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the_dala at 05:58pm on 01/12/2007
the_dala at 05:58pm on 01/12/2007OMG I FOUND IT I FOUND IT I FOUND YARN.
See, I didn't bring any of my yarn or needles or hooks with me to Southampton - absolutely nothing crafty but a tiny sewing kit for buttons and hems. Partly it was 'cause it slipped my mind in the mania of transcontinental packing, and partly because I figured I could always pick some up here.
Except...there is no Michaels here. No Joann's, no Hancock Fabric. I don't think I've got this long without setting foot in a Michaels in five years. For weeks I wandered around Portswood and the city centre, searching in vain for any kind of crafting supplies. My luck, she was bad. Until I got the bright idea of searching for 'yarn' and 'crafts' in the Yahoo yellow pages for Southampton, and lo! It told me where there was a Singer shop. And tonight, I found it. A very limited supply of yarns, but I nearly wept and threw myself at the wall. I ended up taking home a pair of 5.5mm needles, a 4.5mm hook, four small skeins of brightly colored 80p yarn, and a gorgeous 400g lump of aran with wool in that color where it's cream with little flecks of brown and grey and black. I don't know what I'm going to do with the little bits except play with it - perhaps make scarves for Lassie, Temeraire and Olivia - but I have big plans of a cosy aran scarf and matching hat for the 400g. Right now I'm just sitting here hugging it.
I also asked at the Singer store if anyone else sold yarn, and he mentioned they have a bit at John Lewis. This absolutely never would have occurred to me - you simply don't find yarn and fabric in American department stores. Not even Target sells it, and Target's the greatest store in the world. Plus I had never actually entered John Lewis on account of its being too expensive. But I checked it out tonight, and 'a bit' is an understatement - they had nearly as much as you would find at Michaels (just imagine celestial 'Ahhhhh's after that word from now on). Well, 3/4 anyway. And it was all gorgeous, good quality stuff - yes, more expensive than the stuff at Singer, but really not by much. No Caron or Lion Brand, but they did have Paton (or, Patons, which I assume is the same brand). And the needles were actually significantly cheaper than Singer, which only had metal ones. So yeah, I will probably be getting my stuff at John Lewis from now on.
I'm just so happy to have something to do with my hands again. YAY YARN!
ETA: One miniature scarf later - it's like therapy ::sighs:: My fingers are happy.
See, I didn't bring any of my yarn or needles or hooks with me to Southampton - absolutely nothing crafty but a tiny sewing kit for buttons and hems. Partly it was 'cause it slipped my mind in the mania of transcontinental packing, and partly because I figured I could always pick some up here.
Except...there is no Michaels here. No Joann's, no Hancock Fabric. I don't think I've got this long without setting foot in a Michaels in five years. For weeks I wandered around Portswood and the city centre, searching in vain for any kind of crafting supplies. My luck, she was bad. Until I got the bright idea of searching for 'yarn' and 'crafts' in the Yahoo yellow pages for Southampton, and lo! It told me where there was a Singer shop. And tonight, I found it. A very limited supply of yarns, but I nearly wept and threw myself at the wall. I ended up taking home a pair of 5.5mm needles, a 4.5mm hook, four small skeins of brightly colored 80p yarn, and a gorgeous 400g lump of aran with wool in that color where it's cream with little flecks of brown and grey and black. I don't know what I'm going to do with the little bits except play with it - perhaps make scarves for Lassie, Temeraire and Olivia - but I have big plans of a cosy aran scarf and matching hat for the 400g. Right now I'm just sitting here hugging it.
I also asked at the Singer store if anyone else sold yarn, and he mentioned they have a bit at John Lewis. This absolutely never would have occurred to me - you simply don't find yarn and fabric in American department stores. Not even Target sells it, and Target's the greatest store in the world. Plus I had never actually entered John Lewis on account of its being too expensive. But I checked it out tonight, and 'a bit' is an understatement - they had nearly as much as you would find at Michaels (just imagine celestial 'Ahhhhh's after that word from now on). Well, 3/4 anyway. And it was all gorgeous, good quality stuff - yes, more expensive than the stuff at Singer, but really not by much. No Caron or Lion Brand, but they did have Paton (or, Patons, which I assume is the same brand). And the needles were actually significantly cheaper than Singer, which only had metal ones. So yeah, I will probably be getting my stuff at John Lewis from now on.
I'm just so happy to have something to do with my hands again. YAY YARN!
ETA: One miniature scarf later - it's like therapy ::sighs:: My fingers are happy.
ecstatic
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