allstitchedup

On Thursday I hosted a 'Knit In' at Wallsend library. This event was part of a series of different events around Britain to highlight knitting and was just a small part of
national knitting week.

Other than listing the 'Knit In' on the website and putting a few posters in our local library branches I hadn't done much to publicise the day (well couple of hours). Until I got there and set up my display table and free wool and patterns I wasn't sure if I would sit there alone or not. I figured the worst that could happened was I'd get two hours uninterrupted knitting done (bliss) with maybe a few odd looks from the punters, but people in libraries aren't too hostile, are they?

Anyway shortly after I arrived so did Valerie (thank you) from the
the Knitting & Crochet Guild. She'd seen the details on the website and decided to "come and have a look at me". I am very glad she did! Not only did we have a lovely couple of hours chatting about knitting and our recent projects and disasters, but Valerie is also much more knowledgeable about local events and meetings so she was able to give people information about other places knitters meet regularly.

We weren't exactly inundated, but we did remind a few ladies that they used to "do a lot of that when I was younger", also we gave out several patterns and balls of wool and I taught someone to crochet. It was worth it for that alone, in my opinion and the lady in question went away very enthusiastic. I could see her across the library crocheting away as she waited to check her books out. So, I am glad I did it, although I can't for the life of me remember what possessed me.

I originally saw the week mentioned in one of the UK's 2 hand knitting magazines,
Knitting. this magazine started off as a bimonthly and has now gone monthly. Initially it had lots of what I would class as difficult patterns with complicated charts in but now has a better mix of beginners and intermediate patterns too.

A while later another magazine came on the scene. This one, Simply Knitting, is much more aimed at a younger audience and at beginners. It has lots of nice quick patterns (the kind that appeal to me).

Being a sucker for magazines I subscribe to both - well I can't miss an issue can I? Both mags have yarn reviews of all the lovely new wools on the market and the Knitting one has run a couple of really good general patterns for kids jumpers with instructions on how to adapt and vary them for different effects. I am really pleased that knitting is fashionable again, one common complaint from older knitters is that when they make things for younger people they wont wear them anyway so why bother. Well, maybe they'll wear them now, so get those needles clicking. By the way, I don't wear jumpers - they're too hot. But scarves
,
gloves, socks, bags, throws, jackets, kids jumpers, etc. etc. These I do knit. I like the scarf pattern so much I've made three now :) so if you're a female relative, guess what you're getting for Christmas this year!

The other good thing about Valerie being there was that I brought hardly anything home. She was able to take all my old patterns and odd balls of wool as the guild has an archive of patterns and she collects the wool for teaching sessions they do and for making items to sell for funds for the guild. I was very happy to pass on some of my treasure trove from Nancy that I know I'll never use.

To finish my knitting post I thought I'd give a couple of new blogs on the subject which haven't made their way into the sidebar links yet but will when I do some housekeeping. The first is http://knittingfrau.blogspot.com (sorry, you'll have to copy and paste this link as I couldn't get it to work) by Jillian in Ann Arbor, Michigan where Jillian is also thinking about magazines at the moment. Another is Kerrie's Place. Kerrie is a UK knitter and her blog has a long list of other knitting blogs in her sidebar, so many places I have yet to explore.

Just off my needles a jumper for little X, just needs sewing up, now you know that means it might be ready some time next year as this is the part where I loose interest and wander back to my CQ.