resettled from Canada in 1972? And they actually landed in London two years to the day I was born! They spent 4 days there and also visited Paris, Venice, Rome, Belgrade, and Egypt.

Ruth has very very kindly offered to help with accommodation in London. I was originally planning to go to Edinburgh/Lake District/Yorkshire but friends there haven’t responded to my latest mail, so I’m going to try and see as much as possible via day trips from London. Maybe move into a hostel so we don’t inconvenience Ruth more than we are already.

Anyone has any tips? Ruth says she might take me to her local knitting group, which is a scary idea! Me, the amateur knitter, meeting actual real knitters, who probably make usable items!!! And beautiful ones. It’s terrifying. Gulp.

I don’t plan to buy any yarn, because I’d probably want a little bit of everything and that would be way above my budget/baggage allowance. Too much temptation might sometimes translate into none at all, you know. But maybe some small gizmo, if it is affordable.

Will I meet any of my readers there? Let me know. Did I say I’m excited? I’m excited!

Here’s the booties

I tried a couple of different infant sock patterns, but even though they were knit, they appeared to use more yarn than I had left (I was knitting from opposite ends of the leftover skein). So I frogged and fell back on my favourite no-seam bootie pattern and would you believe it, I had just the right amount to weave in ends. I’m not totally happy, because crochet has a different look from knit and I wanted the set to be homogeneous With this worsted yarn it somehow doesn’t appeal. Anyway, here are the pictures and the specs.

Yarn: The same Shepherd Cynthia Helene that I won from Nona when she was giving away some of her stash last year.

Hook: Pony 4.5mm

Pattern: Darcy Richardson’s Newborn Booties

Time: Half-an-hour

Size: No idea. Hopefully they should fit at some point. Most probably, the three different parts of the set will fit the baby at three different points of time. Very odd.

Extra #1 Satin ribbon with tiny polka dots. No one said a boy baby can’t have polka dots. (Also, I didn’t think I’d find a matching shade of brown)

#2 Why do ribbons fold up when you thread them through the holes? I wish they didn’t.

#3 This is one set I wish I’d see pictures of in use. I never do, otherwise.

Here’s a picture with the ribbon in.