Sunday, 12 June 2011

World Wide Knit in Public Day

To celebrate this, Rowan at John Lewis were hosting an event, and I thought I would go along and check it out! This is the first time I've ever been to a knitting group, or even knitted with other people. I'm not a socail knitter...
They had decided to put together a goody bag for everyone who came to the store to knit that day with a load of free patterns, a 10% discount voucher on Rowan items, as well as a Rowan bag, sticker, and label to sew into your knitted items, which was a really nice thing to get.

They'd stolen a load of comfy chairs and sofas from the furniture department, and put them in the knitting section along with our own sign announcing world wide knit in public day. I didn't manage to get a picture of everyone knitting, but hopefully someone should email one to me.

We had a couple of silly competitions, one for fastest knitter and one for knitted bunting. I took my sock along to finish, but spent the entire day working on my piece of bunting. They even gave us Rowan yarn and needles to knit with!
My beautiful piece of bunting! It's just moss stitch and stockinette stitch stripes, and then I picked up and knitted a border, because my edges were a mess.

This is all the bunting we managed to finish, and there were a couple of unfinished pieces as well. It's going to be strung up together and hung up at the next John Lewis knitting coffee morning. You can see the prizes in the background, and I didn't win either competition (but I did find out I can knit 107 stitches in 3 minutes if I try!) but I had a really lovely day. The winner was not surprisingly the amazing string of WWKIP day bunting you can see at the back in blue and yellow. It even had embroidered balls of wool with needles in them, as well as WWKIP embroidery!

We had the designer Sarah Hatton with us for the day, and we got a sneek peek (and by that I mean knitted up items) at her new designs for the next Rowan magazine. In fact, there is a picture of the group knitting at her blog here. I also got to see everybody's beautiful hand knit items, and it's spurred me on to try and finish my Central Park Hoodie, so I can actually wear something I've knitted.

Of course, I couldn't let that 10% voucher go to waste...


The book is Sarah Hatton's, and she was kind enough to sign it for me, and the yarn is Rowan siena. I just can't get the beautiful blue colour of the yarn to come out, so you will have to take my word for it that it is lovely.

What has everybody else been doing for WWKIP day?
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6 comments:

  1. Napiligal12 June 2011 at 01:24

    WOW!! What fun! And a goodie bag too!!

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  2. Renee Anne12 June 2011 at 02:59

    I'm all confused about WWKIP because I've seen it listed as today, yesterday, next weekend...is it just a week long event?

    Meh. Whatever. I knit where I want, when I want, with or without approval from anyone else (can you tell I belong to Selfish Knitters & Crocheters?

    Maybe tomorrow I'll KIP......or not.

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  3. Peppermint Mocha Mama12 June 2011 at 17:32

    Renne Anne, yes it has grown into a week long event. It runs from 11 June through to 19 June. It's great fun and should check out the site to see if there are groups doing anything in your area.

    Girl, I am so glad that you found somewhere that was that much fun! I am completely jealous and only wish that I could have gone with you. I'm glad that you had a lovely time and I can't wait to see what creations come from all those lovely treasures you walked away with yesterday.

    Today, I am going to go to the park and knit. I also have plans later in the week to go to my favorite bookstore and sit in a smooshy chair to knit, go to my favorite coffee shop to occupy one of their smooshy chairs to knit and then to my library to sit in one of their not so smooshy chairs to knit... I'm going to be known throughout the town as the 'crazy knitting girl'... lol.

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  4. Abby13 June 2011 at 13:50

    Your knitted bunting is super cute!

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  5. Anonymous13 June 2011 at 17:57

    Wow, it sounds like it was fun. And YAY for goodie bags.

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  6. Marushka C.14 June 2011 at 01:38

    What a fun even! I'm trying not to be jealous about the goody bag or the Siena yarn :-)

    I am not a very social knitter either but I knit in public all the time, especially when waiting for my kids at their various activities, and I think I've answered a million questions about it over the past few years. Most people are nice and seem sincerely interested but occasionally people get a little superior, like I must be completely without purpose in life to have time for such hobbies. I try not to feel sorry for them -- more yarn for me, right?

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