I have been at the iKnit Weekender, I think quite a lot of my customers and blog-readers were there too, and I know I didn't see everyone who told me they were going, which is a shame.
I flew down from Edinburgh to London City Airport on Thursday. Edinburgh Airport is undergoing a major building project and there is Temporary This and Cobbled-Together That all over the place. To soften the disruption, they play birdsong in the ladies' loos. Very civilised. Other venues please take note.
Jane met me at the Airport and we headed off to Wagamama on the Embankment for gyoza and ebi rasukaree, stir-fried black tiger prawns in a coconut and lime curry sauce with ginger, galangal, chillies, green and red peppers, red and spring onions and mangetout, served on Japanese style rice (the best kind, in my opinion) and garnished with red chillies (which I carefully picked out - one lot of chilli in a dish is plenty) and a wedge of lime.
And ahem coconut ice cream with mango sauce and coconut shavings.
After a settling interval and much knittery chat we headed off to Socktopus where I met several twitter-knitters and other folks, and I indulged my inner Koigu... to the tune of seven skeins.
Back to Jane's for some sleep and then up the next morning, fortified by toast and Marmite (of course) before heading off across London to the Royal Horticultural Halls. Jane was a particularly good egg about this as I had a class at 09.30 and the doors didn't open properly until 10.00.
My first class was Continental Knitting, taught by the elegant Biggan Dups. I have to say that the labelling of the floors in the RHH is a con. Our classes were on the third floor. What they don't tell you when you start up the flights is that the floors aren't numbered Ground, 1, 2, 3. They are numbered Ground, Mezzanine, 1, 2, 3. This doesn't matter to fit types but to out-of-puff, flabby folk like me, an extra flight of stairs is an unwelcome surprise. I caught my breath and then we were asked to cast on and knit a few rows in our usual style (we were all throwers) and then Biggan demonstrated the knit stitch, which was quite different from any of the You Tube videos I have seen. Instead of rushing on, we then had about half an hour to sit quietly (or not) and allow out brains to absorb the new technique. We could see our progress on the small swatch, and the garter stitch rows (I'll tell you something funny about garter stitch in a minute) gradually became more even and less shoogly.
Biggan was wearing a striking red top and a matching knitted skirt, and at one point someone asked if the skirt was lined - I think we all had visions of it "seating" irrevocably in the first 5 minutes of its life. It wasn't, as she demonstrated by lifting it to reveal a slender thigh... I wonder how many of us were torn between wanting the skirt and wanting thighs like that!
We then progressed to purling, more bumpy rows ensued as we were doing purl for every row, which of course looked like garter stitch again. Most of us realised (in my case by accident, because the yarn kept slipping backwards into the knit position) that rib was going to be about three times faster than our usual method, and after half an hour of purling, we tried it. We were right. Twisted rib was a doddle too.
It wasn't a fast paced class where we learned multiple techniques, it was very simple, just the basic stitches but with time to practice and consolidate without feeling you were holding anyone up or asking daft questions. The slower pace was just what was needed and was definitely a confidence booster.
A quick dash downstairs to visit p/hop, admire the blankets for the raffles and the other items which had been donated, and then it was back up all those stairs for the second class of the day with Miriam Tegels, the fastest knitter in the world, Speedknitting. I'm really glad that I did the Continental Knitting class before this one. It covered some of the same ground, but I was able to concentrate on what Miriam does differently from Biggan, instead of needing to learn the technique from scratch as well. Miriam is also a Yoga teacher, so some of the class was about how to avoid strain and sore muscles when you knit. Knitting isn't exactly aerobic activity, but all the little micro-movements can be quite achey sometimes so this was good information too.
After the class I went back down to the main hall, and had a chat with Pete from MSF who insisted I did the raffle draw... I'm not a natural public speaker so my friend Judy came and helped, thank goodness for knitting mates. And then there was just lots of knitting and chat while Jane went and did a class on Lace with Annie Modesitt.
We made our way home via Pizza Express. Limoncello is quite nice stuff, isn't it?
Sleep, and then Saturday saw us making our way back across the city by a different route because a number of the Tube lines were closed for maintenance. It's inconvenient but hardly surprising that such a big network needs work done to it on a continuous basis. There were lots of moans and grumbles but we would all be horrified (rightly) if there was an accident because the system wasn't looked after to a high standard.
The Saturday Morning class was with Marjan Hammink, better known as Yarnissima. We completed (or some of us did, but not me) the mini Firestarter sock.
I have tried a Yarnissima pattern before. The Brainless sock (which made me feel as though I was indeed brainless).
Here. (A hopeful start)
Then there was the Beckoning Gusset.
And the Problems with my Gusset.
Until finally, in frustration after four attempts at the gusset I got the scissors out and chopped my knitting into tiny pieces!
I still seem to have a difficulty with the Gusset. I think the previous problem was that I was twisting a stitch the wrong way. This time Marjan looked at my mini sock and said the thought it was just loose stitches. I managed to frog it twice at the start but got as far as turning the heel by the end of the class.... only to find that I had dropped a stitch five rows earlier and had a beautifully symmetrical ladder running down the sole. I was using the same Addi Natura bamboo circulars (loaned by Jane) which I had used for the Continental Knitting the day before, but obviously in a 2.5mm with sock yarn rather than 4mm and DK. I usually knit on metal needles for socks and on a smaller size so I am telling myself that the sticky bamboos and the larger size were the cause of the problem, and I will have another try this week.
Marjan was really helpful, and had brought with her a stunning selection of socks, including the gobsmackingly complex Zum Dirndl which made me feel like a complete inadequate.
This is La Digitessa.
And this is Very Tehri. I think I prefer it in the brown shown in the pattern though.
I went back downstairs (again) and met up with Ruth who was knitting blanket squares on the Plinth just a few weeks ago.
Isn't it fabulous? There was one blanket to raffle for each day and the first winner out of the bag on both occasions chose the blanket as their prize. There were generous donations of knitting and books and yarn for the raffle, so many, many thanks to everyone who helped and also to everyone who bought a ticket or donated for a pattern from the table. I expect the total raised will be up on the p/hop blog soon. If you are interested in working as a volunteer for p/hop as an MSF intern, do pop over and read the blog because Pete is looking for help.
After that I mooched, met lots of great people, some for the first time, some who I have met at Woolfest. I chatted with Ysolda about colours for her new pattern, and found a few possible new yarns.
And after that there was more knitting and looking and squishing of yarn and then dinner in excellent company.
On Sunday Jane and I did nothing. Well, not quite. I destroyed a sweater for her. And we discussed the merits of sour milk. More about this tomorrow.
And then I came home. It was Gavin's birthday yesterday so I brought him a muffin from London (!) and we put a candle on the top of it. The birthday card I posted to him on Thursday from the city still hasn't arrived, I do sympathise with everyone having postal problems at the moment.
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I almost forgot. There were two Belgian yarn sellers there, and they told me that in Belgium, garter stitch is called "Lazy Woman's Stitch".
I am still unsure whether this was a wind-up, or if it's true!