Thursday 11 September 2014

A knitting girls trip to York


A few Saturdays ago I went, with my best friend and her daughter (Little Miss), to York for the day. It was Little Miss's first grown up ladies day out and she was super excited at the prospect of lunch and taking part in some shopping of her own.  Little Miss is great fun to talk to and she is interested in knitting and crafty things.  It was easy then to include some woolly related shopping into our day.

Our first shop was Duttons for Buttons.  I was looking for a few more button options for my Lush cardigan in case the ones I bought in London didn't suit!  Duttons for Buttons has a LOT of buttons!  I picked out a couple that I thought might work.


Isla of Axholme knitting crochet blog duttons for buttons york internal image
Image details: 'Duttons for Buttons, York 1'
by Joey Ramone via Flickr
On the top floor they have a small selection of wool for sale. The majority didn't interest me but they did sell Brigantia.  This is a brand I love but is rarely stocked anywhere.  I could have bought their entire stock but I showed restraint and made do with four skeins of double knit in burgundy, enough for a jumper or cardigan.  

Following that exciting discovery it was time for lunch (Little Miss and I get grumpy if our tummies get empty!).  I had booked us into the Italian chain Ask. Ask is one of my favourite chain restaurants (I love their water jugs and wine glasses) and somewhere I rely on if I don't know where to go for decent food. Ask in York has to be one of the nicest Ask buildings I have been to.  There were chandeliers, columns and coats of arms.  Here is a link  to the Ask York page which has an internal photo.  It ticked all the boxes for us - good service, an interesting children's menu and somewhere grown up enough for it be be special for Little Miss.  Once our energy levels had been topped up we started our quest to find Little Miss a board game or two in the charity shops of York.  We hit gold when she spotted Mouse Trap for £3.... bargain.   
Isla of Axholme knitting blog york purchases from Duttons for buttons and Ram Shambles Brigantia wys bittond mint and red bear needle toppers
My York purchases

Our final shop of the day was Ram Shambles which, although small, is jam packed full of yarny delights especially in the front room.  Both my best friend and I succumbed to some very cute bear needle stoppers and I bought two skeins of West Yorkshire Spinners Bluefaced Leicester Aran wool.  One skien of which I have ear marked to make Amanda Collin's (Owl Print Panda) Light and Lofty hat which is in issue 38 of Knit Now magazine. 


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