Yes, totally unwound, as expected. The unwind event was fantastic, beyond fantastic, amazing and wonderful and exciting and and lovely ..... and well just plain old great. I'm still smiling, and happy at all the friends I met, and made and saw, and talked with, and all that was on offer. I didn't take a camera, somehow I forgot ... but I'm also a bit wary of posting photos of people and their stuff public ally without asking. Some how I never seem to get to the point in the conversation where I ask for permission to blog a photo I'm making ... so I just avoid it altogether. Unwind involved three full days of doing stuff, I turned up at 8:00 am on Friday to help with the set up, and it was full on after that. I was but a minor part of the event and totally take my hat off to The Vintage Purls team, M, Mr K, A and J, as well as all the local helpers who made the event run smoothly and were just friendly, amazing and non-flustered at all times.
Most amazing was that Little Cub, was the youngest Unwinder there. Oh there were younger people but none were registered as part of the event and none were knitting non-stop. While I was off teaching steeking Little cub found a stand with knitting and decorating supplies, patterns for Owls and hearts, and knit an Owl to hang on the tree. in the round, mostly all by herself, totally without me! Then she knit another and started a third! I also knit one, but mine pales in comparison to hers, and she won a skein of lace merino fingering yarn, for the largest Owl. Funny thing is that she was in the process of knitting an even larger one. Mine is the sleepy Owl, I went a tad crazy with beading the beak and adding tufts to the ears and tail, and thought that Owls slept during the day so avoided making eyes altogether.
My classes, Steeking and Bookbinding seemed to go well, no one gave up, or announced that it was all too difficult. I tried to explain that I'm the kind of teacher that believes that improvement comes with practice, and that learning is the most exciting when one gets to do something real rather than mess about with fiddly little practice tasks. For steeking that means that I aim to have my class cutting up my steeked sample within the first 10 minutes of class, and stitching their sample in the first 15 minutes. Half way through the class time the students are unhappy with their first edge, but then we move on to the second steeked edge and things get more complicated and easier at the same time if that is at all possible. By the end of the class my aim is to have students who know they can go away and do at least as good but probably better next time they steek. Bookbinding went a little the same way ... at great speed. We had 12 bound books all done a little over 3 hours into the class - and again most seemed ok with the idea that this was a skill that could be improved with only a little practice, most were talking about the 'next' book - which was magic to hear.
My other role for the week was to run the SwapShop with Sharon, and so we did. Friday we traded in a whole mountain of yarn, we seemed to have more yarn on our table than many of the traders! Saturday the shop opened for sales, using special Unwind Vouchers, earned thru donating yarn to the shop. By midday Saturday the table was pretty much cleared. The luxury fibres went to those who love special stuff. The fluffy stuff, and there was a lot of fluffy stuff, went early and easily to those who like fluff. The pink stuff went to those who lusted after pink, ditto the red, and yellow and handspun, and sock stuff. By Sunday my Swap shop role was done.
This was my big splurge, a new spindle, the one with the Sinister Raven. I was dithering over some of the bird Spindles that Sourkraut had on her table, and made the mistake of asking which one I should choose. Sourkraut replied that the Raven or even the Sinister Raven, with its beak facing left, was one she thought was ideal for me. That was that, after knowing about the Sinister Raven the decision was made. The raven is now home and seems to be eying up the cute silver bunny that I brought back from the last visit to a trade table stocked by Sourkraut.
With the spindle purchase out of the way I did spurge on yarn, there is a mixture here, four balls of Rowan organic cotton from the Swap shop, a cardigans worth of Blue faced Leicester fingering weight yarn from Verandah Yarns in a lovely red orange named Elizabeth Bennett. I bought a skein of Merino Silk fingering weight yarn from Spinning a Yarn in the perfect blue to match little cubs eyes, Waterman - that will become a wee shrug or short sleeved cardigan or even something like a lace warp for Little cub - this is same kind of yarn she won for her Owl, but that skein was in pink. I sucumed to James's beautiful yarn as well, and bought a skein of Merino Mania Fibre Alive from Joy of Yarn, in Ranger (Batch 3).
And this is the results of my class with James on making and using one of Kaffe Fassets Magic yarn balls. The class was amazing, and this swatch dosn't do justice to the range of yarns we had to pick from or the generosity of the knitters who shared and offered advice and just had fun in selecting 7 or 8 colours to knit with on a plain background.
Sorry the post is a bit jumpy, and bitsy, I'm still tired and happily recovering from all the fun, and missing my weekend sleep in. I'm so looking forward to next weekend when I get to be at home an sleep in Saturday and Sunday.
I'll link to posts about Unwind 2012 as I find them or as people let me know here,
Veranda Yarns Unwind 2012,
take care .... more next weekend.
Stella
Most amazing was that Little Cub, was the youngest Unwinder there. Oh there were younger people but none were registered as part of the event and none were knitting non-stop. While I was off teaching steeking Little cub found a stand with knitting and decorating supplies, patterns for Owls and hearts, and knit an Owl to hang on the tree. in the round, mostly all by herself, totally without me! Then she knit another and started a third! I also knit one, but mine pales in comparison to hers, and she won a skein of lace merino fingering yarn, for the largest Owl. Funny thing is that she was in the process of knitting an even larger one. Mine is the sleepy Owl, I went a tad crazy with beading the beak and adding tufts to the ears and tail, and thought that Owls slept during the day so avoided making eyes altogether.
My classes, Steeking and Bookbinding seemed to go well, no one gave up, or announced that it was all too difficult. I tried to explain that I'm the kind of teacher that believes that improvement comes with practice, and that learning is the most exciting when one gets to do something real rather than mess about with fiddly little practice tasks. For steeking that means that I aim to have my class cutting up my steeked sample within the first 10 minutes of class, and stitching their sample in the first 15 minutes. Half way through the class time the students are unhappy with their first edge, but then we move on to the second steeked edge and things get more complicated and easier at the same time if that is at all possible. By the end of the class my aim is to have students who know they can go away and do at least as good but probably better next time they steek. Bookbinding went a little the same way ... at great speed. We had 12 bound books all done a little over 3 hours into the class - and again most seemed ok with the idea that this was a skill that could be improved with only a little practice, most were talking about the 'next' book - which was magic to hear.
My other role for the week was to run the SwapShop with Sharon, and so we did. Friday we traded in a whole mountain of yarn, we seemed to have more yarn on our table than many of the traders! Saturday the shop opened for sales, using special Unwind Vouchers, earned thru donating yarn to the shop. By midday Saturday the table was pretty much cleared. The luxury fibres went to those who love special stuff. The fluffy stuff, and there was a lot of fluffy stuff, went early and easily to those who like fluff. The pink stuff went to those who lusted after pink, ditto the red, and yellow and handspun, and sock stuff. By Sunday my Swap shop role was done.
And this is the results of my class with James on making and using one of Kaffe Fassets Magic yarn balls. The class was amazing, and this swatch dosn't do justice to the range of yarns we had to pick from or the generosity of the knitters who shared and offered advice and just had fun in selecting 7 or 8 colours to knit with on a plain background.
Sorry the post is a bit jumpy, and bitsy, I'm still tired and happily recovering from all the fun, and missing my weekend sleep in. I'm so looking forward to next weekend when I get to be at home an sleep in Saturday and Sunday.
I'll link to posts about Unwind 2012 as I find them or as people let me know here,
Veranda Yarns Unwind 2012,
take care .... more next weekend.
Stella
2 comments:
And the little cub was so well behaved. And her hand work is a credit to the teaching ability of her talented mum.
Hop to see her and you at next years Unwind.
Frances ( Motherof5 )
It sounds like a marvellous event! Congratulations on the successful classes. And I love thinking about Younger Cub making her way through the event as a knitter in her own right. Also? That Sinister Raven is fabulous :)
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