WWKIP Day 2019

It’s that time of year again, when crafters get twitchy and start to make nuisances of themselves by coming out of the woodwork and flaunting their skills and beautiful wips under the noses of unsuspecting passers-by. That’s right, it’s World Wide Knit in Public Day.

As is typical for SnB, we included a range of crafts, not just knitting of course. And unusual for us, we actually went to a yarn shop/cafe. In the past, we’ve chosen some unlikely – but fun! – venues (check it out here and here), but this year we kept it casual.

Our destination of choice was the lovely Folklore Yarns in east Belfast, and owner Åsa (pronounced Oh-sa) and her daughter Hannah made us feel right at home. While we munched on a variety of baked treats and sandwiches, she kept the teapots filled and coffee brewing! We had a variety of crafts on display: knitting, crochet, fibre spinning, patchwork and embroidery. Perhaps best of all was Emma Whitehead ‘s tent: a 20+-year project that never fails to amaze crafters and non-crafters alike. It truly is a sight to behold.

There was some Pom-Pom making, cross-stitching, yarn squishing and yarn sniffing too! Some new friends were made, and old ones caught up. And a few skills were passed on too, because what’s the point of a fibre community if you can’t share the love?

Meriel’s first time spinning!

 

Happy WWKIP Day! 

Why?

Sometimes, people ask me this question: why do I have so much yarn? I already have plenty, in all weights and shades and varieties. What could I possibly need with another skein (or three)?

I’ve decided to sum up my answer here because I think it may apply to other knitters/crocheters/yarn addicts too. And we need to stick together.

So why do I acquire more yarn?

BECAUSE I NEED ALL THE COLOURS.

 

The End.

The Taco and Spinning Party

I had a birthday not too long ago, and because as any good crafter knows, a celebration isn’t a celebration without a healthy dose of crafting involved, I hosted one of my infamous Knitting Parties.

Tacos was the elected food theme for the day, so I fired up my slow cooker and made the very simple and very lovely Stupid Easy Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken , diced some taco veg, heated some taco shells; made my Dill Salsa, and because I can’t have a Knitting Party without my Greek Dip, (though I make my own seasoning as the prepackaged one in this recipe doesn’t exist in the UK.) I made some of that as well.

My youngest son choose the cheeses for the, again required, cheese board, and then prepped the tea pot for guests to arrive.

People arrived with yarn, and projects a plenty, but what had happened organically was everyone who had a spinning wheel brought theirs as well! (People also brought awesome cakes and pavlovas as well! BONUS!)

So we set up in the biggest open space we had (in front of the food) and had a mini spinning party.

Actions Shots

Of Us Learning to Spin

The more experienced Spinners held us baby Spinner’s by the hand as we learned to treadle, to draft, and relax our grips.

We got to try different wheels to see which style suited each of us better, (and I am now lusting after a double treadle conversion kit for my wheel), and witnessed how fantastic one of our members is for learning to spin on her warped antique double drive.

Slubby Begginning lead to Smooth Yarns

I’m knackered.

The event went down quite well as everyone at lots of food, drank much tea, and had a good gossip.

The day was a great success and I have even plyed our singles into a rather fetching bit of yarn.

That’s Some Fine-Lookin’ Fibre…

A few weeks ago I was having coffee with the lovely Terri from A Fine Fish Yarns. And from her bag of gloriously-coloured yarns she pulled a braid of equally fabulous-looking fibre! (Cue squeals.)

Wanna see?

It’s a blend of merino and nylon. Of course I graciously offered to test spin. (Or maybe she just gave up trying to get it back off me, who knows?)

It didn’t turn out anything like I had imagined it would, which made it a really valuable spinning experience! The bold splashes of colour on the fibre blended and melted into the spun singles, mellowing them out.

On the bobbin

A mini skein of singles.

Plying it resulted in a lovely muted rainbow of shades – a far cry from its bright originations. Regardless, I’ve fallen in love with the end product, and I’m already planning its project.

 

What do you think it should be?

Shetland Wool Week 2016

My post on Shetland Wool Week! 😀

A Million Paper Stars

This year, I had the amazing (somewhat last minute) opportunity to visit the Shetland Islands during Shetland Wool Week. This amazing wool festival celebrates knitting, spinning, and other fibre textiles as well as the truly fascinating community and history of Shetland. One of my dear friends moved to Shetland over the summer, and part of her research revolves around the knitting community so it just seemed a perfect excuse – I mean chance  – to go visit.

Getting to Shetland may seem daunting, but actually, the ferry was quite luxurious. I flew to Aberdeen in the afternoon and boarded the ferry in plenty of time to set sail at 7pm.

One of the first things I saw when I set foot in Lerwick was all the rainbows! They were everywhere! Bottom right is a picture of the famous Clickimin Broch.

After a ‘peerie’ hot chocolate at the Peerie Shop Cafe, which…

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Our Crafting Demo Day

Recently we held a crafting demo day for Voluntary Arts Week (6 – 15 May). We wanted to create an opportunity to allow people to experience craft as a relaxing pastime, an escape from the stressors of everyday life or as a way of pleasantly passing the time should they suffer from health issues that might otherwise inhibit them.

We met at 11am at the Dock Cafe in the Titanic Quarter, knitting needles and yarn swifts at the ready! I even made cookies for the occasion.

So what kinds of crafts were we demonstrating? Pretty much everything! Knitting, spinning, crochet, sewing, embroidery – if we could carry it, we brought it.

We even had Sharon on duty sewing hexagons for NI Big sock!

We definitely attracted attention and had a brilliant day introducing future crafters to new hobbies, and exposing hardened crafters to new ideas. Next year we’ll hopefully engage more people, but then we did happen to accidentally coincide with Comic Con! Regardless, it was a lovely day and we hope to be seeing a local surge in craft soon!

A new obsession?

Last week a dear yarnie friend of mine (aren’t they the best kind? 😍) invited me over for a spinning lesson! I was so excited! I had fairytale visions and (for some reason!) imagined that I would instantly be good at it and it would be super relaxing.. Boy was I wrong?!

Think patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time! I was subconsciously scared to release too much precious fibre.. And the ‘twist’ was catching me.. A lot!

Also the ‘dead spot’ (where the wheel stops turning) kept catching me.. Especially if I tried to hold a conversation at the same time.. What a fool I was! 😜

And then when I got it turning again I would go anti clockwise for a wee while first.. Just to make things really hard for myself!

But in those (few!) wee moments when everything was doing what it was supposed to.. At the right time.. I glimpsed those fairytale visions again! 😃

 

I had an awesome teacher! She started out teaching me the mechanics of the wheel so I could see/ fix problems as they arose, which was very handy!

She let me battle on, lending encouragement and only jumped in when I was in a real (literal!) tangle!!

So by the time it came to plying(?) I had improved alot! And then I got to spin anti clockwise!! Woohoo! 😉
All in all I had a wonderful first spinning lesson so thank you @nearlythere… For the new obsession… You rock!! 😘

 

 

Who are we?

Just One More Row; Belfast’s Branch of the international StitchnBitch movement, is 8 years old and has been meeting every Wednesday evening in the Starbucks Coffee Shop in Belfast’s Iconic Victoria Square Shopping Centre for 5 years.

Between the Hours of 4:00 and 7:00 pm there will usually be 3 or 4 devoted knitters sitting sipping tea and working on a current projects, though we have managed to squeeze almost 20 people at the table on occasion!

To join in with us you only have to pay for a snack or beverage as a thank you to our most generous hosts, and be willing to join in with the conversation.

Our group is a varied one, having members from around the world in our ranks, and we aren’t limited to knitters.
There are people who like to crochet, to sew, to quilt, to cross stitch, spin, needle felt, and some of our younger members have even brought their loom bands.

Loom Band Flowers

Don’t let yourself think that age is a factor to join our group, all that is required is a love of a good chat and the desire to craft. People from the age of 4 to 94 are welcome, and those are just guide lines.