We’ve had a few nice days now, with blue skies and warmer weather, so warm last Thursday that I was able to stand barefoot on the Yorkshire cobbles outside my back door! Today is another lovely day, and we are planning a walk with the boys. The two youngest are on school holidays, and our eldest has taken the week off work to join us. So spring is definitely springing, and on Saturday it felt very appropriate to attend an event called ‘Spring Into Wool’ despite the snow we had last Monday.
This was Spring Into Wool’s second year, but Marie and I missed it last year because we were busy enjoying ourselves in Venice. So this was out first experience of the show, and it was a lovely one. The venue is great – a lovely modern school with lots of light and space, including a great cafeteria. The people are great too. It was bustling with lots of lovely Yorkshire folk, including many friends of ours, so the day was filled with lots of hugs and warm conversation as we bumped into, sometimes literally, people we know. The shopping was great too. It was obvious that the organisers have worked to get as much variety into the show as possible, whilst making sure that every stall is indeed related to wool crafts.
As is usual for all the shows we attend, we made a beeline for Judith Mansfield’s stall, where we invariably spend a lot on antique books and knitting ephemera. This time we scored an 1884 copy of ‘The Lady’s Knitting Book’ by E. M. C., proudly advertised on the title page as ‘containing two hundred and sixteen receipts’. It is in fact a bound collection of all three volumes of the ‘Lady’s Knitting Book’. The author, Elvira Mary Corbould, who always wrote fairly anonymously under her initials instead of her full name, was a very prolific author of knitting, crochet and other needlework books in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Elsewhere in the show I also splashed out on a wooden wool winder from our friend Amanda’s stall (‘Joe’s Toes’ felted slipper kits), Karbonz needles from Knitting 4 Fun, Addi ‘Crasy Trio’ needles from Laughing Hens, and some lovely knitting-themed greetings cards from TillyFlop Designs. Marie nearly bought out ‘Wool Tops’ of various incredibly low-priced bare yarns. The stall holder, Andy, is a deligiht to chat with. Do look out for him at other Yorkshire yarn shows.
Our other treasures from Judith’s stall included three mounted pictures that I intend to frame and display in my knitting studio:
