Sadly I left my darling Richmond Knitters this year to go and have adventures on the other side of the world. And I miss you all so much!

But last month a little piece of home came to visit me in the form of the travelling Sharon. We caught up and had a delicious breakfast at my favourite cafe before she headed off to see family in other parts of England and then on her and her other half’s return we saw the AMAZING production of Sweeny Todd that’s going on here. (Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton. DO IT if you’re in London!)

So Wednesday dawned quite lovely for the Summer we’ve been having here (England, you’re doing it wrong) and we met up for a late and lavish breakfast before heading out on our excellent adventure…

Even though she had lived in London before, we decided we would go on a yarn crawl. Like a pub crawl, but woolier and with less chance of a hangover. We started at a little shop that’s walking from me in North London called Nest. I realised on our way there that i’d actually walked past it before and not gone in! BAD knitter!

It’s a gorgeous little shop and they stock a lot of lovely (and reasonably priced!) yarn!

Sharon will have to jump in here and show you the goodies she bought, but she was very restrained! just one skein of laceweight!

A knitter in a yarn shop – far happier than a kid in a candy store!

From Nest we headed back towards central London and stopped in at my favourite, the incomparable Loop. Stupidly I forgot to take photos since i was totally distracted by the yarn and having a chat with Juju who is one of the resident designers there and a regular at the Thursday night knitting group . I try to go to that group, since they’re ALMOST as nice as my Richmond Girls (but not quite) but i keep getting to scheduled to work Thurs afternoons. Boo. So i chatted while we examined buttons and laceweight and fingering weight etc etc and Sharon exclaimed that there was a whole other floor… Good times…

Moving on, we were running short on time, but Liberty is a must, as much for the building itself as for the FULL collection of Rowan. Rowan may be problematic, but it is still so lovely and impressive to look at the full range in one place.

Just a BEAUTIFUL historical building.

Sharon also bought some buttons here whilst i snapped up my ONLY purchase for the day (so restrained!) which was some Cotton Glace on sale (£30 or so for 10). I’ve already started putting it to good use as a Petal Pullover.

There was one more compulsory stop before Sharon had to meet her hubby, so we crossed the river and popped into I Knit. For those who don’t know, it’s the worlds only licensed yarn store… yep, you can buy a beer while you shop for yarn – sounds like Sharon’s kind of place!

I Knit has a resident chihuahua, Pandora, who has recently acquired a little friend! I’ve forgotten his name in true distracted-by-the-yarn style, but he was SUPER cute and we both got lots of cuddles. he also thought my toes under my maxi dress were quite fun and the staff are working on making sure he knows yarn on bottom shelves is for customers, not him!

The shelves are a bit empty since all the in-store dyed yarn was on its way to wool-fest – which is where Sharon was also headed, so not TOO much of a loss.

We had so much fun, and it was wonderful to have a whole day to talk with another hard-core knitter – haven’t found any in my day to day life here yet. My Richmond girls started as a group to get together and share a hobby with, but honestly, the core group are amongst my best friends, and i miss that crafty clique!

And just to reinforce that bond i have with the Richmond crew, Sharon brought me a little present…

Now I can display my loyalty everywhere! Love you guys and MISS YOU!

Jen