Postcard from London (Part 2) and Stitches SoCal
Updated: Jan 14
As we head into Thanksgiving week, I want to express gratitude and thanks to all of you for being a part of this community. Wishing you a wonderful holiday - and I hope you have so many people around your table that your chairs don't match! Thanks so much for your interest!
We're still talking about London, because - using our daughters' semesters abroad as a pretext for parental oversight - recently my husband and I paid a visit across the "Pond" to check up on them (wink, wink) and have some fun of our own. We visited our daughters, some friends, and generally enjoyed ourselves. We ate good food, checked out a couple of museums and went in search of fiber arts.
I had read that the Victoria and Albert Museum has an interesting fashion and needlework collection and I was not disappointed. Here's an assortment of what I saw - very interesting lacework and hand knitting.
Their costume collection was also quite interesting.
My daughters and I visited the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studios and went on their self-guided tour. We found a reasonable amount of fiberwork there as well. After all, Mrs. Weasley did make all those Christmas sweaters!
Shortly after returning home, Stitches SoCal came to town. This was the second year of this now annual event, which is held at the Civic Center in Pasadena, CA. I enrolled in a class on sequence knitting with Cecilia Campochiaro and a class on technique with Patty Lyons. I gained so much information from both of them and would recommend either of them as teachers, if you ever have the chance to join one of their classes.
If you've never tried sequence knitting, it's worth a look. I knew of it but had never tried it. Cecelia explained the process very well and brought a lot of beautiful samples. It's amazing to see how the texture of the fabric changes simply by shifting a single knit or purl stitch in the design.
Next, I had a class with Patty Lyons, who's a true expert on technique. Since I was home-taught as a child and re-taught myself as a young adult, I thought I could use a tune-up. Boy, was I right. It's a bit humbling, but also energizing to learn from such a master.
Here are some of Cecelia's samples and my new technique for holding yarn.
I plan to practice both sequence knitting and the tweaks to my yarn holding technique by making dishcloths. I started making hand knit dishcloths several years ago and I love them. It's time for some new ones - and they make sweet little stocking stuffers as well. I'll dive into my Dishy stash and see what colors look good together.
Happy knitting!
Lois