Reflections on the I Knit Weekender
Sep. 15th, 2009 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kniteracyIt was a great weekend! I could just end the report there, but that'd be mean! ;) I will put my ramblings beneath cut tags, because I'm nice like that.
Friday
I meant to arrive early, but I'd stayed up very late on Thursday night finalising handouts and information for the teddy bear cardigan class I was teaching on Saturday. Getting out of the house before 11am proved an impossibility.
Even more annoyingly, Google Maps sited the postcode for the Horticultural Halls as some distance away from where it actually was. When I finally arrived at the venue, I had only half an hour to wander around the extremely impressive exhibit hall. I sent a quick text message tomokatiki to see if she was on her way yet, then headed upstairs to Annie Modesitt's Combination Knitting class. On the trip up, I fortuitously put a face to natf's name! We had a delightful chat in the lift, the first of many over the weekend.
Those of you who know me or have taken a class from me, or have discussed knitting with me in any depth know that I recommend her book Confessions of a Knitting Heretic to anybody who wants to learn more about knitting and how to understand theirs better. This book outlines the combination technique: why did I want to take a class on something I'd already devoured? Because, news flash, not even I can learn everything from books, my dahlings! Seriously, watching the hands of an experienced person can teach you more than any book. The whole class was worth the time I spent cursing my way around a part of London with which I'm unfamiliar, for a thirty-second look at Annie's purling method. Wowza.
See, I started out, I think, as a natural combination knitter. I don't want to tell you how long I knit absolutely everything through the back loop without realising I was doing it. This apparently happens a lot to people who learn to knit from Maggie Righetti's book Knitting in Plain English, because while the book is brilliant, it's not clear on stitch mounts and what makes stitches consistent. To be fair, most beginners don't care about stitch mounts: they want to be told what to do. Sometimes I think I confuse my beginners by encouraging them to find their own way, rather than slavishly following some traditional method. But anyway. I naturally knitted through the back loop when I started knitting, and I only realised what I was doing more years than I am comfortable telling you later. When I realised what I was doing, I changed the way I entered the knit stitch. As a continental knitter, I probably would have developed a faster, more consistent knitting style if I'd just learned to wrap the purls differently. Of course, that would have created challenges as well, but I'm pretty good at figuring out knitting puzzles!
Anyway, Annie, as I've already said on Twitter and probably to your face if we've had a conversation is a goddess. I want to follow her around and make her tea and talk to her about everything under the sun, because she is fascinating, friendly, and seems to really love what she does. This class, though it was the first thing I did, was the high point of my weekend.
After class, I metmokatiki, who told me the tale of why pola_bear couldn't make it that afternoon, and we proceeded to investigate the exhibit hall. Photographs of what I actually bought are below, but if we weren't extremely worried about money right now (don't ask me how I'm going to pay for my MA, because I don't know), let's just say I'd have needed a van to get me home -- both days! Visual highlights for me were the natural alpaca people, the House of Hemp, and Artisan Yarns, where I found the loveliest skein of red silk ever. My favourite purchase was a little card, though: I've turned it into my new knitting icon, I love it so much. Yes, I had permission to do this! It's from TillyFlop, and you can buy this card and more items at her etsy shop. It's well worth a visit, and it won't turn you into a pauper. Well, probably not!
Somewhere in all this, probably aftermokatiki needed to go, I discovered that I'd been royally screwed over by my mobile phone provider. Instead of recalculating the bill we'd disputed and sending me a text message with the recalculation on Friday, they obligingly turned off my mobile service on Friday, instead. Bless them. Any other weekend, this would have been a mere inconvenience. However, I'd got lost already on the way in, and without the iPhone's map feature I'd have no idea where I was as I ventured out into the chilly evening well after dark (or that had been my plan- it changed because of this). I ended up walking in the direction I thought the right station might be (vaguely), seeing a sign for Westminster Abbey, and walking nearly a mile to Westminster tube station, because at least I knew how to get there. I'd already rung my mobile provider and paid the bill in full: they promised me a reconnect within 24 hours. This did not happen, and it cast a shadow over the rest of the weekend for me, because I was so pissed off with the mobile phone company I was a growling grumpyhead.
I did stick around to see the fashion show, though I'm less interested in fashion on a stage than I am in seeing how it was put together. ;)
Saturday
I'd volunteered to work on Saturday, sofilceolaire drove me in. When I got there, I decided I was still in a sour mood and needed a pick-me-up, so I asked if I could take the morning to do Yarnissima's toe-up sock workshop. This meant I had to buy a ball of sock wool, since I didn't have any on me. HORRORS! Thus the Crazy Zauberball below, which a delightful lady was selling for £8.50 (a very good price). filceolaire volunteered to volunteer in my place, and everybody said he did a great job.
Yarnissima's workshop was great, except it wasn't really a workshop. It was great to get to look at her socks spread out along the tables -- she has some lovely designs! I was hoping to learn a little bit about her design process, but she didn't seem to have much to say about it. She gave everyone a pattern for a tiny toe-up sock, with admittedly good, detailed directions, and then we all just sat there and knitted it and talked amongst ourselves. She was very good at answering questions and helping with some of the techniques.
After Yarnissima, I had lunch withfilceolaire, then headed back to the venue for a brief chat with friend and former student H before going back to volunteering. I ended up working security on the back door, which was lovely since it was actually cool by the back door, until about half an hour before my workshop.
My workshop, all about designing and knitting a top-down raglan crew-neck cardigan, was one of the last workshops on the last day of a very busy weekend. Therefore, I'm not blaming myself for any of the things that went wrong! Seriously, everybody was fried. People were slow with the maths, I was tripping over things because I'd lost my vocabulary sometime earlier, and everyone was working more slowly than usual. Still, I think with the handouts, everyone got the basic lesson of how to design a simple cardigan under their belts. A couple of friends and a couple of former students were in my class, so there were only a few new faces to learn, and I think I even remembered all their names! By the end of class, though, everyone was exhausted and not afraid to admit it. I gave out my email address and mobile phone number in case people had questions or needed new copies of handouts, and that was that.
natf waited for me like a dear and walked me downstairs, where I Knit staff were loading up the van. Ha! Perhaps I could hitch a ride back to Waterloo? I could! So I stuck around for two hours helping to unload, putting things in the shop, and guarding things outside the shop, 'til they didn't need any more help. Then, I got the train home and I was very tired when I finally got there.
The I Knit London staff are an amazing bunch of people, and they had a great staff behind this event. Everyone at I Knit London deserves gold stars, free beer, or better yet CASH! ;) for their dedication and hard work. I'm so pleased to have been a part of this weekend; I hope it'll be the first of many more to come.
Friday
I meant to arrive early, but I'd stayed up very late on Thursday night finalising handouts and information for the teddy bear cardigan class I was teaching on Saturday. Getting out of the house before 11am proved an impossibility.
Even more annoyingly, Google Maps sited the postcode for the Horticultural Halls as some distance away from where it actually was. When I finally arrived at the venue, I had only half an hour to wander around the extremely impressive exhibit hall. I sent a quick text message to
mokatiki to see if she was on her way yet, then headed upstairs to Annie Modesitt's Combination Knitting class. On the trip up, I fortuitously put a face to natf's name! We had a delightful chat in the lift, the first of many over the weekend.Those of you who know me or have taken a class from me, or have discussed knitting with me in any depth know that I recommend her book Confessions of a Knitting Heretic to anybody who wants to learn more about knitting and how to understand theirs better. This book outlines the combination technique: why did I want to take a class on something I'd already devoured? Because, news flash, not even I can learn everything from books, my dahlings! Seriously, watching the hands of an experienced person can teach you more than any book. The whole class was worth the time I spent cursing my way around a part of London with which I'm unfamiliar, for a thirty-second look at Annie's purling method. Wowza.
See, I started out, I think, as a natural combination knitter. I don't want to tell you how long I knit absolutely everything through the back loop without realising I was doing it. This apparently happens a lot to people who learn to knit from Maggie Righetti's book Knitting in Plain English, because while the book is brilliant, it's not clear on stitch mounts and what makes stitches consistent. To be fair, most beginners don't care about stitch mounts: they want to be told what to do. Sometimes I think I confuse my beginners by encouraging them to find their own way, rather than slavishly following some traditional method. But anyway. I naturally knitted through the back loop when I started knitting, and I only realised what I was doing more years than I am comfortable telling you later. When I realised what I was doing, I changed the way I entered the knit stitch. As a continental knitter, I probably would have developed a faster, more consistent knitting style if I'd just learned to wrap the purls differently. Of course, that would have created challenges as well, but I'm pretty good at figuring out knitting puzzles!
Anyway, Annie, as I've already said on Twitter and probably to your face if we've had a conversation is a goddess. I want to follow her around and make her tea and talk to her about everything under the sun, because she is fascinating, friendly, and seems to really love what she does. This class, though it was the first thing I did, was the high point of my weekend.
After class, I met
mokatiki, who told me the tale of why pola_bear couldn't make it that afternoon, and we proceeded to investigate the exhibit hall. Photographs of what I actually bought are below, but if we weren't extremely worried about money right now (don't ask me how I'm going to pay for my MA, because I don't know), let's just say I'd have needed a van to get me home -- both days! Visual highlights for me were the natural alpaca people, the House of Hemp, and Artisan Yarns, where I found the loveliest skein of red silk ever. My favourite purchase was a little card, though: I've turned it into my new knitting icon, I love it so much. Yes, I had permission to do this! It's from TillyFlop, and you can buy this card and more items at her etsy shop. It's well worth a visit, and it won't turn you into a pauper. Well, probably not!Somewhere in all this, probably after
mokatiki needed to go, I discovered that I'd been royally screwed over by my mobile phone provider. Instead of recalculating the bill we'd disputed and sending me a text message with the recalculation on Friday, they obligingly turned off my mobile service on Friday, instead. Bless them. Any other weekend, this would have been a mere inconvenience. However, I'd got lost already on the way in, and without the iPhone's map feature I'd have no idea where I was as I ventured out into the chilly evening well after dark (or that had been my plan- it changed because of this). I ended up walking in the direction I thought the right station might be (vaguely), seeing a sign for Westminster Abbey, and walking nearly a mile to Westminster tube station, because at least I knew how to get there. I'd already rung my mobile provider and paid the bill in full: they promised me a reconnect within 24 hours. This did not happen, and it cast a shadow over the rest of the weekend for me, because I was so pissed off with the mobile phone company I was a growling grumpyhead.I did stick around to see the fashion show, though I'm less interested in fashion on a stage than I am in seeing how it was put together. ;)
Saturday
I'd volunteered to work on Saturday, so
filceolaire drove me in. When I got there, I decided I was still in a sour mood and needed a pick-me-up, so I asked if I could take the morning to do Yarnissima's toe-up sock workshop. This meant I had to buy a ball of sock wool, since I didn't have any on me. HORRORS! Thus the Crazy Zauberball below, which a delightful lady was selling for £8.50 (a very good price). filceolaire volunteered to volunteer in my place, and everybody said he did a great job.Yarnissima's workshop was great, except it wasn't really a workshop. It was great to get to look at her socks spread out along the tables -- she has some lovely designs! I was hoping to learn a little bit about her design process, but she didn't seem to have much to say about it. She gave everyone a pattern for a tiny toe-up sock, with admittedly good, detailed directions, and then we all just sat there and knitted it and talked amongst ourselves. She was very good at answering questions and helping with some of the techniques.
After Yarnissima, I had lunch with
filceolaire, then headed back to the venue for a brief chat with friend and former student H before going back to volunteering. I ended up working security on the back door, which was lovely since it was actually cool by the back door, until about half an hour before my workshop.My workshop, all about designing and knitting a top-down raglan crew-neck cardigan, was one of the last workshops on the last day of a very busy weekend. Therefore, I'm not blaming myself for any of the things that went wrong! Seriously, everybody was fried. People were slow with the maths, I was tripping over things because I'd lost my vocabulary sometime earlier, and everyone was working more slowly than usual. Still, I think with the handouts, everyone got the basic lesson of how to design a simple cardigan under their belts. A couple of friends and a couple of former students were in my class, so there were only a few new faces to learn, and I think I even remembered all their names! By the end of class, though, everyone was exhausted and not afraid to admit it. I gave out my email address and mobile phone number in case people had questions or needed new copies of handouts, and that was that.
natf waited for me like a dear and walked me downstairs, where I Knit staff were loading up the van. Ha! Perhaps I could hitch a ride back to Waterloo? I could! So I stuck around for two hours helping to unload, putting things in the shop, and guarding things outside the shop, 'til they didn't need any more help. Then, I got the train home and I was very tired when I finally got there. The I Knit London staff are an amazing bunch of people, and they had a great staff behind this event. Everyone at I Knit London deserves gold stars, free beer, or better yet CASH! ;) for their dedication and hard work. I'm so pleased to have been a part of this weekend; I hope it'll be the first of many more to come.
 |
This is the entirety of my stash-haul from the I Knit Weekender. Left: 600m of impossibly red silk. Middle, a Crazy Zauberball. Right, my favourite, a card from tillyflop! |
