London Yarn Shopping…

I have been remiss on posting about my London yarn shopping experiences. As Julia noted, that is is probably a pretty good sign of how lousy I was feeling.

Wednesday morning, Ann and I were both a little slow to start moving. Ok, I slept in late. Traveling to Wales and back in a day while working on getting sick is a bit exhausting. Once we were up and about, Ann discovered she had to go into her office for a bit to take care of items for a workshop the next day. She kept apologizing, but seriously – it was pretty cool. Just interesting to see the “real” side of life in London, the way people really work. I didn’t mind the detour at all, except it did cut down on Ann’s time at our next destination.

After we left her office, we headed off to Stash. While Liberty is fabulous in the sense of the building, the heart of London, the entire store and all of the goodies that it offers, Stash was by far my favorite yarn store in London. It is beautiful, well organized, Nathalie and Michelle were fun, friendly, and helpful in finding yarns that we would love. We were just giddy to be there. It was worth the extra walking up and down the hill to see the shop! (Note: take a map, and don’t assume it is on the wrong street. That hill is evil.) I was so glad to be greeted by a table and chairs when I walked in the door, because I was ready to drop!

I need to take photos of the goodies that I brought home from Stash, but here is the list:
– Silkwood yarn – Contessa thick n thin for a fun scarf – colors of blues, turquoise, plum, rust and brown
– Lana Grossa Meilenweit Magico sock yarn in color 2523 – blues and greens
– The find of the day: Colour King Cashmere lace weight yarn in turquoise blue (see a theme here?) – 900 yards for a shawl. I may need 1200 yards, so Michelle may be getting a request to bring more over when she comes to the US next month.

And I have to take a moment to say “Hi!” to Nathalie’s Mom! She pointed out to Nathalie that I was in London, so it was nice to get such a warm reception when we got to the shop!

Ann had an appointment back in north London, so she left me at the shop to browse some longer. Once I made my way to the train station, I went back into town and then to the Oxford Circus tube stop to return to Lush’s new store, “B”. Once I arrived, I was sucked back in to Liberty. I just had to admire all those handbags and bath goodies one more time. While there, I decided I really must make some Mrs Beeton wristwarmers. It just seemed like the perfect London thing to bring back since I met Brenda and since Rowan yarn is from England. Just one problem – I didn’t have the yarn requirements with me. I did, however, have Brenda’s number programmed in my phone and I had planned on calling her before I left – so it was perfect! Who else would know the requirements better than her? She helped me out and I left with a skein of Kidsilk Haze in shade 582, a sort of teal green, and Kid Classic in shade 840, a nice light gray.

After I left Liberty, I headed off to “B” for perfume, ducked into Lush for all of 2 seconds (seriously, stepped in, turned around, left), and then went to the cool Japanese store with all of the travel accessory goodies. Next time I travel, I am all set with containers to hold my bath products.

Ann came back to Carnaby Street to meet up with me and we headed off to check out John Lewis, another department store with yarn. They didn’t have anything exciting that we had not seen already, so after looking over everything we left for dinner. After dinner, we headed off to Tesco way north of London (outside the circle, up in the hills – far, far away) to see if they had Fakenstocks like Ann had. She had the most adorable shoes, which I would have sworn were Birkenstocks until she told me that they weren’t. Unfortunately, the Tesco didn’t have them – but they did have a DVD player for a great price, which Ann bought for her flat. It had been a long day, and I still had to pack – mainly pack my yarn! – so we went home and watched “Two Weeks Notice” while I packed. Nothing like a good Sandra Bullock movie to finish up the day! (Speaking of which, we saw the crowds waiting for the London premiere of her new movie on Monday – I took photos of the red carpet, minus the stars!)