fibre flurry

A few weeks ago I went to a fabulous knitting event in Birmingham – Fibre Flurry.  I know I’m not British, but I’ll willingly travel for knitting.

I left home at stupid o’clock in the morning in order to collect the lovely Clare, who was heading up for a day of promoting and fundraising for p/hop.  I’d never been to Birmingham before, but the journey was mostly motorways, and it was mostly dark so Clare did a great job of keeping me awake.  After a gratefully appreciated breakfast, we set up the p/hop stand.  Not knowing what I was doing, I was pretty useless as an assistant, but we got it all in order just before the crowds arrived.  Yes, there were crowds at opening time!

All those beautiful knitted pieces that you can see are actually samples of the patterns that various designers have donated to p/hop.  Clare was working on a stunning pair of Cranford Mitts; one was finished and blocking on the window sill whilst she sewed in the ends of the other mitt:

(to see the pair being beautifully hand modelled by myself, visit Clare’s Ravelry project page).

Not being well at the time, I spent chunks of the day hiding out in dark corners to get a rest, but it was also an amazing day for catching up with knitting friends.  It’s odd to think that I travelled to the midlands to meet up with London knitters!  But then, travelling across London can easily take just as long.

One key reason for heading up was to see Andy being presented with the Barn Raising Quilt that a bunch of us had worked on after a fire destroyed much of his wool stores.  We had a color theme of blues and greys, so I’d knitted one in dark grey:

Unfortunately I was having another one of my sit-downs when the blanket was presented, but Tina captured the moment beautifully:

My only concern now is that I’m fighting the urge to make a whole blanket myself (in red sock yarn) but I’m pretty sure that I would never finish it.  There’s something about the idea of seeing neat little piles of knitted squares that appeals to me.