Stitches International Birmingham

We recently went to the Stitches International trade fair in Birmingham. It was our first visit there and it was a real change to attend a show as a visitor and to be able to mooch round looking at everyone else's exciting goodies for sale! The hard bit was keeping my credit card firmly stashed away in my bag!

Although we didn't see lots of yarn, we did see some interesting organic yarn and it was lovely to meet up with Tom from Artesano. I was very tempted by their new Manos del Uruguay range. Each skein is handspun and signed by the maker - how cool is that? There were some fantastic accessories so I have plans for lots of new projects with wonderfully exotic beads and embellishments. There were some fab handbag clasps, fasteners etc. too so I can feel some interesting bags and the like coming along soon. (This might not seem terribly exciting, but it's the little things like clasps and straps that really set bags apart for me and give them the designer look).

We signed up for a Search Press account so we'll soon be stocking lots of their gorgeous titles. What was a bit embarrassing was looking through the catalogue and realising how many of their books I already own in my crafty "library"! (Didn't tell Pete this so mum's the word).