Last week I went to London with Bill. He was going for work and I went for pleasure!! It’s the first time I’ve been able to tag along on a work trip and I was super excited about it! Of course the first research I did on London related to yarn and fabric.

I had a couple of splurges. The first being at Liberty of London. Their cotton fabric is beautiful and I was surprised to see they had silk too. I bought a meter of silk to make myself a scarf. Then I bought some cotton for myself and for my mom. The fabric was pricey thanks to the crappy exchange rate, but I was told that if I wanted to buy a dress of their fabric, it would cost me more than 500 GBP which is WAY more than I spent. Interestingly enough, I did see a blouse made of the fabric of the red rose fabric, and it cost 95 GBP, again, much more than I spent for 3 meters. That made me feel better about my splurge.

My second purchase was at the Swarovski Crystallized store where they sold…yes, Swarovski crystal beads. They also had necklaces and bracelets that you could buy (for $$$). I fell in love with two pieces (this necklace and this bracelet) and bought some of the components to make the jewelry myself. It won’t be exact, but close enough. This did lead to buyer’s remorse but I felt better when I got home and found that I could not get the components in the US, even on the internet.

My third purchase was at iKnit. Cute store with great yarn. A lot of it available in the US, but I was able to find some great organic wool from Cornwall. It’s from Blacker Designs and not widely carried in the US. My goal for my yarn purchase was to get something I couldn’t find at home and I’m very happy with the Blacker Designs yarn. It’s a DK weight which I think is more practical for me living in Northern California. I also fell in love with some Hand Maiden Fine Yarn (dyed in Canada). But the color reminded me of London with the blues and greys, and I don’t have anything like it.

That was the bulk of my shopping. Bill bought me a silk scarf as a Valentine’s Day gift. (Actually, he told me he would get me one as a gift but I picked it out and bought it while he was at work.) I was enthralled with all the British women and their scarves. Silk scarves, pashminas, winter scarves… they wore them all so stylishly. I bought my scarf at Liberty of London, and they showed me how to wear it and I love it.

Let me tell you a little about Liberty of London. It’s a high end department store in this distinctive building in a big shopping district. They sell all brands of clothing, including pieces made from their fabric, and they sell their fabric as well as yarn and other haberdashery. I love that some of the department stores have haberdashery departments. I also went into John Lewis, another department store, and they had decorator weight fabrics available! They also had every type of Rowan Yarn in every color, as well as a few other brands. I showed amazing self restraint and didn’t buy any yarn, but I did buy some fabric for bedroom curtains. They had beautiful fabrics. I’ve been looking for bedroom curtains but I have a very specific color scheme in mind and I was very excited to find the perfect material. It’s decorator weight but it’s machine washable which is hard to find.

While I did spend a bit of money, I also did quite a bit of window shopping. New spring clothing was out and I really enjoyed looking at the styles and construction. It gave me some ideas.

So that’s my London trip for the crafty perspective. I did a ton of sight-seeing, but that will be a second post.