Unravel 2018

On Friday, Jane and I went to Unravel knitting festival and it was awesome!  Alright, so it started with me not getting the job I interviewed for on Monday, but it majorly improved after that!  As I was knitting my socks on the train, a lady walked past me, wearing the most amazing beaded shawl.  As she came back, she leaned over to ask which yarn I was using - at which point we both said in unison: "Are you going to Unravel?" You couldn't have written it!

The ticket machine in the carpark was not working properly.  We tried putting in £3; it didn't give us a ticket and refunded us £2.  We tried putting in £4; it didn't give us a ticket and refunded us £2.  We tried putting in £3; it didn't give us a ticket so we thumped it, and it refunded us back £6.  Apparently thumping it after putting in each coin was the way to go - but ouch, we ended up bruised!

We had decided to have a look round all the stalls first, before coming back to buy anything.  This was a good idea, although it did mean going back to nearly the first stall I saw!  I was also aiming to buy just one ball of sock yarn.  The crucial word in that sentence is aiming.

Part of the catalogue, showing the vendors

We went to a talk in the Long Kiln Gallery - which was decorated with artwork created by Kate Talbot.  There were too many to comment on, plus not all of them were good for photographing, due to the lighting.

Lemmy Kilmister - complete with bottle of Jack Daniels

Losing The Thread - a picture of Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley
The thread has been left loose and unravelling to depict the effect of Alzheimer's disease on the academic mind. 

Jane had left her knitting at home, and clearly had itchy fingers.  The socks I was knitting had suffered a major yarn barf, so she was helping to untangle that.  She even offered to weave in my ends!  I did feel a bit mean about knitting in front of her (a bit like eating in front of a starving child), but it's not often you're encouraged to knit whilst listening to somebody gives a talk!

The talk was given by Anna Maltz about the colourwork technique she has developed, called marlisle.  She comes from an art background, and wanted to be able to break the rules - but to do that, she needed to know what the rules are in the first place.  Whilst her peers were working with paper and paint, she decided to work with knitting, as she knew its rules.  From there, she developed marlisle, a way of creating colourwork using two strands of yarn held together.

Mittens made with the technique. 

One of the comments she made, was about knitters wanting to be breed specific, which isn't necessarily a good thing with people.  She said that Brexit was leading people to become more isolated from each other and instances of racism have increased.  Given that we were in Surrey, I thought that was pretty brave!  I was incredibly impressed at the thought that she has given to the yarns that she uses for her projects.  Most seem to be inspired by people she knows, or places connected to her or her family.

I've also found a new 'thing' for yarn shows - collecting business cards and making a note on them of any clothes, patterns or notions that you like the look of.  So, when I want to know who had the 'Industrial Kingfisher' colurway, or that pattern for the ball of yarn I'm trying to get rid of - I have all the contact details.

Of course, there was always the one that got away - for which I'm now cross with myself.  There was a stall who had a reduced ball of sparkly light brown sock yarn, which would have been brilliant for a shawl, and so different to anything in the stash at the moment.  Annoyingly, the guy running the stall was too busy chatting to somebody to serve me - despite somebody else pointing out that I was waiting.  So, I put it back and came back later - only to find that it had been bought by somebody else.

The big octopus. Not suitable for babies

Jane wanted to go and see the octopuses - so that was next on the list.  Octopus for a Preemie came from Denmark.  I can't remember exactly how the first octopus came to be in a baby's incubator, but it was noticed that the baby was playing with the tentacles instead of the wires (it's thought to remind them of the umbilical cord) and their heartbeat went down.  From there, more octopuses have been made and given to babies and the project has spread internationally.  The rules for knitting or crocheting an octopus are incredibly strict.  If the octopus isn't deemed suitable for a premature baby, it's given to an 'angel baby'.  We both got kits to knit our first octopus.

A tank full of smaller octopuses. 

Then it was time to hit the marketplace!  I thought the bags had sold out.  They hadn't.

The Unravel 2018 bag

I got a couple of books.  The one on Icelandic knitting is gorgeous.  As well as patterns, it's got a lot about the history of knitting in Iceland. 

Marisle, by Anna Maltz

Iclandic Hand Knits by Helene Magnusson
What can I say - it was reduced! 

And then there was the yarn - in this case, two skeins from Easyknits which was almost the first place I looked.

Two skeins of Deeply Wicked + sock yarn
L = Flicker and Flame, R = Cockatoo

All in all, it was a lovely chilled out, yarney kind of day.  It was the pick-er up-er that I needed and would definitely go back again next year, if I had the opportunity. 

Of Cast Ons and Floods

Last night, I fell asleep listening to Arne and Carlos' Christmas podcast - basically the two of them chatting about Christmas and past projects, whilst Arne knits a Christmas bauble.  I couldn't tell you what they talked about, as I fell asleep.  Having listened to about half of it this morning whilst washing up, I'd recommend a listen. 

Now, we're at Christmas Eve.  Apparently, there is a tradition in Iceland, that people are given books and chocolate on Christmas Eve - and they then spend the rest of the evening reading the books and eating the chocolates.  In November, a catalogue of new publications is delivered to every house in the country, the beginning of the annual Christmas book flood. (There's another article here and here - which more or less say the same thing, but still make me feel all cosy when reading them).  This year, I plan to follow the tradition, with these books:

Unsurprisingly, these were bought in Iceland over the summer.  (I also got a copy of Njal's Saga, but didn't think that I could complete it in one night).  It's a lovely tradition, and I might see if my sister will let me implement it with my nephew next year.  

Courtesy of Twitter, I saw the #ChristmasEveCastOn hashtag.  I didn't even know that this was a Thing - but apparently it is.  Knitters up and down the country will, apparently be casting on something to knit over Christmas.  Should I have time to join in, it will be with this yarn:

West Yorkshire Spinners yarn.
Left to right: Chocolate Lime, Candy Cane, Cayenne Pepper

This is West Yorkshire Spinners' Christmas yarn - candy cane. I first heard about it via Winwick Mum's blog as she designed the pattern which is sent out with the yarn.  It was so popular, it went out of stock, with a fortnight wait for more yarn to be dyed.  I got some from Loveknitting - along with the Chocolate Lime contrasting yarn - then got impatient and bought some directly from West Yorkshire Spinners, along with the Cayenne Pepper colourway.  

In checking both balls of yarn, I was quite happy to see:

Despite coming from different shops, THEY'RE THE SAME DYE LOT!   (This makes my life so much easier).  I don't know whether to do a pair with red toes and cuff and a green heel, or green toes and cuff and a red heel, or cuff, toes and heels in all red or all green.  There may be enough for all combinations.  (Winwick Mum managed to get two pairs from one ball). 

Before then, I need to clear the spare room, do a final shop (I think this is the third final shop), make the chilli for Boxing Day.  Mr Knitty has done his bit to help clear up, by finishing the pizza in the fridge, to give me more fridge space.  The Prosecco and orange juice are both chilling in the fridge ready for tomorrow.  It's taken some time, but I'm starting to get a bit excited about this whole Christmas thing.

What does your Christmas Eve bring you?  Are you all chilled and out and ready, or doing a last minute mad rush like me? 

Merry Christmas. 

Design Your Own Lace

Wednesday 29th was interesting, as I found out that my contract wasn't going to be renewed.  It's fair to say that tears have been shed.  The model of the service is changing; the doctors want a nurse running the service, so they've put in a business case for a nurse to join the team "which will make your life easier", making me surplus to requirements and back on the job hunt.  I've been left feeling entirely un-wanted and questioning the integrity of those around me.

Sunday 3rd December was the perfect antithesis to all this.  I took a class called Design Your Own Lace, by Karie Westermann, followed by the book launch for her new book This Thing of Paper  I was held at Wild and Woolly in East London.  Typically, I was running late - but my state of anxiety was calmed by the smell of weed on my fellow bus passengers. 

Basic summary - the pattern of the lace is determined by the location of the decreases.  These will determine where the 'pull' of the fabric is, and what the final result will look like.  Also - the pattern you design, has to be interesting to knit. 

We started by writing out a lace pattern on squared paper, and then knitting it.  You may notice (I didn't), that I didn't write the pattern on alternate lines - meaning that either the pattern would have to be knit in garter stitch, or a combination of stockingette and reverse stockingette. 

On the plus side - I got a comment to the rest of the class about doing maths down the right side to make sure that the increases and decreases all matched up.  

We were shown three variations of the same pattern, all which had the decreases in different places, which lead to a slightly different look.  We were asked to try and work out which one was which.  Given I had got up early and hadn't had breakfast - this was a bit beyond me.  

Top to bottom:

Shetland Horseshoe
Faroese Horseshoe
Orenburg Horseshoe

During the lesson, Karie was showing us sample pieces for her book.  Once she'd got out the Rubrication shawl nothing else in life mattered.  It is completely lush, so tactile and beautifully red.  Seriously, I could have spent the rest of the day stroking and admiring it.  

There were pastries - proper Danish pastries.  

What remained after our tea break

The shop itself was so lovely and welcoming.  It felt like a proper knitters' shop - as opposed to a shop which sold yarn.  There were samples of things hung on the walls, and sample of things you can knit, should you want to.  Were it closer, it would easily be my LYS, it's just so cosy and welcoming.  I felt that I could easily throw my shoes off and curl up in the corner with a project - and nobody would blink.  

After the class was over, and we'd had lunch - I came back for the book launch, which involved Prosecco and chatting to other knitters.  Larissa - aka Travel Knitter was there, selling some of her yarns.  I bought the sock yarn in the colourway Adire - unique to Wild and Wooly

 - and a couple of skeins of  Tanami in the colourway Double Happiness to knit the Rubrication shawl. 

Larissa doesn't put dye lot numbers on her yarns, as they can look entirely different, depending where in the pot they're dyed.  However, she can tell just by looking, whether a pair of skeins will work together or not.  I was quite impressed.  

During the class, Karie told the rest of the students that I did a class with her last year, and gave her grief throughout.  I'm not sure I remember it quite that way!  Either way, I told Karie, when signing my book, she was more than welcome to make reference to me giving her grief if she wanted to.  Generously, she chose not to:

There were also some button badges at the counter, which I couldn't resist.  

Button badges for my coat - all of which have since been lost.  I blame the work Christmas party. 

When I first learned to write, I was told that speech marks should look like a 66 and 99 - so how amused was I with my (second) final total? 

For a purchase of a book about books and writing, it was just about perfect. 

I Do Love Me a Good Rainbow

On Friday night, I met friends for dinner - after being reminded by a colleague to actually go home at some point.  Everything you read about unrealistic expectations in the NHS are true.  I can't do all the stuff I'm expected to do and leave work on time every day; it's as simple as that.  

Jane, K, L and I will meet up every so often for a catch up, and putting the world to rights.  We had to grab K before she disappeared down the Proms rabbit hole.  She sings in several choirs and is a season ticket holder; it's how she met her husband.  I've been to three last nights (one in the seated area, two in the arena - of which one was on the grid.  Trust me, it's a big thing to be on the grid).  Annoyingly, the proms I really want to see are in Iceland, so no idea if I'll get to the last night this year. 

So, we chatted about all sorts: work expectations, Proms, holiday plans, IVF, running, knitting, cherry coloured velvet.  As usual, there was the usual swapping of stuff; I got Guide badges, turkish delight and the loan of a book.  Whilst we were eating, we had the amusement of watching the staff blowing up balloons and trying to work out where to hang them - all in rainbow colours for Pride.  It was only as we were planning on leaving that we realised, as four Brownie leaders, we would be brilliantly placed to help, but it was far too amusing to watch.  Although, it did bother me that the red balloons were in the wrong place:

Within Guiding, I am known to my Brownies as Rainbow Owl.  I love the colours of the rainbow - so totally loved walking down Oxford Street (one of Europe's busiest shopping streets) and seeing all the rainbows.

Please forgive the photo quality; the camera on my phone isn't great - and the light levels were dropping. 

Liberty's of London displaying their rainbow flag

Tea!  (I've walked past this shop so many times - still haven't been in).

 

With a pun my dad would have been proud of:

I loved this shop, whose rainbow coloured display was allowed to spill out on to the pavement: 

Rainbow coloured pavement! 

Even the bus stops wanted to get in on the act:

As I've nearly finished my current pair of socks, it's time to cast on another one.  (I'm attempting the Yarngasm Box O Socks challenge - so far at two pairs of socks, out of twelve.  I need to get the needles going.

The next pair is going to be my version of Hermione's Everyday Socks (blog entry with pattern here and Ravelry link with downloadable PDF here) but toe up.  I've not got the courage to knit a cuff down after my first attempts; I'm happy with what I know.  It would seem that at least one person has already had the same idea - so I won't have to re-invent the wheel.  After her attempts to improve the rights of elves I think she would be an ally of the LGBTQ cause, so of course rainbow coloured yarn would be entirely appropriate.  But which yarn to use?

• Top row: Austermann Step: Ennis,  Esslinger Wolle: Regenbogen-bunt; Opal - Mein Sockdesign: Feuervogel

• Middle row: West Yorkshire Spinners signature 4 ply: Rum Paradise -   Regia 4 Ply - Clown (discontinued); Opal - Funny Sparkle: Witty

• Bottom row: Opal - Mein Sockdesign: Over the Rainbow; Opal Schafpate VIII: Blickfang; Zauberball: Frische Fische

• Far right: Owl About Yarn: Rainbow

What's your next project to cast on? 

A Treat of a Retreat

Last weekend I was at the Jolie's kitchen knitting retreat.  There is so much to say about it, I don't know where to start, even a week later.  Karie Westermann's take on it is here if you're interested. 

My train on Friday night was delayed by 20 minutes. Yes, 90 minutes.  I had to telephone the hotel to confirm that I was still coming, for fear of giving my room to somebody else.  Apparently some of the other ladies who were attending the retreat had been in the bar earlier knitting.  Sadly I missed them, and hoped to catch up with them the next day.  On the plus side, I did manage to get through a decent chunk of my knitting project.

This was the first time I had ever been to a knitting event, and realised afterwards that I did not take enough photographs.  It was lovely to be in an environment where everybody was knitting, it wasn't considered weird to grab somebody's clothing and ask about the use of colour, or to admire the stitch work.  In fact it was positively encouraged.  Of the projects that stood out were Fiona's fair isle sweater (Ravelry link) and Catherine's beautifully colourful cardigan. 

The event opened with Kate Atherley talking about her life as a knitter.  She was born in a local hospital and not Toronto born and bred as I had always thought.  My second favourite part of her talk was her discussion of how people seem afraid to get their knitting wet.  Apparently she has been in classes where she has grabbed people's knitting and stuck it in a glass of water, just to prove that you can get knitting wet, without the universe imploding or similar.  As she quite rightly asked have you seen the places where these sheep live? They're places where it rains.  Apparently Herdyshepherd  has quite good photos to prove this.

My favourite story was on the subject of gauge.  Apparently there are many women in New York who are rich.  One of these women came into a knitting shop complaining that her knitting hadn't worked.  When the shopkeeper asked her if she had made a gauge swatch, she replied that her maid had done it.  Yes, the maid had made the knitting swatch.

Over the course of the weekend I took two classes. The first was with Kate Atherley on sizing and fit.  I will admit, that she was pretty much the reason I went the retreat.  I think this is a separate blog post in itself, but it was a class worth taking, partly for the knitting, partly because I got to draw pictures of boobs and partly because it confirmed some of the things I already sort of knew.

After pizza for dinner (the Northern Quarter has really come up in status since I lived in Manchester), we met back up for a talk on British wool and the raffle. Louise from Knit British talked about British yarn, and how it's packaged and marketed.  Apparently if something is labelled as British, there's no guarantee that it's bred, sheared, spun, dyed or packaged in Britain.  She mentioned the woolsack webpage, which lists British yarns available for sale.  She passed around samples, and the ones which took my fancy were:

Falkland Merino (turquoise), Teeswater (white), and Wensleydale (brown):

Chilla Valley alpaca (brown, top left), Jacob aran (top right, beige) and more Teeswater (bottom, beige)

The raffle prizes were scrumptious (and all won by other people)

Kate  and Karie took over Joeli's Periscope.  

At some point in the evening, I went back to my hotel, properly looked at the goodie bag which we'd been given (which was amazing) and went to bed far too late. 

Sunday started with a class on hap shawl construction (which has three parts), and making our own mini version of the Mahy shawl.  

The class was good fun, with a lot of laughing and some crude comments - which may have come from me.  If you describe lace knitting to me as 'strategically placed holes' what sort of a reaction do you expect?!  There was also discussion about how Japanese people are wild for Shetland lace (it was the only useful book I could find in Tokyo).  I mentioned  this article in Knitty, and why chart knitting therefore is something that transcends linguistic boundaries. 

Somewhere along the line, mine went wrong, so had to be ripped back by a few rows.  Now, I know I'm not the most proficient knitter, but even I could see what was wrong when I put it back on the needles:

I didn't have enough time to complete what we were supposed to complete before the session ended, so I had the good idea of taking the needles out, threading a lifeline in and picking it up when I got home.  Again, spot the problem:

This is what happens when you don't get enough sleep the night before! 

The weekend ended with Kate Hepple talking about how she got involved in Knit Now magazine.  (Basically, she was working for the NHS and was headhunted via Ravelry).  She gave us an overview of the process - call for submissions, deciding which will be featured (only two garments per issue, all the rest are accessories), tech editing and knitting samples, if I remember correctly.  There's a vlog here which explains it.  There was also a great discussion about the models used for knitwear shoots, and the discussion between 'real women' and size six models.  I suspect this is a discussion the knitting community isn't going to solve in isolation.

There was also a swaps table and mini market place.  Should my husband ask, I didn't spend a penny on new yarn.  (I don't think he's noticed the new acquisitions however). 

There is so much more I could have said about the weekend.  It was very strange to be back in Manchester after about fourteen years; I hardly recognised it.  It was brilliant to be among women who were funny, and creative and smart.  And if you want an example of how welcoming the knitting community are, I turned up wearing a shop-bought acrylic sweater, which nobody commented on. 

Annual round up of 2015

At the beginning of 2015, Let's Knit magazine wrote a list of twelve things that knitters should do over the year 2015.  Rather than go through each one individually, it's probably easier to make a list of the ones I didn't manage. 

• Knit a top-down seamless sweater (Not sure why this should be better or worse than a bottom-up sweater) 
• Try steeking
• Learn to crochet
• Take part in a yarn bomb
• Try a new craze
• Dye your own yarn

All good ideas, I just never got round to them.

Of the rest....

• Join a knitting group

Sort of.  There was a knitting group of about five or six people from work.  I went along to one meeting. 

• Take part in a knitalong

I thought I'd considered it, but turns out that was in 2014.  

• Knit in British yarn

Yup, Shetland yarn for the last project I started in 2015

• Design your own pattern

Yup, the Frances sample scarf.  Didn't work, but I did learn something from it. 

• Go on a knitting holiday

No, although a knitting retreat has been booked for next month

• Knit socks

Only sort of  I have yet to conquer the heel. 

A quick look back at my personal resolutions gives a similar picture:


I did try to learn how to turn the heel of a sock.  The first Youtube video confused me (despite the number of comments saying how helpful it was).  It didn't help that the person narrating said to use half the stitches - and then only  after I'd started knitting, said that this should be an odd number.  The first time I tried to get a friend to teach me, I was ill and tired.  The second time I was just tired.  Neither of these were good times for learning, so it's still an unfulfilled resolution.

The 'not buying yarn' thing also did not go to plan, even excluding the get-out clause for souvenir yarn.  In trying to find something before Christmas, I found two balls of sock yarn I totally forgotten I'd bought.  This officially makes me a yarn slut (from the old English slattern.  Why, what do you think I do with my yarn?)  Over the Christmas holidays, I've been back to what was my local yarn shop and got even more sock yarn; one for fun, one for a project I want to knit.  Which nicely goes back to me learning to turn a heel. 

Basically, what I'm trying to get at, is that I'm recycling my resolutions from last year.  This year, I want to:

• Learn to turn the heel of a sock
• Knit an adult jumper (not even fussed whether it's for me or my husband any more)
• Reduce the stash, especially of sock yarn

I've actually tried to be organised this year and made a spreadsheet of what knitting I want/need to do and by when.  You know, birthdays, Christmas and the like.  Hopefully this will keep my mind and fingers focused.  I'm not going to share it, as I don't want the shame of having to admit that none of it went to plan).  

In the interim, please excuse me.  I have a Ravelry stash  stash to update....

Yarn shopping in Tokyo

If you're ever on a yarn diet, do you have a clause for souvenir yarn?  And does it make any kind of difference?  I'd love to pretend that I've kept to my resolution of not buying any yarn (excluding souvenirs of holiday), but I really haven't.  I can honestly say that there's no need to buy any yarn in 2016 and I'd probably still have too much.

The day before our shopping trip, we went to the Miraikan, the National Museum for Emerging Science and Innovation.  I'd decided against buying a handkerchief of the Tokyo Metro system and had the following discussion with Mr Knitty:

Me - In the long run, which is going to better benefit my life?  Spending a thousand yen on...
Him - Yarn.

He knows me too well. 

Yarn shopping in a language I don't speak was an interesting experience.  Having had a look at Ravelry and reading various blogs, I had an idea of where I was heading.  I handed the list to Mr Knitty, who is far better on maps and Metro stations than I am.

Sockmania had a lot of stuff on their website, which I could get back in the UK, so that was dropped from the list.  The Travel Knitter's Guide  and Knitfitch both mentioned Avril which sounded amazing but their Tokyo shop was a bit too far out to attempt as part of our shopping trip.  (Although, I've just discovered that there's also a branch in Kyoto which may have been easier to get to).  The Puppy  shop was also a bit too far out, although I did find some of their yarns in one of the shops I went to.

HK Housewife pointed me towards Okadaya near Shibuya Station.  We looked on every floor and found loads of expensive buttons, which were very cute but I didn't know where I'd be able to use them.  No photos of any of the stuff we saw, as photos weren't allowed.  The Travel Knitter's Guide said that this was the best place in Tokyo she found for knitting books.  I did have a look at the selection they had - but they were all in Japanese.  I was hoping for one either in English with Japanese patterns, or something bilingual.  The only one I vaguely considered was one on Shetland lace, as it had charts which don't rely on language to interpret.  Since I don't really have any desire to knit Shetland lace, I left it where it was.

I did, however buy two lots of yarn - Noro and Puppy.  I'd been a bit prepared and found out what is charged for Noro in the UK and what the equivalents are in yen - then found several lines of Noro yarn which I've never heard of.  So of course, I had to buy them:

Puppy Pichenette, Noro Melody and Noro Kama

Maroon yarn = Puppy Pichenette
Blue/purple = Noro Melody
Green = Noro Kama

We then went to Shinjinku to find Tokyo Hands , which other bloggers have recommended.  

Anpanman origami paper 

Maybe my blood sugar was too low, but I didn't find it anything to rave about.  It had a lot of stuff, it was worth visiting but it mostly left me a bit 'meh' - until I found the origami papers.  There were some beautiful ones, which were much more expensive than I'd seen elsewhere.  I did, however, find Anpanman origami paper, which made me happy, so it had to come home with me. 


After this, we went to 

Yuzawaya sign

which was in the same building as Tokyo Hands, a few floors up.  I absolutely loved this shop, it had all sorts.  I bought myself a small cut of fabric to make a bag for my wrist splints, and a cross stitch kit for my best friend.  


There was a lot of yarn (sorry, they didn't allow photos), mostly Japanese brands which weren't Noro.  I did find some from Italy and some non-Japanese cotton yarn.  This was the point that Mr Knitty had gone for a sit-down, so my spending ability was somewhat un-curbed.  He's very good at standing next to me, asking what I'm planning on using that yarn for.  My aim was to find yarn to make him socks.  After a lot of going round in circles and trying to work out what the yarn labels said, using the knitting dictionary on the Planet Purl website, I gave up and pointed at the phrase asking for sock yarn, which I then augmented with 'Nippon; Japanese'.  The guy pointed me towards Olympus MakeMake socks.  I wasn't sure if one pack of three was enough for both socks, or just for one - so I bought two packs of three, in both colours which I thought Mr Knitty would like.  (Still trying to figure out this 'turning the heel' business, so he may have to wait a bit longer).  Seems I lucked out; the yarn is 70% merino, so will be gorgeously soft, even if any socks don't last for long. 

Olympus MakeMake socks - colourway 908 

Olympus MakeMake socks - colourway 907

Then I discovered the bargain bin, with ten balls of yarn for 98 yen, (52p) plus tax.  There was other stuff, but I didn't really like the colours.  Now, you'd think that if something was being sold off so cheap, then it was probably cheap to start with, right?  After putting it in my basket, taking it out of my basket to have a proper think (what would I actually use this for?) I then decided I was going to buy it after all.  Why not, it was cheap!  Turns out the cheapness was due to it being 100% polyester.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  



Then we went to Harajuku and may have snickered at the name of the street where we were headed.

Of course, we were taking a photo of the screen, as it had a camera on the crowd and we just wanted a self-portrait. 

This trip was to a shop called Daiso.  For UK readers, this is a cross between Wilkinsons and Poundland.  Lots of stuff at pretty cheap prices.  The branch in Hiroshima had 100% wool yarn for a grand total of 55p a ball.  Possibly a bit scratchy for wearing next to your skin; perfect for felting.  None of that in the Tokyo branch, they only had acrylic yarn.  I did manage to buy a lot of origami paper.  For 55p.  Would almost be rude not to.

I didn't manage to make it to Fabric Town.  Nor did I make it to Loft, which is another shop that bloggers have said good things about.  By that point in the day, I thought I'd run out of money (I hadn't), was slightly concerned about the space we had to carry stuff back and was feeling slightly overwhelmed with the amount of choice of stuff available to spend cash on. 

I no longer need any more yarn.  I have a stash of 60; enough for at least another year.  On updating my Ravelry stash, I realised that there are several batches of yarn which I haven't uploaded.  I don't regret the yarn I've bought - even the polyester stuff.  Just please remind me not to buy any more, not to invoke the souvenir clause and not to travel anywhere else, just in case!