the one about Knit Nation. again

Yesterday was lovely. This year's Knit Nation was brilliant even though it had a very different 'atmosphere' to last year's. I felt this year was not as packed with stalls, quieter with more scope to mingle in stalls, space to walk the aisles comfortably, and not as much of a frenzy to 'buy now or forever hold your peace!'. It could be that the crowds shopped and were gone by 12:45, when I arrived.

Another difference was that in the year since the last event, I've grown more confident about meeting and greeting people. I really got stuck in: whipping out my camera, introducing myself to and chatting with people, lots of yarn fondling (nothing new there) and generally up for a good time. 

As I said, lovely.

Without further ado, here are my pictures from the day in chronological order. more or less.

{Franklin Habit - friendly & gracious. I liked him.}

{my friend Heather considering John Arbon's yarns}

{sweet Ysolda by her booth in the Knit-Tea Salon (above the marketplace)}

{i kinneared CookieA in the Knit-Tea Salon}

{The medecins sans frontieres/doctors without borders stand,
where p/hop patterns were available in exchange for donations. more on this later.}

{Habu Textiles}

{mmm, what are these? stitchcuddles by stephcuddles! in the Old Maiden Aunt stall}

{Old Maiden Aunt}

{the wollmeise corner of the Loop stall}

{the bothered owl}

{Great British Yarns}

{I finally got to meet Natalie in real life following months of twitter chat}

{Skein Queen}

{Atomic Knitting}

{at the little knitting company I pulled up a chair and chatted
with the lady wearing the green shawl about podcasts and audiobooks }

{Susan Crawford's stall. such mirth, made me want to join in on the laughter}

{daughter of the lady who owns Debonnaire minding the Juno Fibre Arts stall for a moment}

All in all I had a very good day. I finally got to meet Heather - who I almost missed, no thanks to 'signal failure' on the Piccadilly line! and Minniemoll - who I bumped into in the aisles and PaulaPurls (+Naelana) - I was so excited I nearly choked on my sandwich trying to get their attention from the other side of solid glass doors. This was accompanied by some rather mad gesticulating and me wildly pointing at my Ravelry badge. I also met Evee & Littlemy from the British Banter group on Ravelry. Good times.

Next time, I'll show you what lovelies I brought home with me :)