May 9, 2008

the joy of the unexpected

I woke up this morning with absolutely no intention of going to the knitter's weekend out at the Dowse...until i got (woken up by) a text from my mum telling me that i was allowed to sit it on my Grandma's workshop this morning if i wanted...i wanted! So after some quick rearranging of my day, i was out the door in record time and out to the hutt for about the fifth time this week (i'm getting to know the Dowse to Petone interchange works really well, i tell ya!). 

The workshop was an introduction to lace knitting, something i'd had a go at before but had left to one side since. My reward for going? A copy to borrow of the Knitting Sutra - Craft as a Spiritual Practice by Susan Gordon Lydon and copies for my own of Mary Thomas' Knitting Book and Book of Knitting Patterns. Stoked! The covers of the two Mary Thomas books are great, and they have all these cute little cartoons and illustrations...which you'd know if i hadn't dropped one of my rechargeable batteries somewhere not to be found when trying to put them back in my camera.

 I got to see the inside of Knit World's new knitting studio and had to force myself to stop looking because, my goodness, the yarns in there are delicious. Much, much higher quality than what is stoked in the shop and a wall full of fantastically geeky knitting tools...I managed to leave with only my last balls of yarn for thermal and a set of bamboo double pointed needles - why bamboo? Do i really need bamboo? Uh, no. But there they are in my bag anyway. Ha. 

After the workshop i tootled off to the New Dowse and drooled over more yarn (please santa, bring me a sack of organic merino!), met Mel Clark who co-wrote this book, and was pleasantly surprised by the number of young'uns there. I was most impressed by the blind lady knitting, and a couple of guys dotted around the place. One, admittedly, was wearing a skirt. You see it all in Lower Hutt...

My job in the next hour is to have another crack at knitting with dpns, so that i can get some grandmotherly advice on technique tomorrow. 

Keep warm!

1 comment:

Louise said...

Sounds like you had fun! I was away at a wedding out of town and was a bit disappointed I missed the weekend. I agree with you about the Knitting Studio - I find it hard to leave there without spending $$