Ally Pally - a reflection

Last year's Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace is the reason I started blogging. My internet usage predates blogs, and although I read a few, I couldn't really see the appeal.

Until I came back from Ally Pally, and thought I'd check to see if anyone else had been.

I found blog after blog talking about it: but it wasn't the blogs so much, as the way the bloggers had been meeting and talking. It was the sense of community I could see they had, and I wanted to be in.

It was also something I'd seen, when I saw a grey-haired stallholder greet another greyhaired woman with the pleasure of many years of similar meetings.

Admittedly, I didn't rush in to it, but warmed up slowly. Even after I got my blog, I've joined very little in the way of blogrings or Secret Pal swops.

This year I went twice to AP. I met people from Angelyarns knitting forums. I meet (a very few) other bloggers. I even got the same cheerful greetings from two stallholders, Hipknit's Kerrie and Traveller's Tales cross-stitch kit.

I won't go to Harrogate this year, but I'm planning to meeting Kerrie on the HipKnits stand at AP in 2020, or maybe some of the rest of you too.

(Oh, you're looking for the pictures? They'll come.)