On December 8th we spent the day in London having caught the London Tube from Oxford and leaving the coach at Marble Arch. The girls loved the teenage shops such as River Island and Top Shop at which we all had a festive cupcake from Lola's pop up cake stall. When we had found their desired gifts from these shops on Oxford St, I ventured behind the crowds to the garment district to hunt for fur fabric and satin lining: this is shopping heaven for me: FABRICS! The cloth shop in Berwick St.
Here are dozens of beaded laces in a variety of navy blues and in fact alll manner of hues. Or embroidered silks and satins, just look and see! I bought my cafe au lait or mink coloured satin lining here.
A few doors down I found the compatible dark fur fabric I needed too and the girls found their shopping heaven in SPACE NK and Pixi Ltd, fancy make up and perfume shops.
After this we met JJ for lunch at a little square off Carnaby St where I had found the infamous Candy Kittens from Made in Chelsea .Kingly Court is it's name. This time we had time to explore and I looked at all the shops on the 3 levels of the little arcade: on the third floor I found a WOOL SHOP!
It's called'' all the fun of the fair'' and I bought some navy mohair there. It had a lovely selection and has an online presence too: http://www.allthefunofthefair.bigcartel.com/ It was LOVELY and even had the cute rocheted tortoise tape measures that I would have bought if I hadn't done so already in St Andrews in July.
We also discovered choccywoccydoodah and watched the tv programmes of the same name about the Brighton shop later on tv.
This is the mohair I bought there.
Then later in December I went to a craft evening at a friends' house where we all sat and knitted/ crocheted/ embroidered while chatting and I heard of a local yarn shop in Bicester which I didn;t know about so I resolved to visit it asap. Which I did on 21st December. Parking was awful but the shop was fabulous with a huge amount of very varied stock and a helpful website:just google Bicester Wools.
Now this again was a
shopping heaven for me: so many yarns and such gorgeous colours!
And if you can't go in person they have an online shop too: http://www.bicesterwools.com/
I bought some lovely angora wool in a rich rose red - I hope to buy more to make a shrug or cardigan jacket and some Rico Aran cotton which I have read much about but never seen the colours ''in the flesh'' as it were before. a red for holly berries for my Christmas wreath and some navy.
I haven't quite decided on the stitch pattern for the angora yet. Still playing. It's divinely soft and fluffy.
For Christmas I was given two crochet books:
Both from Hobby craft in Aylesbury: the snowflakes is really a motif book and quite a few could be made in colour and joined to make a lovely lace: the hexagons will tesselate easily enough.
Then there's THIS AMAZING book which is actually a knitting book but which I discovered on amazon a while back and was fascinated by, I read the ''look inside''pages but was dying to have a proper look and the reviews were full of praise also. I like it because of the CONCEPTS and design ideas inside which I would like to translate into CROCHET of course.
This yellow one reminded me strongly of a red crochet cardigan from Vogue Crochet- the one I have started in turquoise? I wanted more guidance as I may wish to adapt it a bit to suit me best. This book may help and offer more design ideas. It's TERRIBLY EXCITING!
This is the Vogue pattern.
And this was my first sleeve and 50% back panel way back in early December before I started on JJ's Christmas gift jumper.
So for the girls their shopping heavens are Boots ( big city ones), Mac, Pixi, Space NK and the Liberty perfume and make-up counters.
And for me it's shops which sell fabrics and yarns/ wools/ silks etc and bookshops with a good crochet/sewing/craft selection. It used to include Waterstones and the beloved Borders but neither of those qualify anymore, but Hobbycraft ( Aylesbury) does!
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