Last week mum and I took a trip down to the 'Knitting and Stitching Show' at Harrogate.
We stayed overnight at the Barcelo Majestic Hotel, which is a knitting needles throw from the venue, and formerly one of the original spa hotels of Harrogate. Nice big rooms, swimming pool and an immense breakfast!
We split the show over 2 days, which was probably a good idea on reflection. I wasn't too sure what to expect..initially we came in through a side entrance into a low ceilinged, rather cramped hall full of retail stalls and I thought - is this it? But after some exploring we discovered there were 4 huge halls (mainly full of stalls) and another basement hall with guilds, workshops, and the very long Prestonpans tapestry on show.
Unfortunately I forgot to take photos inside the show - much photography was banned anyway. One of the highlight exhibits was one to mark the work of Beryl Dean who did amazing ecclesiastical embroideries and designed for the ballet.
To be honest I did get a bit overwhelmed with the number of stalls, the layout and volume of people!
Luckily in the middle of the 4 long halls was this original theatre, which was converted into a tearoom and 'chill out' space - which was a great idea. There were lots of textile students hogging the boxes around the atrium, having a hoot!
There were some lovely things, but can a person get spoiled for choice? In the end I found it hard to make a decision (but that is just me at the moment) and didn't bankrupt myself as I'd expected. In fact I was quite restrained with my purchases. Here are some that I can show, the other wee bits are for Santa's eyes only.
On Friday morning we had a short walk around Harrogate town centre and went for coffee and a mint tisane with honey at the famous Betty's tearoom.
I'll be back, hopefully tomorrow with some new bags I have been making... and am considering the challenge of another advent daily post until Christmas... hmm...
How fantastic - I would have loved that! Great purchases.
Posted by: Heather | December 01, 2011 at 10:55 PM