Stitch and Creative Craft Show at Sandown Park

I was going to write something about going to the show before the show last weekend but was too busy getting ready!! so here are some pictures of my stand at the show.

I was given a well positioned space as I was running the knitting surgery again. I also ended up with a larger space than originally planned as unfortunately another stall holder was not able to attend the show. This gave us a small 'knit and relax' area next to where I was running the knitting surgery which worked well.

My stand was in the raised area at the left hand end of the main hall which meant we had some daylight and a larger open area in front of us. The other stands in this area included the Guild of Machine Knitters, The East Surrey Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, the Lace Guild and the FLEWs Group which is a group of feltmakers. Although we weren't in with the main trade stands people did find us fairly easily as the knitting surgery was marked on all the maps and the show was not as big as in past years.

There where a lot of card making and other 'stuff' stands but there where a few knitting stands. Toft Aplacas where there with their yarn, knitting kits and finished items. I had quite a long chat with Kerry as I wanted to arrange for her to come to the studio to film for knit1.tv. Hopefully we will arrange something in the next few months. She will be able to bring fleece, yarn etc but not the alpacas so no cute animals in this film!

I also chatted to Erica on her stand Debonnaire and again asked if she would be interested in coming to film as well as she had some interesting yarns and garments on her stand

As well as having some new patterns on my stand quite a few people did pick up information about knit1.tv and the various workshops I am teaching throughout the year which was all to the good as well. Quite a few people also took information about 'Unravel' which is at the Farnham Malting on 27th and 28th February. I'm there running the knitting surgery again so hopefully this event will be as well attended as it was last year, or possibly with more people as it is over 2 days this year.

Unravel is the next big event I'm attending and I've got to get my chevron waistcoat pattern written by then so I better get back to work....

Snow and Christmas presents

We had an unusually large amount of snow this week, 5 or 6 inches, and most of it is still there making life a little difficult to get around. We did manage to get the car out of the drive to take DD back to college in Cardiff but I wasn't doing the driving!

As a result of the snowy weather I wasn't able to go to Arundel to do some more filming for knit1.tv. I'm supposed to be going again this week but I'll wait to see if the roads improve. The main roads are fine it's just getting out of our road that is a little interesting!

Anyway all this snow has given me some time to look through my Christmas presents. As usual I got quite a few knitting books (as you can see from the pictures). The 'Reversible Knitting' book wasn't quite what I expected. The stitch patterns are interesting viewed from either side but are not necessarily what I would have called reversible. They do give a lot of food for thought and when I have some time I will try out some of the stitches. The garments themselves are interesting (although not my personal style) but use some interesting styling techniques.

'Haiku Knits' is a pattern book but it does have some interesting details. 'Knits from the North Sea' has a variety of lace patterns to play with. They are used in scarf and shawl patterns but most of the patterns have charts so you can work the stitch patterns in your own design if you want. 'Noro' has information about the development of Noro yarns and some very wearable patterns. 'Swing, Swagger, Drape' also has some very wearable patterns and like many XRX books is beautifully photographed by Alexis Xenakis.

'Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans' has lots of information and traditional stitch patterns to try out. I asked for the last book 'No Idle Hands' after it was recommended by Joyce Meader (historical knitter) who said it was a great read and although I have only read the introduction it is very readable, I just need more time and fewer magazines to catch up on, then I can get on with reading it properly.