No sooner was I in the door from the journey home than I made a beeline to the kettle.
The best thing about being home (okay, one of the best things besides fresh clothing, greetings from the Teen and whatnot) is a MUG of tea.
While on the subject of tea, let me tell you about a lovely place in Downtown Portlaoise (yes, it has a down town) called The Old Bank Tea Rooms. It’s just what it says it is. Tea rooms located in what used to be an AIB bank.
When you step inside time just slows right on down. It was a lovely oasis of calm and cosy after travelling on the bustling train from Limerick. It’s chock full of lovely features. Even going to the toilet is a treat what with the antique radiators, local artwork and attention to comfort therein.
The fire made for a lovely cosy feeling while not overheating the room.
Look at the tea set! It had no sooner been set down in from of me than I thought of Hazel and how she’d adore it. I had to send her a picture of them and sure enough she loved the set. Maybe our SnB group can abscond to Portlaoise and have high tea at some point 🙂
I found my way to The Old Bank Tea Rooms thanks to it being recommended as a lovely place for coffee by the proprietor of “The Wool Shop”. As it turned out, “Knit & Sew” is the ‘old’ yarn store that ceased trading some time ago. Now the only yarn store in Portlaoise is “The Wool Shop”.
It’s accessed via a lane way into Tara Court. As I was heading down there I realised that there is no way that I would have noticed that there was a collection of store down the lane if I hadn’t been intent on finding the LYS.
Taa-Daa!! I found it!
*happy dance*
It’s a fairly small retail space and jam packed with yarn from laceweight to chunky. I came away with 3 skeins after some browsing. Yarn browsing was not made easy by the size of my backpack.Thankfully, no stock or patrons were sent flying by my ginormous backpack while during my pursuit of yarny goodness.
Wondersoft Pearl dk by Stylecraft in ‘Biscuit’ 1360 Dyelot 65664
Creative Micro by Rico Designs Partie 6 Farbe 006
The above yarns are already destined to become garments for newborns. They’ll be added to the Hope Chest when they’re done to await gifting.
“Beautiful Baby Knits” was a free supplement with Knitting magazine – Issue 53 August 2008. I had the supplement with me in Portlaoise when I was humming and hawwing over different yarns. I figure, if I’m going to add to my stash, then I want the additions to be bought with specific projects in mind.
Little Daisy Cardigan is already on the needles and is a stash busting project using Tivolli Blizzard.
Wondersoft Pearl sk by Stylecraft is destined to be a Tiny Tots Jacket. I cast the back of this garment on this morning before leaving the Bloomfield Hotel. By the time I reached Limerick I had half the back knit. 🙂
The green creative micro dk yarn is earmarked to become a Utility Vest.
After the travelling and training over the weekend my brain is now mush & I require some zone out time in front of the goggle box before doing some final revision for my first exam tomorrow.
Happy crafting folks! 🙂
Yarnboi's Blog 