Right, I’ve finally got a few minutes to kill between having eaten my (admittedly late) breakfast and going for a run (need to get the old fitness levels up for starting back at kung fu lessons next week), so I’m going to make good use of that time to write about my first knitting event.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the room to be confronted with a plethora of stalls selling yarn (admittedly a lot of sock yarn) in a whole range of colours. Now, those of you that know me are aware that pure wool has a tendancy to bring me out in a rather nasty rash. However, after spending a while rubbing skeins of yarn over the back of my hands to see if I had a reaction to them, I finally managed to find a yarn for my gloves that didn’t seem to irritate my skin! Huzzah! During my time of trying out my reaction to these yarns I did end up talking to quite a few of the stall owners, all of whom were lovely (and one of them sympathised with my lack of being able to use wool yarn as she was making something for a friend who was allergic to wool _and_ synthetics).

Yarn stalls aside (and believe me, Ali and I went around them several times because there was so much to see), there was also the fashion show of Debbie Stoller’s designs from her new book ‘Son of Stitch and Bitch’ modelled by Craig and Gerard from IKnit and various other wonderful models – you all looked fab!

Just as Ali and I were about to leave we headed over to the KnitWitches Yarns stall where I spied a lovely silk yarn skeins.  Alas, seeing as I am still waiting for my first pay check to come through in a few days, I couldn’t buy it and I was really downcast because it was a lovely magenta and purple mixed colour.  However, all was not lost as the lovely Eirwen put the skein aside for me until the end of the month so, yay, I get my yarn!

So, yes, I had a wonderful time and would definately be going back if it’s held next year!  Congrats to the IKnit guys for organising an amazing event!

I have been learning a new skill this week, thanks to the yarn I bought at the UK Stitch and Bitch day on Saturday (more about that in my next blog post at the weekend; I need my brain to be in gear before I do that wonderful day justice). Armed with my Patons SWS yarn (a soy/wool mix) and two sets of circular needles borrowed from Ali, I embarked upon the task of learning how to knit in the round.

Now, admittedly, Ali had done her best to teach me this about a month ago but my brain was still foogly from dissertation madness so I didn’t quick manage to ‘get it’. This time, I did. I’m knitting a fingerless gloves pattern from Knitty called ‘Fetching’ and I’ve already semi-finished the first one and have started the second one. The thumb hole has been secured with waste thread for now, and I don’t want to touch it before I have someone more experienced on hand to talk me through that on earth I need to do. I just realised I did my cabling back to front on the second glove so I have to think back 6 rows, but it’s not too soul-destroying to do that (at least I caught it now rather than later )

Here’s a photo of where I’d got to on Sunday night with the first glove – photos of the finished gloves will have to wait until I get my camera back in about a month (my brother’s borrowed it for work and his tour of the Emirates Stadium – yes, he is an Arsenal supporter):