Saturday, July 08, 2006

Back with lovely stuff

We had a fantastic 4 days in North Yorkshire this week, staying at the Hawnby Hotel, near Helmsley in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. Our room was in the converted stable block, just across the road from the main hotel. Given the amazing hot weather, we were very glad of this, as the building had thick stone walls and stayed cool! It also had a sitting-out area right outside the room which was a nice touch. We would highly recommend this hotel, very friendly and comfortable, with a great restaurant.

I don't have many photos of the general area, it was stunning but give that (a) it was VERY hot, and (b) I was navigating, often along single track roads, I didn't really have the chance to hang out of the car windows to snap the scenery :-) The best way is to see it for yourself, in any event! I have a few photos from Newby Hall gardens that I'll put in another post though. We stopped there on the way up, and also visited Whitby (where I got me a skull and crossbones bag!) and York during our stay. On the way back we went via Leyburn, to the Sheep Shop, more of which later.

In Whitby we also visited Bobbins, which many people have commented upon and which stocks Colinette yarn. Granted, we saw various different Colinette yarns there (no Parisienne which I was hoping to see), but we were rather disappointed at the attitude of the staff. I spotted a fair bit of Noro yarn there and tried to have a look, but a staff member stood in front of us and made very busy stacking bags of yarn without any acknowledgement that there were customers around (it was quite busy in there). I may well have bought Noro there but at that point I decided that I'd rather shop elsewhere! DH also overheard another customer who had asked about knitting with tape yarn, receiving a rather patronising answer! He was less than impressed. A very nice shop but quite honestly we didn't find it very friendly at all.

Part of our York shopping expedition included Sheepish on the Shambles, which was a great place to visit. They even tried to convert DH to knitting :-) (probably encouraged by his spotting some yarn he liked!). Here's the haul we ended up with:



We have: Patons Splash, in black/grey/white, picked out by DH; Noro Silk Garden, Debbie Bliss Wish You Were Here book; Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud to make the Bertie scarf; Laines du Nord Kiddy Print from the sale bin (only one they had, sadly!), and King Cole Luxury Mohair.

I'll be making a net-type cowl/scarf for DH from the Patons, the Silk Garden will probably be a hat and scarf (I fancy an eyelet scarf for myself like the one I made in Kureyon), and the mohair is for stash at the moment.

More stash was acquired at the Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop, another place definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. They had big bags of fleece ready for washing, prepared fleece, ready made garments, lots of yarn, and various kits and accessories.



We have: 2 balls of the 4-ply with the lacy sock pattern, and 4 of aran in Aubergine plus the pattern for a moss stitch waistcoat. Lastly there is a kit for a simple rib scarf with locks of dyed fleece to knit in as a fringe :-)

More on the next post as Blogger is acting up with photos at the moment.

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5 Comments:

At 4:23 pm, July 08, 2006, Blogger T said...

I was thinking about you just now and wondering if you were about :) Glad you had a lovely time, wasn't it hot? I'm going to make sure I remember this hotel as I haven't visited that part of the country at all, and would love to.

Pretty stash shopping! You got some lovely stuff. Isn't hubby a star to have such a yarn-y break, bless him :)

Boo to the staff in Bobbins, they're not doing themselves any favours at all.

I think you're my knitting muse, it's all gone wrong since you weren't here, lol

 
At 5:45 pm, July 08, 2006, Blogger Rain said...

I love the trip away to further your yarn habit.

Bah! What is it with yarn shops and snooty people? Some are lovely, but others make you wonder.

What a haul! The yarn for the clapotis will look gorgeous knitted up and the mohair looks divine.

 
At 8:42 am, July 09, 2006, Blogger Dipsy Doodle said...

It sounds as if you had such a lovely time on your trip - and gosh, when I see all that yarn that you've gotten for yourself, it sure leads me to think that it's been the perfect trip! :) And yep, I can't wait to see all of it knitted up!

 
At 11:16 am, July 10, 2006, Blogger KnitYoga said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful time and very nice haul, too!

Funny you should mention the attitude of the staff in Bobbins. I had a similar experience with one member of staff seeming positively hostile. The other one was fairly helpful but it almost seemed like they really weren't bothered if you bought or not. I felt quite uncomfortable in there and I've also read comments along these lines on at least one other blog.

 
At 12:15 pm, July 10, 2006, Blogger acrylik said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful time - it is such a beautiful part of the counrty, isn't it.

Loved seeing all your yarn stash, I've not yet been to Bobbins but at least I know not to hurry over there at any point now though. Isn't the Wensleydale SheepShop lovely though? Can't wait to see what you make with all that yarn :)

 

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