Hello Michelle. Ally Pally - oooh - excuse me while I dribble with enjoyment! I always try to go to Ally Pally, although I did miss it last year. My rule of thumb is that I buy a two-day ticket. In about August time I go onto the website and have a look at the workshops and classes - Learning Curve is how it's described on the website. I then book one or two classes depending on what's on offer and I book my place and my two-day ticket at the same time. Okay admittedly the £'s spent are then adding up a bit, but by paying in August you've forgotten about it by October (when you are then looking at the spends you are allowing yourself at the show.)
I usually go to the show on Thursday and Friday each time (that way if travelling by public transport, which is how I get there, you are avoiding problems on the London Underground with weekend engineering works). Then on the Thursday I look round the two smaller halls and do my workshop(s) and come home all happy and tired. Then I return on Friday and do the major hall; which is packed to the gunnels with so many interesting stalls and come home even more happy and tired!
As a point of interest - nothing to do with stitching - for some reason the October weather is usually nice at Ally Pally time and I defy anyone to say they are not moved by the sight of London in all its splendour when viewed from outside the doors of Ally Pally. You can see for miles and I confess I've usually got my little pair of binoculars in my bag so I can scan the panorama of London laid out before me. Wordsworth the poet is renowned of course for 'Daffodils' and most people think of him as a poet with musings about the Lake District. But not just that. He also had appreciative thoughts on London - 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge' - who knows that one? "Earth has not anything to show more fair, Dull would he be of soul who could pass by a sight so touching in its majesty' etc etc (Ido know the rest but there's something like another 10 or 12 lines!)
I'm sure you will have a lovely, lovely time.
