Nice Things for Others 2: Beads & Seven Dials, Covent Garden

There is a certain knitter who lives somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Last summer, this knitter created some lovely looking, lace handspun in a sunflowery colourway. Really, it is absolutely gorgeous - go see.

Now this year - between socks, bunnies, snowdrifts and the arrival of Spring - I have spotted snippets of blog evidence that this yarn has fought its way to the top of her stash and announced that it wants to become her entry for this year's State Fair shawl.

As it turns out, this handspun just as assertive as I perceive its maker to be. Right now, they are working out the details of the shawl design between them. To me, this makes really interesting reading as it is looking to be a very honest discussion between both parties about aspirations, ideas about the design and what will show the yarn off to its best advantage - from what I have seen so far, neither knitter or yarn are prepared to settle for what doesn't feel right. Well, after all, we are talking State Fair here - it's got to be right. Right?


For one, I will be really interested to see what final design they will come up with between them...

...partly because I nipped out from the office recently to pick up some beads for them from the Seven Dials, Covent Garden area of London. Y'know - just to see if that will help by adding a new element to the sunflower shawl design debate.

Here are some snaps that I took this week when I went for a lunchtime stroll around Seven Dials*. This is just as context for the package that making its way across the Atlantic, so that KnitterBunny can get a feel about my part of the world and where her beads were sourced.

I have also included some photo of beads in this set. Just so you can see the selection I picked out and trialled to assist with long distance, decision making. Plus rule out any beads that would not work with a crochet hook. It was a fun thing to do and I hope that my package turns out to be useful!

Notes

* Currently this slideshow only contains pictures of two of the three bead shops that are a stone's throw from my office. Half of the pictures that I took on my walk seem to have vanished from my camera - I will correct that next week but I wanted to post this now, because I know that the arrival of the package is imminent!