I promised you a post with more on Knit Nation, so I have gathered some photos for you. The event though officially only 29-31 July started a wee bit earlier, on the Tuesday when all our teachers started to land in the UK. This was in Clara’s passport – and I totally love it! I wish I had one in my passport too!

Cookie & I arrived to the residences to see if we could get rooms for the first arriving teachers. It was rather early (730am!) and we were told that the rooms weren’t ready.  I find in these instances where you get stonewalled, that a well pitched hissy fit peppered with minor hysterics (it does make me giggle to have someone tell me ‘mam, please calm down’) can turn the ‘no rooms ready before 2pm’ into ‘all rooms bar one ready now’. Yay! First to arrive was Anne Hanson, who sat with Cookie and I on the steps, enjoying the cool sunny morning. Clara & Judith arrived next, then Beth and JC, and before we knew it, everyone had arrived safely, with all their luggage (it was touch and go for a second there for one of the teachers whose luggage wasn’t where it should be, but it worked out in the end).

The next day was our teacher’s ‘ease into London’ day. We arranged a private tour of the V & A for our tutors (though I heard that Judith really could have given the tour herself!):

Then we all headed off for an afternoon tea with the Knit Nation tutors, along with Jess & Casey of Ravelry, Ysolda & Sarah, and Katie of Hoxton Handmade. The afternoon tea was really lovely -we all got a chance to chat and very importantly – eat cake. Twas lovely! Over too soon for me as it was back home to help Kerri who, behind the scenes had been working her butt off to get all the class orders ready for registration pick up.

Sooner than I imagined it could come, suddenly it was Thursday morning. We got to the college, with our fab Knit Nation Crew out in force to set up the registration desk.

The vendors worked all day to get their stands ready for the 5pm Preview. And they did a great job. You can see loads of photos here.

B got me to sit down and eat just before the Thursday Preview opened (B thank you! I wouldn’t have had anything to eat otherwise), and this was the queue from the hall outside at 445pm!

I wish I had taken the video I meant to take of the people cheering when the Marketplace opened, and running in! Sadly when I checked my camera later, I had managed to turn off the camera instead of turning it on at the critical moment.  Doh!

The energy and buzz was awesome. Here is the crowd around the Wollmeise stand:

Crazy as it was, the three hours were gone in a flash. I was a menace with the PA system – giving the vendors a heart attack when I announced “8 minutes to door”… at 422pm. Oops. I had to get back on and sheepishly announce “er, sorry folks, that’s 38 minutes to door, er not 8″.

Friday morning we had our first full Marketplace day. Again there was a queue out the door, which was really exciting and the Marketplace was buzzing all day. Jess & Casey gave their Ravelry talk that evening.

Saturday was our last day. More classes, more Marketplace. Funnily enough it was the first day I felt all stressed out! I have a severe case of delayed reaction. Anyways I was really really looking forward to the Ravelry Party hosted by Jess & Casey. And true to form, Jess & Casey throw a great party. It  was AWESOME!

First up, the collectable, covetable Ravelry bags. These are the best ones so far (IMHO). Julie the artist who created the images, is a genius! How many knitting things can you find? Crochet hooks, knitting needles, balls of yarn, stitch markers, are all cleverly part of the design.

And Ysolda’s photo booth. So much fun!

Great photos. Here are the College bar staff who manned the party.  Here’s a chap I don’t recall seeing at all, and boy he’s a cutie!

ahh the lure of the photo booth.  we’ve all been there (and you’ll see I was too!)

This is Marc (blue shirt) who was one of our three Imperial College angels (Marc & Jaoa being the other two). He was literally at our beck and call and helped us sort out so many of the little things that needed doing. Big shout out for Marc, Michael (who I in my tired and bamboozled state called honey at the end of Saturday) and Joaoa (sorry! I can’t spell your name!).

Here is a selection of my favourites:

Dear Carrie who I met in person for the very first time!! Ain’t she cute??

As the night went on, the photos got messier… and merrier

Easyknitter Jon (newly and happily married to the dishy Roy!)

My ever patient hubby

And me! Not entirely sure what I am doing there, but the lure of the photo booth was too much. I guess this is my dramatic flourish to the end of Knit Nation 2010… and a little cheeky hint to watch this space…

Thank you to Ysolda & Jess Marshall Forbes for use of their photos!

Phew!, Cookie, Carole and I went to Paris for a little post Knit Nation break. We caught the Eurostar bright and early and headed to our hotel in the 1st arrondissement right next to the Jardin des Tuileries. The first day we blundered into a french cafe bar and were kind of bullied (in a very nice way) into ordering lunch. Madame la proprietaire made us put on their napkins which were these big aprons. No one else was wearing them but we put them on and wore them happily (well, I tried to take mine off but she appeared over my shoulder tsk tsking. Reprimanded I sheepishly put it back on, much to Cookie and Carole’s amusement). Still the gratin dauphinois was delicieux!

We swanned around, drank and ate to our heart’s content, and even chanced upon Sly Stallone at the Ritz (he was getting out of his voiture and being greeting by paps). We felt rather glamourous!

We saw the Eiffel Tower

Wee little piggies

And very large fruit

Norah joined us for the day, and hid with Cookie under their umbrella, oops I mean parasol.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Cookie finished her book (yay!). We missed Susan and thought of her lots. The girls learned more French (attention! oui oui! pamplemousse!) and Carole even got to kiss our charming french concierge.

We even were privy to the secret of French glamour: fashion mangetout. Who knew?

More in the next post on the Isle of Wight, my parent, and a knitter I met at Steep Hill Cove who had been to Knit Nation!

It’s over. A year’s worth of work culminating in the 3 day extravaganza that was this year’s Knit Nation. The combined knowledge of the teachers was mind blowing – these ladies are international treasures and just the sweetest people. And our marketplace – I have to say all the vendors who came were just AMAZING. When Cookie first came through the set up marketplace, she was astonished to find that each booth was a work of art. Each one. Kind of like opening a luxe box of chocolates in which each one is crazy delicious, and yet different from the next. Definitely agree with her.

It’s a total whirlwind, and I will update with a more detailed post later, with photos (we have some great ones from Ysolda’s photo booth), but I wanted to jot down some things that stand out in my mind:
-a senior knitter who came by to tell us how much she enjoyed the show. She’d read about it in a magazine and got on the internet to find us.
-All our sponsors: Ysolda, Knitting Mag, Purlescence & the Knitting Hut. Especially Rhoda Barker and her team from Knitting Magazine who really went out on a limb to support Knit Nation. Ever ever ever grateful
-every single person who came by to tell us that they enjoyed Knit Nation and to thank our crew for a stellar job. THANK YOU!!!!
-our volunteer crew – up at the crack of dawn, without coffee, to get to the show early to set up, doing everything that needed doing. Keeping me sane and vertical and then letting me sit on the floor with a bottle of beer at the close and not laughing at me too much. I love you all so much.
-all our teachers who kept thanking us for asking them to come teach. That totally boggles my mind because it really is me & cookie who are so grateful that they wanted to come to Knit Nation to teach, and even happier that they enjoyed themselves! We kept thanking them in return! Reminds me of how Chinese people fight for the bill – we are thank you sparring – who can thank each other the most!
-Copy that. Over. too much fun with the walkie talkies!
-bing bing bing! bong bong bong! too much fun with the mike.
-Michael, Charlotte, Joao, Marc of Imperial College: love them all.
-Luke, Sandy the new Luke and Paul the new new Luke. Someone told me they wanted to take Paul home as he was a great breakdown shepherd. I said no, sadly, as I think B would have my head.
-the vendor’s big thank you at the close of the show. makes my heart swell and sing!
-Jess & Casey and the Rav party. Awesomeness in one room.
-Koki winning 3 skeins of Wollmeise. Koki who doesn’t really knit…
-me winning a bottle of Soak.
-David making friends with all and sundry at the Rav party… and definitely drinking mucho mucho. a bout of praying followed when we got home
-having the best time.

Now for some fun in Paris and catching up with my knitting!

Knit Nation signing off. Bing! Bing! Bing!

Over…… until next time.

Wow. Just, wow. Am home, after a very long day, with my feet up and my little monkey curled up against my side. Day 1 of Knit Nation was a BLAST. Can I just say how much l love my Knit Nation crew? Tina, Nora, Emily, Dee, Ling, Tricia, Carole, Marja, Hattie, Jaq, Barb, Judith, Jen, Sandy, Mel, David and Luke, and my right hand gal, Kerri who has really kept it all together in the last week. Everyone was there, ready and willing at the crack of dawn to put everything together. The registration area came together nice and quickly – and soon enough we had a queue of students waiting to register. Classes started, we had a bit of fun with our walkie talkies and pretending to be truckers (Clara did well, I couldn’t pull it off so smoothly!). The vendors started arriving around 9 and putting their stands together.

Our booth started like this:

but with Mel’s dancing fingers, soon became this:

The rest of the booths were just beautiful – walking around while the vendors were setting up was so cool.  Here’s Pure Purl:

And Brownberry Yarns…

Woolly Wormhead & Nics Knots (and Atomic Knitting in the corner)

John Arbon & Fibre Harvest….

With their cute little sheepies!

Easyknits Jon & new hubby were both in attendance, with Roy being creative director in charge of setting up the booth!

And here is the Wollmeise booth…. all naked and plain.

Then Wollmeise came with all her boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of yarn.

And the space became this:

There’s still loads of yarn left.. Claudia was very clever and has made sure she’s got lots for every day. The temptation!

And a big thank you to sweet Evee who made me a mini-pug to match my little monkey.  Deuce & his mini-me. All together now… awwwww.

I am totally knackered, and the day has been long, but it has been absolutely incredible and I think we really rocked Imperial.  Big round of applause for all the lovely vendors, their incredible booths, and all the Knit Nation crew who did a rockin’ job of getting everything that needed doing done!

I feel as if I am in a dream – I can’t quite believe that in 4 days, Knit Nation will be here. Cookie & I have spent the last 12 months putting the event together – and for it to finally be here blows my mind. My poor blog has been so neglected because it’s been so manic. But I didn’t want to miss the chance of documenting the experience; plus with my terrible memory if I don’t blog about it I will probably forget all the great moments!

There is such an incredible amount of work to do there is no way we would have managed on our own. Kerri & Marja have been invaluable in helping sort through all our class orders and get them ready for pick up at registration. Today we had a houseful of busy bees, a veritable production line putting together our Knit Nation shoppers and the bits and bobs that went inside.

We also have all our volunteer t-shirts and we had some fun modelling them.

And here we are modelling our Knit Nation totes!

The totes are part of some pretty great swag (if I do say so myself!) including temporary tattoos with the Knit Nation crest. And all our students, teachers, exhibitors and volunteers get rock star (ok ok maybe more rowing regatta/ascot but hey we’re all knitting VIPs, right?) style Knit Nation access badges.

Tomorrow more stuff to pick up and more papers to work through but we’re in good shape and we’re almost there. Yeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaw!

Landed in Ohio after a long but rather uneventful journey. Susan came to the airport to pick me up, and we headed to a local burger place called The Thurman Cafe for some incredible eye popping jaw dropping burgers. Now portion sizes in this side of the pond are generous – but these burgers were something else. We saw a guy ordering a ‘Thurmanator’ which was as big as his head. Susan and I ordered their more regular burgers, but these were both massive and we managed to eat half of our burgers only. Great onion rings! Then we headed back to the airport to pick Cookie up and head back to Germantown.

Germantown itself is a lovely little town – so pretty! Lots of wood and brick buildings that from the 1800s. Susan’s shop Ball & Skein is fantastic – a gorgeous treasure trove of fun and fab yarns and notions. Cookie & I went to knit night and met the nicest group of knitters. We also made a run to Dorothy Lane Market – which is an incredible foodie place. Kind of like wholefoods but local. We got two tubs of Jeni’s Ice Cream in Salty Caramel and Buckeye State (a great peanut butter chocolate chip), as well as their Killer Brownies in Peanut Butter & Original – basically rich gooey brownies with a layer of caramel! To die for. The ice cream is pretty amazing too – rich and delicious. Blows Ben&Jerry out of the water. Want to try Goat’s cheese & cherry next!

I am managing to stay up and not get up at 5am… the first night we were all up to 4am knitting and chatting. We’re here until Friday when we back to Columbus for TNNA’s summer show.

Happy Birthday Mom! Hopefully will get a chance to speak to you today, but if not, here’s wishing you a fab day, great weather, and a birdie or two!

The week has been hectic – haven’t had much time to myself, but it’s been productive as a whole lotta ticks got made on my to do list. Also managed to have some fun too! I finished a pair of socks and my long dormant not quite February Lady sweater.

Not Quite Lady Feb Cardi

Got some lovely yarns from Loop (they are having a sale on their Koigu! Dare I go there again pre their big move? I can hear my debit card groaning in pain already…)

Casbahx2, Madeline Tosh, Koigu KPPPMx4

And some yummy Loop candy that tastes like Popeye cigarettes used to when I was a kid. Totally my favourite candy ever.

Loop Candy!

Went to Knit Night down in the courtyard of Kingly Court with Da Girls! Including Tricia, Arianna, Kate, Nora & Tina. Kate got me some lab equipment for my next project, Nora brought me a foot, and I had my almost completed Skew sock number 1 with me, which, when put together, got a lot of strange looks from the neighbouring tables.

Mad Scientist with Sock

Tonight hubby is home from Jersey (I asked him to bring me home a cow, but maybe all I’ll get is a potato) and I think it’s going to be a chillaxing night in, knitting (for me) beer (for him) and a dvd for us both. But please let it not be Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy. I’ve watched 4 episodes of it and I still have no idea what is happening, and which bits are flashbacks and which aren’t. In the last episode I was confused when in one scene they said Control was dead but in the next scene there he was, alive and kicking albeit looking rather ill and crazy. Turns out it was a flashback, except there didn’t seem to be anything to let you know it was a flashback! Marja lent me Supernatural Series 1-4 so maybe I can get David hooked on that instead…

Phew! I always heave a sigh of relief when the bags and bags of silver Knit Love Club parcels have been sent off to the post office.  This month we also sent out last year’s Socktopus Club badges too so it was a fun little parcel we put together for club members.

The sun was out last week and the weather glorious. We are back to grey skies and coolish days.  So happy we took the time to enjoy the weather when we did!

Went to Loop yesterday (as well as last week) and bought a couple more gorgeous skeins of Koigu, of which they have a gazillion gorgeous colours.  I think you should stock up… because Knitting Daily is going to be coming out with a great sock pattern on the 2nd of June.  It’s one of Cookie’s and it looks darned cool. Am winding up my yarn so I’ll be ready.

Hi mom! If you’re reading, I’ll be home tomorrow so let’s speak then cause I keep missing you!

Jacqueline & Me

The week has been pretty busy – Jacqueline Sava of Soak was in town so we met up on Monday and headed up to visit a storage and packing company up Norff.

A lovely sunny day, if a little chilly, and it was quite fun to see how a warehouse works. Met Jacqueline’s sister and mom, who were Ottolenghi aficianados already on their first day of arriving in London. We went to Loop who will have Soak (including Unleashed!) at their new shop opening party in June, met up with Robynn and Claudia from Purlescence, and popped into the Make Lounge to say hi to Emilie and Jennifer.

Deuce managed to get conjunctivitis in both his eyes, so we made a couple trips to the vet last week too. Thankfully no ulcers and after a round of 4 different kinds of medication, each eye getting different treatment, it’s all cleared up and today he’ll be done with his final drops.

This weekend has been absolutely glorious – great big blue skies, sunshine and 30 degree weather. All the summer dresses are out, and it feels like we finally are moving towards sunshine and lazy afternoons in the park. Nights are still cool, thank goodness. This kind of weather makes me so happy. Yesterday we hung out with Clare who was back in town on a business trip. Managed to get some quality time in before she jetted off back to Tokyo. We went to J & A’s, where we soaked in the rays in their backyard, watching little Oliver negotiate the stairs, Sophia announcing that she was not Sophia but in fact Daphne. Paul wrapped her up like a wonton in a picnic blanket, and proceeded to bounce her up and down on an exercise ball, Sophia/Daphne giggling hysterically. Someone should invent a ride for adults that did that. So much fun!

Very excited about the feedback so far on the Farmer McGregor Socks. It is ridiculously thrilling to see people actually buying the pattern. Like my little baby has taken his first steps in the world. Glad you like the socks Debbie! And thanks to all for the lovely Ravelry comments too!

This week I’ll be packing up the May Knit Love Club socks, working on a pattern for my friend Tash’s sock club, the bonus pattern for the Knit Love Club, and the August club socks.

Marja will be happy to know I’ve completed my May finishes – in fact I have 2! A pair of socks and my not quite February Lady cardi. I had a moment of near disaster when I snipped off the button loop to redo it… and snipped a stitch from the collar instead which instantly unravelled. EEEK. Some quick grafting with a darning needle saved the day. Am happy to know I can keep my wits about me in the event of a yarn emergency, but rather disappointed to find that I’m a complete idiot with scissors. Photos to come.

I‘ve been working on these socks on and off for about a year now. My hubby inspired these guys – I’m always on the look out for a good stitch pattern that keeps my interest but is not too ‘girly’ for a bloke, since hubby can be rather picky with sock patterns. I got the thumbs up from him for these ones, so am rather pleased!

These socks are knit cuff down, and have a similar diamond theme to my FIL’s socks using twisted stitches too, but I think these ones are really the bees knees for variegated yarns.  The double lattice is a strong enough texture to hold its own against a cacophony of colour. Carrie knit up a pair in Wollmeise 100% Superwash Rhabarber, and mine are in Socks That Rock River Rocks. I think both colourways work really well, you can easily see the colour changes, as well as the stitch pattern. Check it out:

Socks That Rock in River Rocks colourway

Wollmeise 100% Merino Rhabarber colourway

The pattern is all written with one chart for the instep pattern. You’ll need:

Approx 437yd /400m of fingering weight yarn. Samples knit in Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash and Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight

Gauge is 9 sts per inch in stocking stitch, which gives a finished unstretched circumference: 7” (8”/9”). If your gauge is different, the sizing will, of course, also be different according to your gauge.

We knit the socks on 2.5mm needles, or appropriate needle size to get gauge. You can buy it now as a pdf download in the Socktopus Pattern Shop.