Happy Tales

Recently I was at I Knit, a fabulous kntting and crochet show in London which proved to be full of happy moments for me.

Firstly, a special treat on the Friday was seeing a nearly-finished hap shawl by Ursy. I wrote up a pattern for my Knit Camp class about hap shawls, and hadn’t expected to see a near-finished object so soon. It looked great, and Ursy was, rightfully, very proud of it. The most rewarding thing for a teacher is to have succeeded; to have students who attained the intended learning and are very happy with it. So I felt a very warm glow seeing Ursy’s pride in her beautiful shawl.

There were many other special moments for me in this event. I had a stall selling prints of my patterns and loved having many folk stopping by to say they had seen my designs on Ravelry/in The Knitter/on friends’ bodies etc. Lots of folk tried on samples I had on my stall, especially Lórien and the Lady of the Wood Mitts. I’ll take a mirror to my next show; this time I kept running with folk to Jon Dunn’s stall (Easyknits) so that they could see in his mirror how flattering Lórien was on them. My best-seller was my latest design, Hartfield (pictures below), which some readers may remember I blogged about earlier in the summer as I developed the stitch pattern for the leaf edging. On Friday the sample was modelled by my wonderful assistant, Fariyal, and on Saturday by my beloved sister, Marie (who knitted it).

The other joy of I Knit was meeting up again with so many friends, some of whom have become particularly dear to me. Pat and Steve (Woolly Thoughts) were there, and spent lots of time with me and my sister, as did Miriam and Frans Tegels and Woolly Wormhead. Miriam, officially the World’s Fastest Knitter, very kindly sat knitting at my stall between classes on the Saturday and Marie kept telling customers in very exaggerated stage whispers about what ‘august company’ they were in!

And now to tell you about the moment of moments! Miriam knows Debbie Bliss, a very lovely and attractive lady (I promised Debbie I’d say this!!) and introduced me to her as we walked around the show. Debbie came back to the stall with us and in the midst of lots of lovely chatter enthused fulsomely about my patterns. She described them as ‘really gorgeous’, and very generously said that I could quote her on my blog as saying so in return for the aforesaid praise of her person! ;0)

Amidst all these wonderful experiences I hope folk will understand that I don’t want to dwell on the many problems associated with Knit Camp that are currently in the gaze of the knitting public. Many folk, including myself, have suffered and continue to suffer from them. This is amply reported elsewhere. Despite these problems I have some very special memories to treasure relating to Knit Camp, not least of which is the wonderful spirit and generosity of those who attended, and in relation to that I feel honour-bound to complete an intention to share with you pictures of the amazing gift package I recieved from a Portuguese knitter at the end of my hap shawls class.

We were packing away when I was approached by Xana and, to my amazement, given this beautiful bag and it’s contents, all themed around her native land. There were three (I think, maybe four!) knitters who had come from Portugal together, and it turns out they had conspired to present all their teachers with gift bags. They even spied on their teachers beforehand so they could personalize the gifts and that’s why I have green yarn in mine, hand-dyed by Filomena! I was profoundly touched by the deep kindness that prompted such generosity. I know everyone who met them will agree that these ladies have beautiful spirits.

 The thing at the front that looks like a safety pin is in fact a Portuguese knitting pin. Traditionally Portuguese knitters work with the yarn in front of the work, draping it around their necks, or letting it flow through a pin on their front. I haven’t tried this method yet, and know there are videos on YouTube that will help me when I get to it. The other goodies include a Portuguese knitting doll (see the yarn going behind her neck?), some postcards (Portuguese scenes, including some architectural patterns, some with national costumes, and one celebrating Portuguese knitting!), a little notebook and pencil, a small soap, and the lovely patchwork bag it was all packed into. Such a thoughtful and generous gift. :0)

And so to the promised pictures of Hartfield (link is to the pattern page):

‘Mr. Knightley thought he saw another collection of letters anxiously pushed towards her (Jane Fairfax), and resolutely swept away by her unexamined. She was afterwards looking for her shawl-Frank Churchill was looking also-it was growing dusk, and the room was in confusion; and how they parted, Mr. Knightley could not tell.’  (From ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen)