Ally Pally strategy

For all those of you living outside the UK, or anyone who's been on Mars the last few months; a quick reminder! Tomorrow is the first day of the annual Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London. Yarn lovers of the London region (and quite a few miles around) spend weeks talking about this show in the build-up to the actual event, debating what they are going to buy, who is going to be there, and talking about strategies for everything from the actual shopping, to how much food and drink to bring and what to wear!

I will be there tomorrow and Friday working at the 'Knit with the stars' champagne bar where we will be teaching all comers to knit and crochet, as well as adding a bit of glamour to proceedings. I'm just back from several hours of preparation, putting up our fabulous posters and displaying our props so that the Hollywood theme will permeate throughout the champers area and might even reach as far as the fashion shows!

My local group, the Meantime Knitters, and the ladies from the London Stitch n Bitch group have spent several months coming up with excrutiating film-related puns, knitting props, photographing them and putting together some of the most fantastic posters around, all for these four days.

Have a sneak preview; the combined talents of Bojana (creater of knitted bikinis), her sister (Bond girl extraordinaire) and Rowan, whom I've mentioned before for her creative designs, have come together to visualise this awe-inspiringly cringeworthy Bond pun!


But the show is about more than glamour and puns; it's about SHOPPING! Thousands of pounds worth of yarn (oh and some card-making stuff if you're interested) right there beneath our very noses. Yet my stash is already out of control - and I am determined not to add to it. I have decided I must be very strict with myself so as to avoid having to move house in order to get more room for yarn, hence I have had to develop a Strategy.

My Strategy is:

1. Thou shalt not buy yarn (although it's ok to buy tools and books, oh and a bit of fabric if you see something cheap that you like...but no more than a metre or two).

Ahem. Er, that's it.

However I may go further (ie not being able to trust myself) and leave my cards at home. All of them. Except - hey I've just realised, I don't even have enough money for lunch so will have to take at least one card to get money out of the cash machine. Oh darn it ;-)

Alternatively, stick to the champers bar all day. There's nothing to say I can't spend my money on booze (except that it's bound to be stupidly expensive....)

Check back at the weekend to see how I got on.

But don't hold your breath!