Nottingham All Knitting Show

This year I went with a fellow machine knitter from Coventry, M. The sat nav performed very well apart from continually falling off the windscreen. I almost know my way there now anyway having been five years in a row, but it's always worth having a backup in case of roadworks or road closures. I do have a better bracket for it, but that was in the Ka. The Fiesta turned out to be a boon - M has long legs and a knitting machine when fully boxed is quite long!

I only took £50 hoping (vainly) that it might curb my buying habits. In the end I came away with about 8 back copies of MKM (managed to get a duplicate - d'oh!) and about the same of Duet back copies, eight sparkly buttons (I can never resist sparkles!), a pair of orange strippers, a Japanese stitch pattern book (got an awful feeling this might also be a duplicate), three cones of acrylic yarn and a pattern for knitted wire earrings. The fashion show was excellent. I was a bit disorganized this year so didn't book any of the classes, which was a pity.

The only slight disappointment was that this year for the first time there was no free programme - so I had to figure out where stalls were, by dint of recognizing the stall holders and/or their product. Luckily this is quite easy, but I do prefer to have a programme ideally, not least for the useful 'phone numbers if I spot something I later realize I just can't live without. Missing this year were Iris Bishop and Heathercraft (I suspect it's a bit too far for the latter to travel). Double-booking with mother's day didn't seem to make much of a dent in the numbers.

The main object of the day was of course, to trade in the LK150 for a sparkling new SK860 plus ribber. I confess I haven't opened it yet as I was determined to finish at least one garment. I was quite glad to get home, as I had to push the seat forwards a notch in order to get the machine in the car as it's in one big box, and it was cramping my accelerator foot. I suspect I'm going to be like a big kid at Christmas tonight when I finally get a chance to get into that box. I've never had a brand new machine before and I'm quite excited, although unfortunately I don't have anywhere to put the new machine up at the moment. Must crack on and use up all the cornflower blue lambswool so I can put the fine gauge to bed.