Busy Saturday ...

A busy day yesterday ... went into Maidstone with Holly to see the new Hobbycraft superstore, and do a number of other errands for the rest of the family (John, "can you buy me some blank CD-R's?" and James, "Can you get me some brushes from Games Workshop", and Holly needed some trousers for school, also one of Emily's Christmas presents, the new Lemony Snicket book - no, she doesn't read this!).

Sat on the bus working on my version of the Curly Whirly scarf, which I worked out a pattern for this week. I want this scarf to be like a spiral staircase, rather than a fractal curve, so I spent some time calculating perimeters of circles of different circumferences, which will give me the number of increases I need. Anyway, I have started it - this one's in crochet on 5mm hook, in deep pink Kid SIlk Haze, and it's worked in trebles. If you can visualise a spiral staircase as seen from above, the inner edge has a 1 inch diameter circle, and the outer edge of the spiral will have an 11 inch circle diameter, giving the width of the scarf as about 5 inches. I want it to look quite luxuriously "fat", rather than too ribbon-y.

Had a very bad time in the school outfitter's shop - Ward's of Maidstone - I am never, ever, ever, ever going in there again, EVER! Useless assistants with attitude problems, poor quality stock, and nothing to be found in the size / colour we needed, and all because they stock things we have to buy - especially if the uniform has embroidered logos - ha! but I have a colleague at work who has recently acquired one of those super duper computerised embroidery sewing machines, guess who will be getting my business in future?

On the UK Handknitters list there has been much discussion lately about bad shops (Shona, you have all my sympathies!), and I think this place qualifies for that select band. Someone else said that if you get good service from a shop, you will tell (unprompted) at least 4 people, but if you get bad service you will tell at least 10 others - ho ho ho, so where better to put these remarks than a blog ...?

Found James's paintbrushes with very little difficulty, and the man in Games Workshop was really helpful (even offered me the use of his phone if I needed to check that I was getting the right stuff - and for only a £5 - £6 sale), such a contrast to the other shop - on the principle of the previous horrible experience, I'm happy to make sure that all readers of this blog know about him too ...

Cheered up by the time we got to Hobbycraft, and we met up with Amanda from UK Handknitters. It's really nice to be able to put faces to names! We both knew what the other was going to be wearing, but I actually spotted her because she was wearing a gorgeous clapotis scarf ...! Had an interesting chat and have established some useful detail about the web-site I'm planning to create for Mid Kent Knit 'n' Natter, also admired the yarns on display - too much baby yarn in my view! - but otherwise, all the new fancy yarns from Sirdar, some Patons, and a fair amount of Rowan (biggy print, and the like). I think this shop will make a great addition to the very good shops we already have in this part of Kent (C&H Fabrics in Maidstone, Canterbury, & Tunbridge Wells, and I gather from Amanda that there is a terrific shop in Singleton near Ashford, called The Wool Pen - must try and get along there at some point!)

Awfully long queue for the check-outs in Hobbycraft, but at least it moved along quite quickly, and the assistants were friendly as well, and I managed to escape without too much damage to the wallet, as I restrained myself into only getting a couple of crochet hooks in sizes that I might own, but can't find currently (obviously they're hiding in a carrier bag with a UFO somewhere around the house). Holly blew her monthly allowance on card blanks, and rubber stamps, and I treated her to a very small cross-stitch kit with a christmas-sy theme.

Wandered down to Lidl to enhance the chocolate stash instead (very cheap therapy! - and extraordinarily good chocolate), and found boxes of CD-Rs in there for £2.99 for 10 - bargain! Then to Sainsbury's for boring shopping, and back on the bus to go home. Had an embarrassing incident on the bus, when my carton of double cream escaped from the shopping bag and discharged it's contents all over the floor - the bus driver was very nice about it (when he didn't have to be), and another lady found some kitchen paper for him to clean it up ... Holly managed to pretend she wasn't with me for that bit, this is quite a talent to have when you're sitting right next to your mother!

Then off to Little Chart for a fireworks display, and it turned out that we'd read the notice in the local newspaper wrongly, and it's actually next Saturday! Never mind, the people in the pub (the Swann Inn) were very friendly, so we stayed for a drink, and a chat, and bought our tickets for next Saturday instead. Finally, back home and caught up with some friends of ours who are down from Scotland for the week-end.

So, a busy day, but mainly a nice one - I refuse to be depressed by the school outfitters, I'm just making sure that everyone knows exactly how awful they are ... ;)

Have uploaded some more photos to Flickr of our Belgian weekend ... still a few more to go, but nearly there now, only Luxembourg left to do, they're in the link marked "Other".