Craft Fair Haul!

A couple of weeks ago I got to go to a craft fair at Bluewater shopping centre.

I went with my nan and my mum and we had quite a lovely time meandering around. There wasn't much in the way of stuff for knitters, in fact the majority of the stuff there was for card makers. I never realised how popular a hobby it was! I still managed to pick up some bits though so I thought I would share with you what I got. 

First up is the knitting bits. 

My nan insisted I got row counters as she told me how handy they are (I'm a beginner knitter), I got a large one pictured here, I also got a smaller one and because, surprise surprise, it's currently on my needles because my nan was right and it is coming in handy. 

I also got a couple of needle ends to stop my work from falling off. I do put the needles through my yarn, but where I take my work in my bag to work, it sometimes gets dislodged so the stops will make it feel extra secure.

I got some more knitters needles for sewing up my work as I only have one and I actually found these quite hard to find in the shops. The one on its own I got was part of a set from John Lewis, it came with a lot of other needles I won't use, but I was desperate.

I also got some cable needles as one of the next projects in my learning to knit book is a cable project. I'm very excited about learning how to cable because I think it looks gorgeous.

The last knitting bits I got where some pom pom makers. I know they probably sound completely unnecessary, but I got the extra small and small ones a while ago to help me with making pom poms for the innocent big knit hats and they are brilliant so I got the larger sizes too. 

It's a lot easier then the cardboard ring method and they just make for really even professional looking poms. 

All of the knitting bits I got from a stall called The Fancy Yarn Specialists.

Next up I visited a cake decorating stall called Cake Crafting.

They where doing some beautiful cake painting which was very intricate. They also had some great stencils to make quick and easy patterns on fondant icing for the tops of cupcakes and normal cakes, I was very tempted but then I remembered how much I hate the taste of fondant.

I did however pick up this cute little cake pop book, it came with 3 sets of sprinkles and the lollipop sticks. It was £7 and at first I didn't buy it, but after walking away from the stall I kept thinking about it and had to go back and get it. I haven't made cake pops before but this book has some really cute designs in there. I just need an occasion to make them for now!

And last but not least, I got this cute little kit to set Coco Dax (sorry I can't figure out how to turn the picture). 

I'm not very good at sewing but this set says from 7+ so I'm hoping I can master it. They had so many other cute animals, I was very tempted by the owl, they also had a pigeon called Mr Poops, brilliant!

I went for Coco Dax in the end because my mum said she was most like me, they all have cute little character descriptions.

The reason I got this was for a nice sunday afternoon project, and because I have recently started a new job and my desk is very bare so I thought she would like quite cute on my desk and help me personalise my small work space a bit. This was purchased from Crafty Arts.

Another great thing about the craft fair was my nan found some yarn with tiny pom poms on it that she really liked so she bought some to knit with. 

This is a really big deal because my nan used to be an amazing knitter, but in the past 5 or so years she has given up because she has MS and it hurts her wrist to knit.

I think seeing me knit and me asking her constant questions about it has encouraged her to give it a go again which I am absolutely thrilled about because I know she used to love it. I know its a long shot but I'm hoping it will strengthen her wrist too. The best bit was she asked to borrow some needles from me which I was able to give her, she has done so much for me and I know a set of needles is tiny but its so nice to be able to do something for her. I know my knitting has made her really proud.

Phew that is a lot of text, thank you if you read it all. Overall I loved the fair, it was great seeing all the different crafting hobbies that people do, and seeing that people are still into them!