After lunch on the Thursday I went to my first class of the event. Each class is 3 hours although there are also some double classes which are 6 hours long. There are 7 slots for classes (one on Thursday, and two each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) so a maximum of 21 hours of classes. I signed up for all 21 hours since it is a long way to travel and a great opportunity to take classes from so many different teachers.

My first class was Collar Obedience Training with Maureen Mason-Jamieson (she is in the pink below).

We learnt about the different sections that make up a collar and the properties and functions of each section. In the class we knitted a shirt style collar for a round neck cardigan, but Maureen’s notes had a lot of information on how you could adapt this for other situations. The collars we knit did, sit, stand, and roll over on command as advertised!

Good fun and the instructions were well written and contained a lot of information. I haven’t really knitted collars much but really enjoyed this one. I think also it will be an interesting alternative for a neckline. I have a rather short neck so polo necks and high rolls don’t look good (and also prevent me turning my head around which is a little irritating – you may have noticed I am not into suffering for fashion 🙂 ), but I like the way this collar adds interest while also lying flat at the front.

Also on the right hand side of the sample you can see where we had a go at a double pick up. This is a technique where you pick up stitches on both sides of your edge, so enclosing the edge of the knitting – good for an edge where both sides will be seen. I will definitely be using this edging on cardigan bands in the future.

After the first workshop I went to a talk given by Kaffe Fassett.

Apologies that the photo is a little blury. Flash wasn’t allowed, and Kaffe moved a bit fast for my camera in that light.

This was the first time I had ever heard Kaffe talk, he is very engaging and an entertaining speaker. He talked about his new book Kaffe Knits Again, but also more generally about designing in various media and about his life as an artist and designer. He has an exhibition coming up in Bath that he mentioned but he didn’t say where, I think it was going to be some time in the new year so I will try and find out more information. He has a totally different approach to knitting to me, he isn’t really at all interested in the technical side (which I find fascinating), but it was really interesting to hear him talk and to see his slide show of his work and inspiration, a totally different perspective on knitting for me.

After the talk it was time to make a beeline for the opening of the market. The market opened for 3 hours on Thursday night just for people who were registered for classes. Then was open generally Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This is the snaking queue of knitters waiting for the doors to open.

Every one was very well behaved and queued nicely, and there was no utilisation of sharp elbows, although there was a bit of a stampede to the Blue Moon Fiber Arts stand. Photos weren’t allowed inside the market but suffice it to say while it wasn’t as big as Ally Pally, there were certainly a nice lot of stands to visit selling a good variety of bits and pieces. More on the stash aquisition in a later part.

There was a KnitU meeting in the market later on that I had really hoped to go to, but was unfortunately too wiped out to manage. So I crawled off to bed at an appallingly early hour, so as to be prepared for the delights of Friday.

This message has also become rather epic, so I will save Friday for the next post, and go and sort out some more of my pictures. I am hoping to put them all in a flickr set when I get my act together, but it may take some time.