In which (some of) the Knit Lincs gang go on a visit to YARN!

Funny how much easier it is to get up in the morning when you're going on an outing to a yarn shop instead of to work... Four of us caught the 9.20 train from Lincoln (look, I know that's not that early, but this is me on a Saturday morning, OK?!). Central trains had even provided two carriages instead of the usual one sardine tin, although the two carriages were still a bit grebby.

After changing trains in Nottingham, we had exactly six minutes on a glamourous, sleek, comfy Midland Mainline train to Beeston. Then we trotted along to Yarn, and spent a few minutes just staring through the windows at all the goodies inside.

Inside Joy and Cay soon got stuck into the pattern books, as the lovely Alison and Sarah who run the shop produced tea, coffee and yummy shortbread biscuits for us.

Meanwhile I wandered round in a daze, mesmerized by all the yarn...

It was SO cool, loads of yarn to take in (even more than when I was last there), patterns to look at (this is the only LYS I've been to that has chairs so you can go through the patterns in comfort) and some made-up garments (some of which we tried on!). The yarn I saw was: Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Louisa Harding, GGH, Opal, Patons, Noro, Lana Grossa, Twilleys and some handspun/dyed gorgeous skeins from Miss Bell. Even going to the loo was fun, as you get to walk through the stock room (I managed to resist the urge to throw myself onto the piles of yarn in there!)

Soon (well, after about an hour of drooling) we were running around working out which patterns & yarn to buy (fitting the whole shop onto the train on the way back wasn't really an option):

and made our purchases. I think maybe our fourth person was a little overwhelmed, as she wasn't a knitter...

Look at those grins!

Then we went just down the road to the Flying Goose, an organic veggie cafe, for a very tasty lunch.

And this is what I bought:

A ball of Opal Uni sock yarn to make the Devan cardigan pattern for my nephew. And seven skeins of Noro Blossom (Colourway 13) to make the Eloise cardigan for me from Noro Knits.
I also got a pair of bamboo needles, an Opal sock yarn bag & scarf pattern, some more yarn bobbins and a little badge.