New supplies from Morpeth...

M's week in Canterbury was cut short thanks to a 'mistrial'. A new short notice booking at a prison in Northumbland meant a two hour whistle stop tour of Morpeth for me. I went along for the scenic ride really but since I became the proud owner of a fourth time hand me down iPhone (m, e, j and then finally me!) I've been trying to remember that I have internet at my disposal 'on the go'. The novelty of this is amazing! I look up all sorts of useless information now, but most importantly I can look up wool shops! Not only that but the phone can act like a satnav and direct me there! Oh my goodness, the fun I've been missing out on all these years!

Treacle Wool Shop is a small, tucked away affair in a lovely corner of Morpeth. I was really pleased to see plenty of the Drops Design ranges there. I first came across this range at the Knitting and Stitching Show and have never seen it in a wool shop. The shopkeeper mentioned that this is probably because they aren't an easy company to deal with and stock needs to be bought up front. I'm glad she thought the trouble was worth it. I like the fact that there are hundreds of free patterns on the Internet to support their yarn ranges and they group the yarn into bands so that substitutions are easy. I even like the fact that they do everything in 50g balls which makes it flexible for small two colour projects or buying that extra ball when you only have a few rows to complete! It's very reasonably priced too. By far the biggest reason for liking the range is the natural fibres they use. The wristwarmers I made with my Knitting & Stitching Show purchases have washed and retained their shape perfectly despite being 100% wool.

I've stocked up on their DK pure wool range in natural tones for the Edward's Menagerie crochet animals I seem to be rather fond of at the moment. It might be a while before the library comes good on the book though. It's taken three weeks of waiting for the book to be returned to the library. I've just been in today because the computer was showing that it had been returned and was in transit to the next village to us. I asked how long 'in transit' might be, bearing in mind that the opening hours are only for two hours, three times a week and I've been told that it will be eight days! It's a great shame it's already in the system for being moved because the village it is coming from is about three and a half miles away! I think I will probably stick to buying crochet books and just use the library for novels.

The polar bear is a limbless tummy and head at the moment. Rabbit and Sheep can hardly contain their excitement. I've told them to pipe down so that I don't lose count while I'm working, they wouldn't want a polar bear with legs like a giraffe now would they?