Set Up

Setting up a stall for a show is not for the fainthearted. It's backbreaking, hard and dirty work, usually in a freezing hall. Last Wednesday was no exception! Having had to go to work at the day job I was dressed for an overheated office, the set up got so cold that I found myself adding layers and curtesy of Jane here's the only photo in existence of me wearing what looks like a poncho!

Except that it is not a poncho it is a Lace Pellerine that I knitted from a copy of InKnitters a few years ago. The yarn was a tweed ganseyweight knitted double and I enjoyed knitting it. The Pellerine was meant to be part of the exhibition but in the end did not go on public display until now!

We enjoyed the show and had some fascinating discussions with the public on the rise and fall of interest in the crafts of knitting and crochet. Many supported the Guild's aim to develop a library of patterns and books and there were some interesting social history discussions around some of the vintage patterns and period knitted garments that we had on display. I'd really like to have captured some of those on record.

Every item that was on display was commented on by the public. The tea/egg cosy village generated a lot of discussion and may result in a small guild publication soon as demands for patterns were high.

The lacework caused people to stop and stare and the vintage garments knitted in Fair Isle had people wanting to buy them and making some serious financial offers!

I did venture back to the Knitwitches stand and made a few more small purchases but they will be secret for a while. My visit with Silkwood involved angora, hand dyed mohair and a giant pair of knitting needles which caused mayhem on the ride home via DLR - you could just see all those city types looking at them and dying to make comment. Only one gentleman did and I enjoyed a great conversation with him about the difference between knitting and crochet, spinning your own yarn and weaving with particular reference to the patterns used in his homeland of Ghana.

Taking the stand down was one of the best orchestrated manouvers i've ever been involved with thanks to the help of Jane and Linde and we already started talking about next year!

Posted by Yvonne at February 25, 2007 11:38 PM