I have lots to tell you – I’ve finished Geno and started a new project. But I’m not going to tell you about that. 😯

Yesterday, I, and a large proportion of the knitters in this part of the world, went to I-Knit Day!!

I had a heck of a lot of fun 😀

Here we go, a potted account of my day.

I went to I Knit Day and…

• Resolved that I had too much yarn and mustn’t come home with any more. I amazingly managed this feat but kinda fell off the wagon in other knitterly spending ways…
• Met up with all the Guilty Knitters at Victoria Starbucks and had a very enjoyable “knit ‘n’ coffee” session to start the day off right.
• Got wet walking to the show and queuing in the pouring rain to get in.
• Met up with “my fan base”  in the queue. I was thumped for being “insufferable” and having “Yarn Harlot delusions”  by the other  Guilty Knitters when I used that phrase )I should say, “met up with online and offline friends in the queue”! They either recognised my face or from the freshly completed Geno I was was wearing!(Sneak previews of me wearing Geno in the photos – I’ll blog it properly next – I promise!  Big hello to Rita, Yvonne, Feltboots, Josiekitten and Sairia **Susan Waves across the Interweb**
• Collected every free badge I saw

• Groped lovely sheepy yarn
• Bought some 2.25mm Lantern Moon Sox Stix- a luxury but I have a project in mind that needs this size DPN and I don’t have them and the baggie was so pretty and it makes sense not to have to pay postage and the socks will go quicker on these luxury needles and……enough justification yet?? 😛

• Queued in the rain and got very wet to get into the Yarn Harlot talk. She is a funny, engaging and intelligent speaker. I was rapt throughout but particular by the fact that the brains of Knitters, along with meditating Buddhist  Monks,  use theta brainwaves. This is the brain state you are in when you are driving down the motorway and realise that you have no recollection of the last 50 miles! I loved being in the middle of a huge group, all knitting and intently listening – the only sounds were the Yarn Harlot’s voice, the driving rain and clicking needles 🙂

• Walked up the road for a coffee and got wet and bedraggled.  Are you noticing a theme here? Judie, Uknitty and I found a little cafe where the “very nice man” took our photo for us.

I made the mistake trying to take a photo of myself. I don’t photograph well. I am seriously NOT photogenic. Judie says I have a demon troll living inside me who can only be seen in photographs. I prove her right with this awful photo of me, apparently smuggling a spare buttock under my chin.

• Made a donation to Breast Cancer Research in exchange for a go on the  4 meter knitting needles. That’s right….4 METER NEEDLES!! I bet this doesn’t get taken on the train….

• Then I went and groped more yarn. For variety, I groped some fabulously soft roving – I wanted to buy some just to pet it but I was worried Thug would get jealous.
• Listened to a talk by Jane Waller about the designs in her book, A Stitch In Time. An interesting talk, marred by the awful acoustics and having to strain to hear. Do you remember my Top Secret project? The sample I knit that I couldn’t show you? It was for this book when it’s revised and republished.
• Groped yarn – again….
• Learnt how to make tiny Teddy Bear and Barbie sized buttons from Fimo with Sandra Polley, author of The Knitted Teddy Bear (a book on my Christmas wish list) and spent a long time AHHHing at the display of the Bears from the book.
• Watched the  Stitch in Time fashion show. Garments made up to preview the publishing of A Stitch In Time – due out 13th November 2008. Guess what? Top Secret was there!! And even better it was the finale of the show 😀

  

  I even got a piccy  standing next to Susan Crawford of KnitOnTheNet who was modelling the garment.

  Full piccies and detailswhen the book is out.

  

• Nearly flipped when  I saw that the I-Knit stand had ALL of the Barbara Walker Treasuries. I have wanted these for years but hadn’t been able to find them. I had a major moment of weakness and bought all 4 of them 😳

• Bought a yarn harlot book and queued, knitting of course, for 50 mins to get in signed by the author.

She stayed till gone 7pm making sure everyone who wanted an autograph got one. That’s dedication – Thank you Yarn Harlot

• Had a final grope of yarn
• got very wet going home (again) but didn’t care – I’d had a fantastic day

😀