A couple of weeks ago, DH and I took a trip to Cornwall. We stayed here by the way, which was great apart from a few things:
1. It's a new build apartment, therefore not exactly a character-filled cottage
2. There was building work going on next door, which woke us up at 8am every morning
3. The sink! Damn that thing - it blocked even if we poured water down it, and needed plunging all the time
4. It's walking distance to nowhere - you need a car to visit anything
Saying that, the place was still brand spanking new, and a great base for touring Cornwall. We visited Fowey (pronounced 'Foy') which was a really beautiful little village, as well as St. Austell, Mevagissey, Charlestown, Penzance, Malazion, Newquay and Land's End! The best thing was that Cornwall has plenty of yarn shops! I found a very useful list here. The best shops were in Penzance - in fact here are some pics of me standing outside said shops:





Good selection of yarn including some unusual ones like South West Trading and Hipknits, interesting buttons and other bits and pieces. They have lots of swatches knitted up to give you an idea what the yarn looks like too.



Again, good selection, but most things are behind the counter so it's a bit hard to just browse and feel up the yarn (my favourite part!), also this shop sells other crafting things, such as a selection of beads. They also have knitted-up garments, which are expensive-ish, but no more so than you'd expect considering the price-per-skein of some wools, especially Rowan! They have Lana Grossa and (i think) Opal sock yarn kits which would make good gifts.

And I went to a place in Newquay, the Spinning Wheel on the high street. It was ok, but the selection wasn't as great as I thought it would be, mostly Wendy yarn. Saying that, I quite liked the Wendy Pampas yarn, maybe for a simple baby blanket or something, as it's washable and similar in gauge to Rowan Big Wool. The St. Austell wool shop wasn't worth even going into, but I have a suspicion that I didn't go to the right place.

I also went through the charity shops with a fine toothed comb in search of knitting needles, wool and pattern books! I got a great selection of vintage buttons and knitting needles at one charity shop, where they were so pleased to see a young knitter that they let me have 5 pairs of needles for only 5p! Certainly beats the John Lewis price promise. I got this really pretty wool for 20p at a charity shop as well - it's lovely but I definitely think it needs a nice bath before I get to work on it.


I have no idea what its made of, or even what the yardage is, but I'm going to try Branching Out from Knitty with it. I think I have cast on for BO 3 or 4 times with different yarn, but none of them worked out. I think this will be a nice weight and it has a mohair-y fluffiness about it (you can't tell too well in the photo) which should make it quite pretty.

2 Comments:

  1. mad as a cambridge bicycle said...
    Oh! The yarn is beautiful. Though I'm not sure that your feeling wool comment is quite appropriate..
    Tamanna said...
    OH MY BOB!

    I heard about the knitting blog, but I didn't think it had got this far!

    My God! You're actually updating! And not just about knitting!

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