WWKIPDAY June 2016

Well, you might ask what exactly is a WWKIPDAY?  It is World Wide Knit in Public Day where knitters and crocheters from all around the world get together on the same day to knit and crochet.

WWKIPDAY was started in 2005 by Danielle Landes and it is the largest knitter run event in the world.  Needless to say it starts in Australia and the Pacific and follows the sun to finish on the west coast of America.  It takes place in Europe, America, the Arctic Circle, the Pacific region, Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean.

We held our event at Theatre at the Mill, Mossley, in the foyer of the theatre where there is a lovely coffee shop appropriately called Yarns.  Twenty eight enthusiastic ladies came and chatted, knit and drank coffee or had lunch.  There were experts and novices, an eight week old baby and an 84 yr old lady with all ages and levels of expertise in between.  We had new faces and familiar faces and plenty of promises to keep in touch.

Two committee members of the Antrim and Newtownabbey Arts and Cultural Committee were also in attendance and they hope to feed back the success of the day to the committee with the intention of holding some other 'woolly' events in the future.

Always good to be ahead with your projects

Our youngest attendee who modelled a section of a new blanket

  

This item has become known as 'The Bernard'

  

 

Arts and Cultural committee members

HAPPENING TODAY!

Today from 11am to 2pm at Mossley Mill in Newtownabbey (BT36 5QA for satnav!) we will be celebrating World Wide Knit in Public Day. And the sun is shining! Pictures to follow very soon- hoorah!

How to Crochet Corners

Since we moved house two years ago I have thought that it would be A Good Thing to make blankets for all our beds. I'm not claiming that these would be heirloom items, treasured for generations, but you know, nice ones to match the boys under said blankets. I'm not sure why I recently and suddenly embarked on Son One's last month. It could quite possibly be that the sight of so many unfinished projects overwhelmed and I needed, absolutely needed desperately, to start something different!

There seem to be three main criteria:first  there must be turquoise and red rounds, and second the blanket must use of lots and lots of wool from The Basket. I make no claims of A Stash. There is nonetheless a basket, and 'twould be good to use up bits and pieces, of the turquoise and red varieties in particular. The starting circle was one left over from the only blanket I have yet managed to produce for our Tanzania link, so the blanket did at least start as I mean to go on!

The last complete round is in a gorgeous petrol blue from Debbie Bliss's Rialto DK. Oh my goodness how I love this yarn. Being such a novice compared to the rest of you, I am impressed that I have a favourite yarn, but this one thrills. The threads bounce between your fingers, as if filled with air. I was also not a little pleased with the shells that I managed to cobble together- the third criteria seems to be that all the rounds are as different as my very limited repertoire can make them.

Which led to a dilemma. How to crochet the corners? Which then led to the dilemma you all helped me with last night: how to progress from favourite shells in favourite yarn without dimming the glory of both? Which made me think about how to crochet corners. Not the actual crocheting of a corner, but the finding of little corners where you can sit with like-minded folk and learn to crochet. How-to-crochet corners.

It has been a thing of great blessing for me over the wondrously many years we have been crocheting corners and more together: this sitting together on Wednesday nights through times of illness, of babies, of school issues, work issues, life issues, hooking (and knitting for the truly accomplished) and chatting and quietly supporting.

So, thank you for my corners (all of them)!