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February 26, 2006
Needlecraft Fair in Zwolle
On Friday, I went to the Handwerkbeurs in Zwolle, together with my mother, my sister, my cousin and a friend. The Handwerkbeurs is a needlecraft fair which is held every year. This was my first time at the fair. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it turned out quite interesting. Because it wasn't a knitting fair, but a needlecraft fair, there where lots of quilting, embroidery and sewing booths. Some of them had some nice things, but they didn't interest me much. I came for the yarn!
And yarn there was. Not a lot of great quality yarn, but enough to make the visit worthwhile. This is what I bought.
A ball of Opal in a nice green color, bought from Wolhalla. I'm not a big fan of self-striping yarn, but every once in a while, one of them strikes my fancy, and this one did. On the way home in the train, I had to start the first sock, of course (even though I had some other unfinished things in my knitting bag...).
Next: 3 balls of Noro Kureyon no. 153, also from Wolhalla. Fantastic colors! This will turn into a scarf, as you can see. So uhmmm.... yes, I started this one too.
There was a small booth with Drops yarn! This yarn only available in one real shop in the Netherlands yet (De Breibrink in Annen), but the girls in the booth said they are working on it. In the meanwhile, we can of course order through the internet, but it was so nice to meet the yarns in person. Somehow, I couldn't put down these three balls of 100% alpaca. The colors are just so attractive to me, and the yarn is soooo soft... The balls don't know what they want to be yet, so I'll give them so time. Just looking at them makes me happy!
And last but not least: the Vintage Style book from Rowan. There are some really nice things in this book, like Salina on the right. And I happened to find the perfect yarn for her! In the booth of Klaziens Kreatie I spotted some really lovely tweedy Shetland yarn in this light purple color. And the price was right: € 7.50 ($8.90) for 100 g/400 m. As it turned out, Klazien is having this yarn specifically made for her! She has her own line of colors and when she orders more yarn, it takes about 3 weeks before they can send it out, because it has to be made first. Of course, the color I wanted was almost sold out, so I couldn't get the 5 skeins I wanted. I ordered it, so now I'll have to wait about a month for the yarn to get to me. Oh well, it's not like I don't have anything else to knit in the meantime. By the way, this yarn doesn't seem to be on their website?
All in all, I had a great day. I met some of the girls from the Utrecht Stitch 'n Bitch group, very nice! They sat in the restaurant knitting (in between shopping of course) and drawing lots of attention. They helped me decide on the color for Salina. The Shetland yarn was very popular with them as well. I will try to drop in on their SnB-night sometime!
Besides adding to the stash, I did finish something as well this weekend:
It's the wristwarmers for my aunt, right before being mailed off to her. I do hope they fit and that she likes them. And do you see that lovely envelope? It's made from recycled German maps! I bought it at Bureau Bewust in Utrecht. It's made by a German company called Direkt Recycling, and their products are sold worldwide. Go check them out!
Posted by saartje at February 26, 2006 11:54 AM
Comments
what lovely purchases! and i think i need to hunt myself down some of those wonderful german envelopes. what an absolutely brilliant idea!
Posted by: jacqueline at February 26, 2006 1:12 PM
Great yarnshopping! After long thinking, I decided not to go to the Fair.... But when I see your idea's and yarn its starts to itch (het begint te kriebelen bij me).....
Posted by: ajoursteek at February 26, 2006 1:17 PM
Beautiful choices in yarns! It sounds like you had a great time.
Posted by: Cassie at February 26, 2006 4:00 PM
And we enjoyed meeting you Saartje! You make wonderful things, it was very inspiring to exchange ideas. We do hope to meet you again soon on our Tuesday night meetings in the Winkel van Sinkel in the center of Utrecht!
Best wishes, Carla
Posted by: Carla Meijsen at February 26, 2006 9:50 PM
So SO happy to have found your blog. I recently (well, a 18 months ago!) moved to Noord Holland from London and at the same time learned to knit. I've been slow to find all the great wool shops in NL and looking at your blog for 3 minutes has shown me so many online shops with beautiful wool! My nearest shop is in Hoorn and, though the owners are lovely, I think they cater more for Oma knitting than Stitch and Bitch! Thanks so much for all the fabulous information (and your knitting is gorgeous - I hope one day I will be as skilled!)
Posted by: Ashley at February 27, 2006 7:45 PM
Boy, am I jealous!! If I had heard about this fair I definitely would have gone there too. I always love that Noro-yarn! You bought really nice yarn, I'm looking forward to your new knittings.
Posted by: Biba at February 27, 2006 8:27 PM
Wow, I'd never heard of that German company - lovely stuff!
Posted by: Tatjana at February 28, 2006 11:55 PM
