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Monday, December 05, 2016

Fabulous Weekend!

 First, I do apologise for not doing a Mini Tip Tutorial today. I just ran out of time to prepare it last week. I was teaching one day and on Friday I travelled to Birmingham. I ended up having to try to fit in a week's worth of work in 2.5 days. 

So let me tell you about my day at Sitting Knitting instead.

I travelled up to Birmingham on Friday morning and got there about lunchtime. Which gave me plenty of time for a bit of shopping. I didn't buy anything exciting, just a few small bits and pieces but I enjoyed it very much. 


In the evening I met up with the lovely Amy, who I designed Forever  (above) for. I hadn't seen Amy's shawl and it was great to see the shawl in real life. It looks even more beautiful than it looks in the photos. Amy chose some beautiful sparkly beads which don't show up in the photos. We were in a dark restaurant so I wasn't able to take photos. Amy is such an inspirational person. She's only been knitting for 3 years and she knitted a beautiful beaded shawl, Forever, for her wedding plus shawls for her bridesmaids - I think there was five - in just a few months. It just proves that knitters don't need years of experience to tackle lace patterns. The confidence to try new things and learn new techniques is more important than years of knitting experience.


Amy gave me the beautiful present (above) as a thank you for designing Forever for her. The project bag which I just love is made by a friend of hers. The beautiful yarn is hand-dyed by Little Yellow Uke and comes with a pretty little stitch marker too. As well as dyeing yarn, Zena also has a podcast which you can watch here. I love the colourway of the yarn. Amy also got me a set of beautiful stitch markers and a stitch marker holder from Yarn & Craft. They have some beautiful things on their website and I'll definitely be exploring their site more. It was so great to see Amy again and we had a lovely evening catching up.

I'm ready for a busy day.  I'm wearing Portofino. Photo taken by Rachel.

On Saturday, I headed to Sitting Knitting for a busy day of chatting to knitters about my patterns and knitting in general. It got very busy in the afternoon.


A couple of knitters brought Gondolas to show me. Kate knitted her Gondola in a DK yarn and used 5mm needles and it resulted in a bigger shawl and it's so beautiful. Zena (aka Little Yellow Uke) kindly modelled the shawl (above). I also loved this purple Gondola (below) and especially the matt lilac beads.


The shop was buzzing in the afternoon and Becky was busy taking photos. She was so discreet, I didn't even notice her taking photos. You can find Becky's Instagram page here. She takes lots of beautiful photos. 

Me chatting to knitters. Photo by Becky.

Photo by Becky.

I brought several samples to show off as well as a selection of patterns. Above and below is Peaceful - there's currently 3 kits left for this shawl. 

Photo by Becky.

Simplicity on the left and Dakota on the right. Photo by Becky.

I did manage to sit down and knit a few rounds on my sock and chat to a few people. I'm knitting with Sitting Knitting's own hand-dyed yarn. Rachel does a range of beautiful colourways.

Photo by Becky.

Below my sock takes a break. 

Photo by Becky.

It's impossible to spend a day in a yarn shop and not buy anything. I didn't have much space in my suitcase but I gave in to temptation and got another skein of Rachel's hand-dyed yarn in a delicate pastel colourway and a pink pom pom. I need to knit a hat before we go to Norway for Christmas. Rachel had a couple of Sockhead hats in the shop and they fitted me perfectly, so I'll be knitting myself one. I am thinking I may use Rachel's hand-dyed yarn but I'm not 100% sure yet.


I had a fab day and always enjoy spending time at Sitting Knitting. Thank you to everyone who popped in to see me. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones. If you live in the Birmingham area do pop in to Sitting Knitting in Sutton Coldfield. It's well worth a visit.

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