Knit Nation

The 3 days before Carina's wedding saw me and my woolly Hats at Knit Nation in London. I've kinda blogged in reverse order as I took hardly any photos at the show and have borrowed a few from some lovely people to share with you here.

The show was exhausting yet fabulous. Apart from sharing a stand with fantastic friends (and a hotel room too which made for some late night fun) I got to meet and greet many new faces.

Our stand was a co-operative, shared by myself, Babylonglegs, NicsKnots and Atomic Knitting. It was a nice thing to do, as it bought us all together and gave the stand variety which helped draw people in. It also made it manageable for us all to be there, as even a small solo stand at one of the London shows is out of many people's budgets, mine included.

The stand looked grand, don't you think? A fabulous effort from all of us.

I was pleased with the Hat display! These 2 shelving units, all of my Hats and my clothes for the weekend and some books and the display models (folding head models, I'll have you know) and much, much more fit into a giant suitcase that I dragged across London. And when I say dragged, I do mean that. It weighed somewhere between 30kg & 40kg which made for fun at South Kensington tube station.

We had many Hat trying on sessions yet sadly most were photographed by others for others and my camera lay dormant under the table. Most of the time I was too busy to use it, it was that sort of show. Still, we have a few shots to share!

Here's sock monkey wearing the p/hop Stripey Beanie (photo courtesy of Ginger Knits):

Next we have Yarnimals wearing a Dulcie knit in Babylonglegs handspun (photo courtesy of Babylonglegs):

Here's a shot of me with the same sample of Stripey Beanie modelled above with Sock Monkey. P/hop were aiming to get photos of all the designers who have donated a pattern to them with the pattern samples. Photo courtesy of p/hop:

(if you can't tell from this photo that I was absolutely knackered)

The best thing about any show is the people, and this one was no exception. I chatted with Anne Hanson and Clara Parkes and Ravelry Jess, caught up with Ysolda and Queenie and Jeni and Susan again. I saw Wye Sue as a married woman for the first time. Pixeldiva also stopped by, and infact I saw so many friends and knitters it'd be impossible to list everyone. I loved it.

I wasn't able to make the Ravelry party as Tom was taken poorly late saturday afternoon and this Mummy was needed back at home. Thankfully Tom proved to be ok after a couple of days (just in time for Carina's wedding) and we're still not sure what was wrong. So instead of silly photos from the Rav party here's one from our friday night. We were singing and I'll say no more than that.

And while we're on the silly photos here's a shot to prove that my dread pigtails get to wear their very own Hats (thanks again Ginger Knits!):

Hmm... have you noticed how many photos of me are sneaking onto this blog of late? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this new trend...

Thanks for a great show guys!

Touring the UK!

This afternoon sees me researching family & motorhome friendly campsites, in preparation for us hitting the road in a few weeks to tour the UK. The aim is to have a family holiday combined with me visiting as many yarn shops & knitting events as possible, a kinda best of both worlds scenario :)

Here's the current list of confirmed events so far:

Fibre & Clay, 17th & 18th July 2010
Cheshire, UK

A weekend of workshops at the Fibre + Clay store, contact the store for more details.

Baa Ram Ewe, 22nd July 2010
Leeds, UK

A visit to the Baa Ram Ewe's weekly knit night for book singing & trunk show.

Knit Nation, 29th - 31st July 2010
London, UK

Book signing & trunk show. More information about the event can be found here.

Knit Camp, 9th - 13th August 2010
Stirling, Scotland, UK

Numerous workshops and activities. More information about the event can be found here.

UK Ravelry Day, 13th - 14th August 2010
Stirling, Scotland, UK

Book signing, trunk show & other activities. More information about the event can be found here.

IKnit Weekender, 10th & 11th September 2010
London, UK

Various workshops and book signing. More information about the event can be found here.

I'll be keeping the Events page updated as new destinations are confirmed.

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I'm still talking to a few more yarn shops, but if you'd like to have me visit your LYS or knitting group please share the details! We can't promise to make every event as we will be travelling in Barp (the smaller bus - the double decker will stay put in Italy) as a family and so we're trying to group locations and times together, to keep travel simple and cost effective. There's certainly space for a few more stops, so I'd love to hear your suggestions (hint: an excuse to visit the west country would be much appreciated)

My workshop at Fibre and Clay will be the first stop of the tour, and the IKnit Weekender will be the last. The only event we're not heading for in the bus is KnitCamp, as Scotland is a little too far to drive and would cost way, way more than a train journey. Besides, as much as they'd like to visit Scotland, the boys are probably best staying with family that week rather than fending for themselves in unknown territory.

It's going to be busy, but fun too!

TWT book launch & the next leg of the blog tour

This week sees Twisted Woolly Toppers visit the Binge Knitters' blog for an interview with me! I've come to know Katya, a fellow designer, online and I'm really pleased she has joined us on the tour. Katya asked me some interesting questions and I did enjoy answering them - do pop over and have a read.

This past weekend saw the launch of TWT and it was fun to set up a stand with all of the Hats (on swanky new display stands no less), new banners and lay out the freshly printed books for all to see.

The show was Make Do and Knit in Liverpool, organised by the ever lovely Just Call Me Ruby. Knitters (and Ravellers) and crafters turned out for the event and I think it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed themselves.

As well as a gorgeous array of yarns and fabric and vintage buttons for sale from the vendors, there were also other things of interest:

This giant installation stood at the far end of the main hall and if you were there and missed it, well, I'd start to wonder how you missed it. It was huge. It was fantastic.

Another woolly delight was the knitted poem. Again, it was huge... almost too huge you could say, as it was impossible to see it in it's entirety. Draped across the pews in the buildings' chapel the amount of work it must have taken to complete was all too clear.

Shamefully, I still don't know which poem it is. Hopefully someone in the know will leave a comment and tell us. Isn't it amazing? I loved these large installations and all that they stood for - I've been out of touch with knitted (and textile) art for a while now and seeing these pieces got my creativity churning.

As always with these events I got to catch up with woolly friends and talk and smile and share time. Both Babylonglegs and Just Call Me Ruby deserve special credit for letting me sleep over, eat all their food and run me around - thank you my lovelies!

Now I'm in recovery mode. Wonderful trip as it was (and it really was) it's worn me out. I missed my boys terribly and have been making up for lost time with them. I have some fresh design commissions to work on and other new design ideas to follow through... keen to avoid burnout I'm going to work at my own pace and have my quality family time too.

Twisted Woolly Toppers - book launch!

I am so excited to be able to tell you that the official book launch for Twisted Woolly Toppers will be at the new event in Liverpool Make Do and Knit on 27th & 28th March 2010, only a week after the official launch of the print book!

This timely event is being organised by my lovely friend (and publisher) Susan Crawford and is all set to the be a wonderful weekend of knitting and crafting. Set in beautiful surroundings, it is going to be an exciting new show for Northern England.

During the weekend you will be able to buy the book, have it signed, look and feel the original Hats that I knitted for the book and even try them on for size!

Amongst the stall holders will be many of your favourite indie dyers and sellers, including The Natural Dye Studio, Fyberspates, Jamieson & Smith, BabyLongLegs and many more! The list of exhibitors is here.

I do hope you can make it along, it would be lovely to see you and spend the weekend amongst friends :)

UK Ravelry Day

Better late than never, right?

The 6th June saw me in Coventry for UK Ravelry Day. So much happened, I saw so many people and fondles so many Hats and skeins of yarn, that it's impossible to mention everything but I'll give it a try!

Fibre folk were in abundance - the place was packed! Not just knitters or spinners or dyers or crocheters, but also magazine editors and staff, publishers, designers and teachers. There were people from all walks of the industry, and that's something I love to see; everyone mingling and enjoying our common interests.

Jared Flood was as friendly and as down to earth as you'd hope - it was great to meet him! I'd loved to have talked more about knitting and designing but we just didn't get the chance. I caught up with many fibre friends, online and offline. There were some I'd never met and some I hadn't seen in an eon... Diane Mulholland, Yoshimi, BabyLongLegs, MrsFlowerpot, Just Call Me Ruby, Queenie Amanda (Natural Dye Studio), Fyberspates, Nic and kerry to name but a few! (edited to add more folk! blame my age)

I also met Cottonon, whose face may be familiar to you from some of my patterns or from the Wormhead Ravelry group. Pat has knitted over 20 Wormhead Hats, and she bought many of them along to show and share - that's some knitting! It was so lovely to finally meet Pat after all this time :)

Photo credit - Cottonon

The Kitchener Workshop was a success, despite a few hiccups. It was great to teach it again, and remember all the reasons why I absolutely love it - Kitchener is a very logical process, and I'm pretty sure the students got that aspect too. We managed to cover quite a bit, and lots of notes were taken! I was wearing my Marina Hat most of the day, though took it off during the workshop as it's a good example of garter stitch kitchener.

Photo credit - Magnusmog

On the yarn front, I was very restrained.  I came home with (left to right): Manos del Uraguay Silk Blend (70% Extrafine Merino, 30% silk), Natural dye Studio Dazzle BFL DK (100% BlueFaced Leicester), Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply (55% Merino, 45% Silk). These are all very yummy and one of them has already become a design, which I need to try and get finished today. I've been moving towards semi-solids and solids lately, mostly because the next run of designs will be quite textured.

MrsFlowerpot also gifted me some of own hand-dyed, as she's been experimenting with lengths of colour and dye to avoid pooling and self strip in different widths. Thank you!

I talked with editors and yarnies and marketing folk and publishers and suddenly my life has got busier - lots of new designs on the horizon! I have no idea how I'm going to manage it all, but we are planning our trip back to the UK, so with any luck the reduced heat and bonus of grandparents might mean I'll get some work done.