Crochet
Crimple Hall in Harrogate – quite a good day out
One of the other advantages of doing a little Blaugust experiment is that I have the chance to chat about what I’ve been up to in the present, as well as what I got up to weeks ago. Today was a very wet August day here in the north of England but I’d arranged to have a day out with two friends, so we made the best of it. We ended up at Crimple Hall… which is an odd name for a place, even in Yorkshire.
Our original Plan A was to go to Skipton and visit the Knit and Natter group, but then we found that its not on in the school holidays. Plan B was a shopping trip in Harrogate town centre, followed by lunch and a visit to Yarn Etc, our favourite local north Yorkshire yarn shop run by the lovely Fiona.
Opening the curtains this morning and seeing nothing but black clouds and torrents led to a quick exchange by messenger and Plan C; a visit to an antique and vintage centre and garden centre just outside Harrogate, followed by Yarn Etc and lunch.
I’d never been to Crimple Hall before but I must have driven past it loads of times. Its grown in recent years and how houses a huge warehouse of antiques with over 60 different dealers, a large cafe and outside seating area and a garden centre.
The vintage loveliness was everywhere
There are few things that I like better than a good delve around shelves full of antique glasses, pots, brooches, beads and ‘stuff’. I am at an age where a lot of the vintage things are recognisable from my childhood and I never know whether to be pleased or depressed that they seem so familiar. Its so relaxing to wonder about down each aisle, looking in the cabinets and at the displays, particularly on a wet Tuesday when its very quiet. I could have happily sauntered around this cabinet for an hour…
The trouble was, there was so much more to see. As well as the vintage pretties, sellers also specialised in antique and vintage cookpots, with some great copper pieces. Others had baskets and boxes (another weakness), painted and distressed furniture, decorative glassware and books.
After a first nosy round, we walked through to find the cafe to indulge in scones, coffee and tea. It was still raining but the outside space still looked amazing, if deserted. On a sunny day, this would have been full of people enjoying coffee outside and later, having lunch. Some weekends they have BBQs and it gets very busy, as one of the friends I was with told us.
The coffee at Crimple Hall was good but the scone wasn’t quite up to the freshly baked standards of The Little Coffee House in Selby where we have our crochet and chat group normally. We have been spoiled by that place but, sadly, they are still not able to accommodate us after a fire earlier in the year. All of our fingers are crossed that its sorted out soon.
Modern vintage and the garden centre at Crimple Hall
After drinking, eating and giggling, we then explored more of the antiques and eventually found our way through the shopping area selling new but vintage styled things and on to the garden centre, which was really well stocked with plants. The peach shade of those gorgeous pots seems to be one of the colours of 2017 and it reminded me a lot of Blush, the new shade of Stylecraft Special DK that was launched yesterday.
I would definitely visit here again, perhaps on a better day, but it was perfect for keeping dry and entertained in the rain.
Yarn Etc
As we’d had scones at 10.30am, we decided to wait a bit for lunch and to to Yarn Etc first. I last came here in February when the craft group that meets at Ackworth near Pontefract arranged an evening trip. Fiona and I had talked about her stocking some of my hand dyed yarn and I took along 12 skeins. Its always difficult to know how hand dyed yarn in skeins will go down in a local yarn shop specialising in commercial balled yarn, but Fiona had good news. She only had 3 skeins left and would like to have some new colourways.
We decided that I should take the three skeins that were left and add them to my Etsy shop in the meantime as three skeins do look a bit lonely on a shelf. You might spot that I didn’t spend any time taking photos either outside or inside Yarn Etc. Outside, my excuse is the rain and inside, having a cuppa and a chat meant that I forgot! This is the pic of the front of the shop that I took just before Christmas.
Fiona showed us all the new yarn that she has in stock and very kindly donated a kit for me to offer as a giveaway prize to celebrate 5000 subscribers to the Crafternoon Treats YouTube channel, which is getting very close now (4834 as of today). I was very interested in getting one of the new Addi Sock Wonder circular needles (one needle is longer than the other!) but the 2.5mm size that I wanted had already been snapped up. This is a busy shop and its great to see a local yarn shop doing well. Fiona works very hard to make it a success, running workshops and classes on many evenings and weekends. The best way to find all the details is on the Yarn Etc Facebook page.
Lunch in a frock shop
It seems unlikely, but this place is one of Harrogate’s best places to eat. If not The Best. We were told about it on a previous visit to Yarn Etc by Fiona’s Mum and Dad who were looking after the shop that day. They were great hosts, also offering us a cuppa on that occasion too, and told us that if we headed to a place called Snooty Frox of Harrogate and went upstairs, we would find a cafe that served up a real treat.
The restaurant is called The Wild Plum and it has a very well regarded young chef, Bethany Haresign, who has had a very exciting career so far, according to the bio on their website. Food is served in the morning, at lunchtime and through to afternoon tea and everything is made with the best, locally sourced ingredients. Just in case you are wondering, this is a totally honest review… the place know nothing about my blog and we all bought our own lunch!
Which was just perfect… We started with some sodas. Mine was the pink one; raspberry and mint. Its just magical how they add edible viola flowers…
I had the soup again, but this time it was pea and mint. I know bloggers are supposed to take pictures of everything but, honestly, I rarely take photos of my food. Today I just had to make an exception. I even took a photo of Nicola’s salad too…
A good day despite the rain
We had a really good time and the lunch was the perfect finale. I have to say that I don’t often trip off with friends in the middle of the week but getting ill a couple of weeks ago and then all the work for little reward at the weekend yarn fair made me think that a bit of fun and ‘me-time’ with lovely friends was long-overdue.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a sneaky preview of what will be in my Etsy shop update on Thursday. This is the big online launch day of my Fabulous Four British wool base so I’m really excited!
xxx Kathryn #blaugust 8/8!
Sounds like a perfect mid-week outing. The food looks amazing! I love it when a place takes special care with presentation. We eat with our eyes first, apparently. 😀 xx
You definitely deserved a day out. It looked wonderful. A friend and I recently went to a new to me yarn shop and right next door was a lovely garden shop. We had equal fun at both.
Sounds like a great day out
Very tasty salad it was too!