Been to Ally Pally

Howdy!

Am tying this in a hotel room in London at the moment and as the internet connection is reeeeaaaallly slow and my laptop has never been very snappy it is taking me ages to post this!

Anyhoo, went to Ally Pally this morning and shopped until I dropped - Beanie quite literally was dropping as we put all our bags on the handles of her trolley which caused it to tip if you didn't keep a firm hold on it!

Most of my stash is in the car but I couldn't resist taking pics of the new pink Namaste bag I bought from the lovely people at Foreign Strand. In addition to the bag, I brought magazines, a ton of wool both undyed and dyed, some alpaca roving, beads shaped like shoes, knickers and bras (!), and a ruby cross (which has nothing to do with knitting but there were jewellers there selling their sparkly things and I'm a sucker for crosses, not that I'm particularly religious!

Ally Pally really is a knitting (and stitching) mecca! It felt like I was in a trance most of the time I was there. When I first arrived I was overwhelmed by the amount of top stuff on offer so I had to go for a tea break and map out my route with the help of the show guide. Once I had done this I was free to stalk up and down, grabbing what took my fancy while the husband and Beanie trailed behind me with all the bags!!! Once I had selected my items the husband was then called upon to pay for them while I chose my next location!!!

After a busy morning and a boot load of goodies we headed back into London and went for the Lebanese meal we were looking forward to (there's not many Lebanese restaurants in Manchester so we had to take advantage of our location!). We went to Tarboush and had the best meal we had had in ages. I was soooo full afterwards I had to have a lie down! Not only was the food great but the Lebanese wine was a real joy! Going to see if I can order some on the internet as it was really moreish!

So that was my day.......even managed to fit in a bit of knitting - I finished another kimono and started some more toasty socks for my brother's girlfriend. I am knitting them in chunky wool I dyed myself and named Bubblegum. Will post the FO here soon, I hope.

Well, I've been sat at this annoyingly slow computer for long enough this evening and the husband wants to check his ebay. I should get my head down soon because we are planning to visit London Zoo tomorrow to reward Beanie for being such a good little girl today!

Ciao for now!