Norty

Yesterday I was in Islington for an afternoon of learning to jive. It was modern jive and apart from the basic step was very similar to salsa in all the spins we did. I thought it would be more jumpy up and down! Which dance am I thinking of peeps? Is it actually jitterbug? Or does modern jive get more jumpy as you learn more?

Aaaaanyway, a knitter can't go to Islington without going to Loop. It's much smaller than I thought, or than it seems in the magazine shoots. Cunning. More estate agents should learn that photographic skill. It was also stuffed with people on a Saturday lunch time, some tourists from up north, some students and a couple of young mums with enormous push chairs cluttering the place up. One was wanting to do her first ever knitting project and had chosen a baby cardi, and the other was going to help her, and was adament that she should do the thing in flat pieces and sew them up and not make life easy for herself and use circs to do it all in one piece. Sigh. How about starting with a scarf anyway?

It was yarn p0rn-erama though. I was quite restrained and only spent [cough]£75[cough].

Madelinetosh tosh sock in Jade. MTosh yarn keeps cropping up in some lovely projects online, so I'm looking forward to trying this out. Perhaps Loop will stock the DK soon.

Malabrigo sock in Rayon Vert. The greens are much more emeraldy in real life. Soft as Malabrigo always is.

Sea Silk in Pewter. I've always wanted to try this because it's got seacell in it, made from seaweed. I think this is destined to become a lacey scarf. It's gorgeous and silky and sheeny and I love the colours.

Colinette Jitterbug in Lichen. This looks like it should be sproingy like Koigu.

All of these yarns just could NOT stay in the shop and had to come home with me in a yes-you-are-a-big-spender-haha! fancypants cotton Loop shopping tote bag. You know when you get a free fancy bag they're going to have a huge smile on their faces when you leave the shop. Hey ho. Singlehandedly keeping industry alive...

There are some lovely shops between Angel tube station and Loop though. At the end of Cross Street is an amazing fishmonger, it had everything, including an enormous salmon. Seriously, this thing was about 4 ft long. There is a groovy flea/antique market in Camden Passage on Saturdays, and there are some big name boutiques and a lovely Art Nouveau antique jewellery shop. Also lots of little knicknackery shops which looked good to explore. Trouble is when you commute all week the last thing you want to do is go back up to London at weekends! So, I am recommending it to you guys - let me know how you get on.