Tuesday 19 February 2013

Exciting Day

In my mission to be a more regular blogger I thought I may share are exciting day in London Yesterday.

Myself and Liz (Lakeham Alpacas) had been invited to a private viewing of a fashion collection by a knitwear designer we have been supplying fleece and yarn to for a couple of years.  After much deliberations we decided that we really should go and see what is happening to our yarn as most of the garments end up in Japan.

So bearing in mind we don't see a bus up hear from one week to the next the thought of negotiating the undergound was very daunting!  Liz does live a bit near civilisation (she has a bus stop outside her gate).  We got the train from Exeter to Paddington with a change in Bristol as I couldn't get an advance ticket on the direct route. Once we had arrived it was lunchtime so Oxford street seemed like the best place and of course we could go to john Lewis, nothing like playing safe!.  We had a very long lunch in fact it was nearly tea time by the time we left the store, well you have to browse don't you!
We had to be in hampstead by 7pm so we planed our route to get us there via St Pancas Station since it had been do up, last time I saw it there was scaffolding everywhere.

We spent some time having a coffee and people watching before having some Dinner and getting to the venue in Hampstead.  What an amazing place, not sure what is was but now it is used as a shared workspace, our knitwear designer, a weaver, printer and several more.
We saw all our yarns made up and the photos which had been taken last month which despite the weather were really good.  Bit the best bit was talking to so many people, designers, knitters, the agents from Japan and just people who wanted to know about the Alpacas.  apparently they are all coming to stay in the cottages and meet the Alpacas in person.
Thank fully there was someone there who was also going back to Paddington at the same time as us and knew the quickest route back, for which we were really grateful as we were to catch the last train back to Exeter.
It was a very tiring day but very much worth the effort, it is so good to know that the yarns we produce are so much appreciated by the people who use them as well as their customers who are the end user.

We saw a lot of London Tube Stations, saw loads of London Buses mostly at a standstill due to traffic, but it was a relief when we finally got back on that train and could sit back and relax.

This morning is bright and sunny, the weanlings are still humming a bit, Basil is still not eating concentrate but the rest are, this afternoon I am going to start halter training, do I think we miss out on anything living in such a remote wild place, you have got to be joking, give me Dartmoor any day of the week, the John Lewis's was much better than ours in Exeter though!!!

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations - it must be very inspiring and satisfying to see the final product from all of your fleeces and yarns! :) Lisa

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  2. Sounds like an inspiring trip in many ways!

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  3. Well done, you survived a trip to London! Whenever I go up there (not often) I am constantly thinking I am about to be mugged or murdered! Always great to get back to Bumpkinland!

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  4. I know exactly how you feel! When I travel back to UK, I have 3 changes on the underground and train and I feel like a real country bumpkin now even though all was so familiar not so many years back! I think it's just the pace of everything and everyone...each in their own little bubble! I love to get back home to peace and quiet and a little background humming!

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