Pam Alison Knits

There has been a market in my home city for nigh-on one thousand years and it has a permanent home nestled on one of the main pedestrianised streets, in the shadow of our City Hall. As well as being a part of the living city, in many ways it lies at the heart of commercial area, it’s one of the attractions that we like to point out to tourists. In view of this, I’m astonished to find that I never, ever take any photos of it. I must remedy that one day soon.

As markets tend to do, this one combines produce (it’s getting to the time when I start to crave a dressed crab and our market provides fresh Cromer crabs caught a mere 20 miles away) as well as the usual jumble of watch straps, hoover parts, bags and hats, greeting cards, and waterproof jackets. You can buy hot or cold food to take away, ranging from basic market “caff” style fish and chips or hot dogs to the pricier offerings from hipster coffee brewers and fancy cupcake designers.

The wool stall is one I make a beeline for when I’m at the market. As far as yarn goes, their offerings tend to be modest and the focus is very strongly on 100% acrylic or, at best, blends with a low wool content. They do, however, stock a decent amount of sock yarn and I picked up a ball of Opal sock yarn yesterday in rather glorious shades of pink and orange like a spectacular sunset. The ball was a little the worse for wear: the band was battered and there were some stray strands which didn’t bother me in the least, but the stall owner gave me a pound off which was very fair indeed.

My real reason for visiting the market, though, was to look for buttons for my commission knit. I would dearly like to have gone for the buttons I found online when I first started to think about the knit, but they would have been far too small for the design as it has developed. The wool stall has a very strong selection of buttons and I spent a happy time scanning through the racks trying to find a suitable design. These metal ones fit the bill as closely as I’m likely to get. They have the star design I wanted to tie in with the Stars and Stripes theme of the cardigan, and are a suitable size and weight for the garment. I think they will work well. Button pricing always seems quite random and I was pleased to find these were priced at 30p per button – you can just as easily slide out a tube of buttons for a closer look only to find they’re £1 or more for each button. For comparison, the buttons I originally hoped to use were 45p each and those were plastic and half the size of these.

My other purchase from the stall were two tiny stitch holders. These are the perfect size to hold the stitches of the front part of a sock whilst I work on the heel. The stall owner was delighted when I picked these up and she explained that they had been ordered by mistake, thinking they would be much larger. When they arrived, she thought they would never sell because no-one has ever asked for such tiny stitch holders, but it turns out they have been really popular. It’s one of those things that you never think of until you see it, then you realise there’s a specific purpose that it can serve which will alleviate a lot of low-level annoyance.

Together, my local wool shop – Norfolk Yarn – and the wool stall on the market are a perfect partnership for local knit-related shopping. Norfolk Yarn serves the swankier end of my requirements, mainly stocking premium yarns from suppliers such as Rowan, Noro, West Yorkshire Spinners, and Fyberspates alongside some smaller brands. The wool stall is more like the old-fashioned wool shops I frequented in my youth and is ideal if you’re looking for reasonably priced, durable yarns to make clothes for children, accessories and such-like. Both have a place, and the world would be less rich if it travelled too far in either direction.

A quick update on the cardigan’s progress. I have finished both front pieces now and before I start on the sleeves I intend to do some of the “finishing”. I want to add the front bands, sew on the buttons, and embroider the stars at this point. I can also join the back and front pieces and do the collar. Then, when I finish the sleeves, I will only have to join the seams and the job will be done.