on thursday morning we gathered for the start of actual the knit nation event. for most of us, that meant classes in all areas of knitting, from traditional methods, to specific skill areas, to garment constructions.
i took several photos of my classes but found later that in jostling my camera around in my purse, it was on some setting which resulted in those photos being totally black. WAHHH.
however, i discovered the mistake in time to get some photos after the market opened in the early evening (and seriously, are you interested in anything else?).
i had the cutest ever picture of sandy’s baby dylan, helping his mom shop for yarn, but unfortunately, that was one of the bad ones. you can see him if you click on her name; it’s worth the diversion.
the market was completely thronged with shoppers from the moment it opened to the moment it closed—getting into the booths was almost impossible for most of the weekend (and i was only free during the busiest times, soo . . .
the wollmeise booth was the talk of the show, naturally, with its metric ton of vivid yarn crammed into every cubby.
there were other wonderful UK producers to explore as well, but once again, my photos fail me. fortunately, i wasn’t the only person with a camera and a pen—clara gives a great account of many of them in this week’s knitters review.
there were beautiful british wools in sight no matter which direction i turned—so many that it hurt my overworked brain after each full day of classes. and some vendors that i meant to get back to for purchases, but never did—john arbon, artisan yarns, knitwitches, and the natural dye studio are but a few. it was glorious and i’m a loser for not partaking more fully . . . a complete case of burnout on my part. there’s always next time, right?
so, i didn’t buy yarn; i dunno what happened there . . . i think i was (rightly) a little worried about having room in my luggage to get everything home.
i did find some stitch markers that i got very excited about at atomic knitting
i’m always on the lookout for multi-colored ones that help me code my place in my work and when i found them, i sorta went nuts and bought every color, heh.
i also received some really lovely gifts during the weekend from students and sponsors that i want to share. first, each teacher got one of the event t-shirts shown at the top of the post, along with a tote bag. in addition, i managed to score the coveted “crew” t-shirt as well
by drooling so much over it that they HAD to give it to me (just kidding).
isn’t it cute, though?
susan from athens brought me a tiny box of these beautiful honey-and-pistachio candies. and you know who loves this kind of candy? mister knitspot—they are on his desk right now; he seems to have made a nice dent in them. thank you susan!
the absolutely lovely alison, from yarnscape arrived at my lace class with this incredible skein of bunnylace in the blue pine colorway. mmmmm, i think this might be destined for a fall or winter shawlette . . .
bekky brought two hand-chosen skeins of posh fingering yarn, one is martha in the portland bill colorway and one is daisy 4 ply in the chatsworth colorway. these are simply gorgeous; perfect for the shawlette tear i’ve been on . . .
and then jo arrived on saturday bearing a long-promised skein of her celtic memory yarn, fulfilling a promise to eradicate from my mind any thought of ever naming a yarn tree scum colored again (she doesn’t want to believe it, but that forgetting will never happen; i love the tree scum name). it’s a sprightly green mix in a merino/tencel blend, straight from the heart of ireland.
the days of the event really flew by, what with classes all day and trying to get enough sleep at night. i taught a beginning lace class, a sweater fitness workshop, a finishing workshop, and three sections of advanced lace knitting, all full, all a LOT of fun. students were excited, attentive, and ready to work (and laugh) a lot; i truly enjoyed every minute.
and then there were the shawls—i saw them everywhere, even in the summer heat. the first one i saw during lunch on the first day was a lovely les abeilles, knit by janet of which i did not get a photo (drat!). it was soft and beautiful
martina is so excited about her autumn arbor stole in wollmeise, colorway oyster, she cannot stop talking about it (i love that!!). and rightly so—it’s fantastic, isn’t it?
and how about christina’s gorgeous deep red star of evening triangle?? it’s simply ravishing, especially on her.
by the way, it was so nice of this group of friends to allow me to interrupt their lunchtime knitting for a bit of impromptu photography; there was a group photo planned for later in the weekend, but i just couldn’t wait and they kindly indulged me.
this is mascha in her star of evening shawl, knit up in handpaintedyarns lace, in a beautiful smoky-plum color. i saw a few more of these over the weekend, which was really nice as this is a simple, older pattern with a quiet, soft look. it makes a nice scarf or triangle of any size.
jody stopped me in the lobby to show of her stunning apricot pine and ivy, beautifully stitched in her own handspun laceweight (franquemont fibers abby batt). jealous??
at the ravelry party (best party bag design ever!), a few more of us took a break to get a group photo; most of these were knit in wollmeise yarn, so claudia made herself the art director and decided we should shoot it as greek statues.
and then i wanted a shot of each one individually
another older pattern that i always loved and am seeing knit up more and more now—casino, modeled here by kat in wollmeise. she looks adorable in this petite version.
sandy is positively glowing in her vivid gale stole of deep blues shot with red highlights. i think she’s going to wear this a lot where she lives—sandy came to london from sweden and worked tirelessly all weekend in the knit nation booth (she even offered to help out with my wifi issues but really, i couldn’t impose . . . she worked too hard all day).
tricia finished in the nick of time, i think, according to her postings on ravelry. but finished is finished, no matter when it happens and this palimpsest looks fantastic on her, doesn’t it?
what an honor to see so many lovely examples of my patterns knit up and worn throughout the event—so much hard work to get them done for the knit nation celebration. i hope i didn’t get anyone’s name wrong—as usual, i did not ask for them in the flurry of taking photos and had to try to scout each person out on ravelry, guessing sometimes which person belonged to what i think is the right project, oy.
the ravelry party ended the weekend’s events and we all retired to our rooms to think about how to spend our day off before flying home. cookie announced that she was sleeping in and we agreed she deserved it. janel and i decided that a walk and a bit of shopping might be in order—we needed to score a few gifts to take home with us.
it took a bit of doing for all of us to scrape ourselves out of bed in time to meet for breakfast, but before too long janel, cookie, and myself, along with ysolda, sara, jess, and casey were ambling along to everyone’s favorite french cafe. trust me, the promise of large bowls of coffee was no small factor in getting us there.
after some real eggs and good bread, cookie went back to rest some more and the ravelry contingent headed off for scotland. janel and i did a couple of quick errands while deciding where to go shopping. much as we wanted to see liberty, we decided to stick close to the campus and headed off to harrod’s to see what we could find.
the truth is, you can find anything at harrod’s—you can find things you wouldn’t even think to look for until you saw them there.
somehow—i dunno HOW—we totally missed the dodi and diana memorial. but we did walk through the great hall of food. this was after reeling out of the “soft accessories” department, where janel announced she was totally buying this gorgeous scarf, only to find out it cost 1295 pounds. no mistake about it, we were in over our heads.
we figured the food hall was safe enough. boy were we ever wrong. stunning displays of towering foods were everywhere—literally, people were grocery shopping in harrod’s. alice says they have an awesome meat department. i have no doubt she’s right.
everything was beautifully done and very costly. we couldn’t afford anything in the whole place really. oh, i’m sure there was something, but it takes not a minute to get overwhelmed by the effect of it all.
see what i mean?
one thing we did was to try on eyeglasses and we actually found a few possible frames that we each liked. i would have bought at least one of them but i need a special, small size and they were likely not in stock. but i’m so going to follow up on that.
we finally found one thing we could buy—a little time off our feet and a nice cuppa coffee. we even threw in a brownie for good measure. it was lovely.
on the way back to the campus, we shopped along the street for the gifts we needed, then went on to pry cookie out of bed for dinner (poor thing, she was all in).
we opted for the london taxi to whisk the five of us off to a nice italian place for dinner. it was delicious, but even more than that, it was decorous—at least for alice
whose pasta arrived at the table disguised as a swan made of tin foil.
you can’t get that at home . . .
one last dinner together before heading off on our separate ways (janel, how was the capsule hotel?? inquiring minds want to know!)
and i managed to get what i believe is the quintessential janel/cookie photograph
followed by an even better one
next time, we’ll look at the knitting—there was lots of it and i’m anxious to share . . .
42 thoughts on “proud member of the knit nation”
Oh my…eye candy overload… Everything is SO beautiful! I’m in love with those stitch markers.
Wow, I love those stitch markers! Those are right up my knitting alley.
Having met both Cookie and Alice in 2009 I was so bummed that I couldn’t make the trip over for Knit Nation. And it’s just as well I wasn’t let loose at the Wollmeise booth or there would have been an international incident 🙂
Did you get a chance to go to Liberty and see the fabrics and habadashery dept? One of my favorite stops.
How wonderful to see so many of your shawls ‘in the wild’ ! All beautiful.
My old dentist was across the road from Harrods ! Mr. Bone ! Seriously. Anyway, afternoon tea in Harrods was a real treat. Their cheese counter was amazing. Fond memories of Liptauer cheese and fabulous Florentines, amongst so many delights and treats.
I love the scarf that Janel is wearing. What’s the pattern?
Bwahahaha! I love that second-to-last photo of the two of them — perfect 🙂 And I love the tour of Knit Nation and London. And the Wollemeise booth and shawls… Someday…
It’s such fun to see all of your patterns knitted up in so many yarns and on so many people!
……living vicariously through anne hanson……..
A truly perfect trip. What memories you have and thank you for sharing your pictures with us.
Wonderful photos!! Had I known you were eyeglass shopping at Harrod’s, I would have directed you across to street to Cutler & Gross…be glad I didn’t, hee hee.
Harrod’s food hall is glorious, no doubt, but I prefer Harvey Nichols. I can actually afford stuff there. It’s been years since I’ve been to London. Thanks for the wonderful photos.
oh what a wonderful trip. thank you, thank you. I want a tee shirt!
Bowls of lovely coffee and towers of chocolates – oh, my! That’s one definition of heaven, eh? And so fun for you to see so many of your designs come to life in one place. Cookie and Alice look rightfully tired! Love those stitch markers – so colorful and fun.
You must be having fun going through all your pictures from the trip! thanks so much for sharing the highlights! Makes me want to go to London even more.
Such gorgeous pictures! Almost as good as being there…except that I can’t actually feel or smell the yarn! I wanna be you! 🙂
Thanks Anne, for such a lovely report – living by proxy through you ;)) how I and my best knitting pal would have loved to have been there, it must have been amazing! What a colour and pattern fest, too.
Great to see a mention for Atomic Knitting; I have had numerous deliveries from them via internet and everything is lovely, original, the staff are friendly and helpful and not least, delivery is fast (Wales to Switzerland) – what’s not to like?! They do great gift bags, too…
Sorry you didn’t get to Artisan, another great little company!
Still, there’s always next time, eh?! ;))
The one and only time I ever went to London, Harrod’s was closed for inventorying. I was crushed 🙂
You got some lovely gifts – I especially like the Yarnscape ‘Bunnylace’. It’s going to make a beautiful shawl. It must feel great to see so many of your designs in one place! I’d love to try one, but I’m pretty much a lace-virgin!! What would you recommend for a first-timer? Having seen your Henley with a twist, I just have to make that too. It’s so simple, but stunning.
Umm….that brownie plate looks like it would be right up Kim’s alley. 🙂
It looks like it was SO much fun!!
It’s an honour to see my Palimpsest on your blog – that photoshoot was such fun! I also love the snaps of Alice, as she is wearing the Annis I knit for her birthday, which makes me very happy. I’m so glad you enjoyed your trip to Knit Nation, it was an awesome event. It’s also been great to see what the teachers got up to when they weren’t teaching their socks off.
Oh, and you got the names right of the people I know, except that ‘Kat’ is usually known as Kate – difficult to tell that from her Rav name!
Come back soon!
Lovely, lovely shawls on the friends from across the pond! When you next go back you can visit Liberty’s and Fortnum and Mason (smaller, more intimate food halls, a great afternoon tea and a jewel of a store) in the same afternoon and also be close to Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, Picadilly Circus and Jermyn Street (think men’s haberdashery).
What a lovely post! You received such pretty yarny gifts! I had a fabulous time in London and have already put my much improved finishing techniques to good use. Yes, I came to your finishing class! I’ve also stashed a sizeable quantity of gorgeous yarn. I just loved your ‘Henley with a twist’ and am present on a yarn hunt for something suitable to make it with. So glad you enjoyed your vist! Ros
Thanks for sharing these wonderful memories – I especially love seeing the older patterns knitted up so gorgeously. And the food, the food!
Hi Anne, thanks so much for sharing your impressions from this great event 🙂 It’s nice to read that the teachers had as much fun as the students. I really hope next year will be another Knit Nation event!
I was among the group of friends you talked to after Saturday’s Advanced Lace Knitting Class (and by the way: you didn’t interrupt at all, it was so nice to talk to you!!). I think you mixed up us two Martinas from Germany 🙂 You linked to me but that wonderful Autumn Arbor Stole is anitram’s (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/anitram/autumn-arbor-stole).
I am jealous. Not of you, Anne, because I was there, too. And it was great and we all hope there will be another Knit Nation next year! But of my friends. It’s them you took pictures of at lunch time, when I was still in Clara Parkes’s class. But that’s the way it goes. Unfortunately you mistook two of them for someone else: the first picture of Martina – it is Martina, but the other one: anitram (http://www.ravelry.com/people/anitram), and who you call Anke is Christina (http://www.ravelry.com/people/kaechele106). But they/ we all belong together, still. LOL
It’s so fun to experience the trip through your photos and descriptions! It’s been a long time since I visited London and your post really makes me want to go back!
Next time you’re in London you must visit Liberty’s. They do a lovely “cream tea” in their tea room and the fabrics are beautiful. They used to have a small yarn department. I think John Lewis on Oxford Street had the largest yarn selection not that you didn’t have the best of all at Knit Nation. I lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years (all during the 80’s), so avoided Harrod’s as I felt like I was back in Saudi. London was my overnight stop on my way back home every summer. I also seem to remember that the V &A once had one of the oldest examples of hand knitting – I think it was found in Egypt. It looks like a fabulous time was had by all. Thank you for sharing.
Just loved your post on Knit Nation. Also loved seeing your patterns brought to life so vividly. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve been harrods! I went to england when I was 14 and even though it wasn’t that long ago, I barely remember that, but that photo of the street stroked my memory! I don’t remember it being that overwhelming – the paris department store was much worse. I’m jealous of your trip, it looks like so much fun!
What a wonderful adventure! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing so much of this incredible trip. And the yarn you brought back will keep those London memories going for a long time.
Here’s something for Mr. Knitspot – a Fragrant Indian Nut Brittle that is delicious beyond words. The recipe is at
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fragrant-Indian-Brittle-236700
It’s quick enough that I make batches of it for Christmas gifts. Like any candy, you have to watch it like a hawk. But other than that, it’s easy. (Don’t eliminate the salt.)
Welcome back.
Oh there is my photo from London.
But my name is not Anke, it’s Christina.
Thank you for this beautiful post.
Christina
from Stuttgart
Oh, this looks so wonderful — I’m all-at-once very jealous and very pleased that you’ve been having such a great time! I hope Knit Nation runs again and doesn’t clash with other major UK events next time as then I may even be able to come along 🙂
Loving the lace shawls; they rock my world!
Wonderful!!!
what a fun experience!
Great pictures Anne. . . thanks for taking so many. We don’t get tired of them. Of course, my faves are the desserts. . . .as you would know. . . . .
Thanks Anne for this wonderful report!
It was a pleasure to meet you and have such a fine photosession with you in lunchtime!
You asked me in London which patterns would be great to be translated into German. These followings I love very much, so it’s perhaps not a general choice: autumn arbour and her triangle sister maplewing, simurgh, fiore di melanzane, artichaut and sure: irtfa.
If I look deeper also the calmer ones are very interesting: star of the evening, gail or alhambra.
You’ve got so much very lovely patterns that you see a choice is hard and as always a personal one. I would try a mixture of easier and more complex ones.
I hope that helps!
Best wishes
Martina (anitram at ravelry)
love the photos – especially the Cookie & Janel pair. love (1gazillion)! looking forward to seeing you again.
Your posts are always so rich with great photos and tidbits. For those of us who did not go, it is a treat to see so many fun faces, knits, yarns, events, etc. Thank you for being so generous in your posting!!!
Looks like you all had a ton of fun!!!! Glad it was a safe trip for all 🙂
Looks like a fabulous event & you had lots of fun. If Knit Nation is on next year, I amy consider going.
WOW! That is a lot of activity. It sounds like a wonderful trip, though! Now I have to go lie down just thinking about all of it… and all that wollmeise…
Oh, this looks like so much fun! I wish I could have been there, the Wollmeise booth looks.. well.. wow. But hey, I was at the W:O:A, which was a lot of fun, too.. although in a _very_ different way 😉
I once got my baked potato in a tin foil swan at a french bistro and I thought it a very nice idea. So if you can’t get that at home, come to Germany. Hooray for deliciously filled tin foil swans 😀
I *SO* need to get to London next year! And of COURSE you only got stitch markers! Too funny…
Just can’t wait til next year now. Just sayin…………………………
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