A Visit to Perth

The last day of my recent trip to Glasgow was spent in Perth. I've never been, except once when I was interviewing someone for my Ph D and I saw nothing of Perth bar the cafe at the theatre. We were booked to see Scottish Opera's concert version of Massenet's Therese there in the evening and the OH was driving down from Orkney to meet me there so I thought I would go over early and have a look about. 

On paper it sounds a lovely place but I wasn't terribly taken with it. Although it did have an M & S, a Waterstones and even an Oliver Bonas store so it was ahead of Orkney on points as far as retail is concerned. 

By one of those wonderful coincidences that happen to me less often than I would like, the day SO were doing Therese in Perth  was also the day of the annual Perth Festival of Yarn, and as I had run out of things to look at in the town very quickly I decided to have a wander up to that and have a look.

It was miles out of the centre and it was a hot day so I was quite sticky and warm by the time I had found it, and when I did find it it took the woman on the front desk, who for some unaccountable reason wasn't selling entrance tickets just giving out wristbands, three times to explain to me where I could go to find someone who was. The first time she sent me to a lift shaft, the  second time she directed me to some male changing rooms and the third time she took me to a corner, waved along the same corridor again and said 'somewhere off to the left, one of those rooms'. So I found the ticket seller who then told me she could only take cash as the desk was in a 'wi-fi dead spot'.

I pause here to reflect that if you are selling tickets to an event in 2022 perhaps dong it from a wi-fi dead spot is not the best idea in the world. 

I made haste to enquire if the vendors were also in a wi-fi dead spot as there wasn't much point in me going in if so, since the ticket took about 95% of the cash I had on me. It transpired that all the vendors were equipped with card machines that worked perfectly, and so again I was forced to ask myself why the person selling entrance tickets could not have been placed a bit nearer to the vending hall where she could presumably have taken  card payments without problem. 

This all goes to hepl explain why I was not in a partculalry good mood by the time I got into the hall, and it was not improved by m first encounter with a vendor, some of whose yarn I knew I wanted to make a Christmas present. Yes, she took cards, yes she had one left of the thing I wanted but no, it wasn't in 4 ply, it was in DK. Which was about as much use to me as a chocolate teapot. (Note I'm not blaming her. She can't bring everything she sells with her to a yarn show and it must be a nightmare deciding what to take and what to leave at home and know that for sure several potential customers are gong to rock up and want one of the things you decided not to bring. But it didn't improve my mood at all. 

But then things looked up and I ended up having a nice time. There were a lot of dyers/vendors there that I didn't know, there were some who I only knew by name and some I do know well and have bought from before. Because I  am booked to go to the Glasgow School of Yarn I was quite restrained in my purchases, but of course I did make some. 

Voila

This was from dyers I hadn't previously known; a Hungarian couple recently relocated to Edinburgh from the Lake District. Very nice people and very nice yarn. I bought this with a specific project in mind, because that's the rule now. If I don't know what I'll knit with it I don't buy it. This is for a hat and there should be enough left over to make matching mitts for me, or a reverse colourway hat for the OH. we'll see. 

If you've been reading here a while you may remember the Glasgow Skyline Hat kit I bought last year at Glasgow School of Yarn from Wee County Yarns. You can see the finished article here. I'd already decided I'd like to knit their Three Forth Bridges hat as well and had intended to buy the kit at Glasgow. As it is, I got it a bit early by purchasing it at Perth. Their website is well worth a look, particularly if you  enjoy colourwork. 

And finally I treated myself to a new project bag. I'm not hugely into Halloween but I am taking part in a Halloween Knit a Long and the project concerned is currently living in the new Halloween bag. It's so colourful and joyous and the girl who made it was quite young and her Dad was helping out on her stall and all in all they were lovely people and I couldn't resist it. 

This wool I didn't buy at Perth but at the Yarn Cake in Glasgow.  I'm slipping it in here since I'm talking about wool buying. .It was just in and I made  a special walk down to the shop to get it. It's the West Yorkshire Spinners sock yarn colourway for Christmas 2022 and it's called Gingerbread. I bought two balls to make the now traditional matching family socks for Christmas Day, although since we have no plans to go to  Canada for Christmas this year that will just be the three pairs this time. I have started on the first pair already as I need something simple and soothing to knit as a contrast to the Halloween project which has a lace edging and 391 stitches in a row. Progress is slow. 

I have to say that I did talk to some very nice people at the Perth show and ended up quite pleased with the two hours I spent there but I definitely preferred the Glasgow Show and I'm looking forward to that at the end of next month. I've even booked a class there, of which more later. 

Meanwhile by the time I had wended my weary way back into the town centre the OH had arrived. We took ourselves off to a hotel near the Concert Hall for a drink (I had alcohol, which says a lot about the state of my nerves) and then we went off to the concert. The music and the singing were extremely good. The piece is short  which perhaps accounts for the fact that it's very rarely staged, and some of the acting was quite hammy, but the three principals had good voices and sang well. It was very enjoyable and I'm glad I've seen it.

So that was Perth. Like the curate's egg, excellent in parts.