My Holiday by Sarah

This week back at work has been a bit of a shock to the system, I think the strategy of saving lots of things to do till after my holiday was possibly not the wisest! Still it's Friday evening and I can finally take some time to look back on the glories of the week before in Dorset. No-one at work asked me to write an essay on 'My Holiday' like they used to at school but there are a few words that sum up the essence of it wonderfully: sun, sand, sea air, tea shops and knitting. The evidence is here:I heartily recommend Dorset as a holiday destination for all and for knitters in particular - not just for the beach knitting opportunities but also as it seems to be well served by LYS - in particular of the traditional British 'The Wool Shop' variety - exhibit A from Portland:I got directed to Honora on the main street in Christchurch by a lovely lady. She was delighted to see me knitting outside a tea shop as she didn't see many people knitting these days but she had heard that knitting was coming back. I reassured her that lots of people were knitting :o) The shop was great - stuffed to the rafters - most of the traditional British supplies of Patons, Sirdar and Rowan. Nothing very unusual but a real asset as your LYS I would have thought.

Plan-Knit in Poole was the only shop I had found out about in advance - always important to try and factor in the yarn tourism element to ensure a successful holiday. It's quite a new shop and seems to be trying to straddle the demand for the cheaper, high acrylic content yarns and some of the more exciting and unusual blends. In a not at all surprising turn of events I bought some sock yarn including some lovely stuff from UK Alpaca that I'd not seen before.

My Ravelry alter ego Thumbelina has sprung to life and set up shop in Wareham:She's doing a great job and sold me some bargains from the 99p bin and yes, more sock yarn.We also drove past a yarn shop in Swanage after it was shut and such was the abundance of visits to LYS that I didn't even make the 1TB return the next day. I bought something at all the stores I visited as I was putting a notions kit together for my cousin; a new knitter who is being encouraged at every turn! I do like to buy something when I visit a new shop and do my bit to support bricks and mortar stores; this was a nice way to buy something from everywhere without too much increase to the mighty stash - I'm still hoping I may just end up this year having knit more than I bought. Well, we are all allowed to dream aren't we?