Haiti Fundraiser Tea Party

It's been so long since we blogged, I can hardly believe it. To offer a brief explanation, running I Knit takes a lot of time and effort and it's difficult, sometimes, to keep up with all the the blogs tweets, ravelry, updates, newsletters, organising events, managing events, stocking the shop, selling in the shop... we love it, though, and we wouldn't change any part of it - except maybe the blogging part, we should not have stopped.

Anyway, we got out of the habit of blogging and it's been a little difficult getting back into it. However, here we are, blogging! Hurray.

Last Saturday we had a fantastic afternoon tea party. We love the tea parties. They are full of friendly faces, knitting, tea and cake. The regular tea parties happen for a number of reasons -book launches, celebrations and, as in the case of last Saturday, to raise money for charity.

IKL were very saddened by the earthquake in Haiti. We donated a bit of money to the relief fund and later thought we could do a little more by organising a tea party to raise more money.

We asked people, as usual, to bake a cake to bring along to the party. The cakes are then shared among the people who come along and each person pays a little for the tea and cake they consume.

This party was over-run by cake. So many people baked cakes. Cakes in all shapes and sizes. There were flapjacks, fruit cake, rum and chocolate drop cake, chocolate and beetroot cake, cup cakes, brownies, biscuits...I could go on.

After a few hours of eating cakes and a little bit on knitting, after the word searches, pass the parcel, guess the name of the teddy and the marvellous raffle we managed to raise the incredible sum of £650.

Thank you so much to everyone who took part. We had a brilliant time and I am so proud to have been part of this event.

It's important to remember that the people of Haiti are living an unbearable nightmare since the eathquake and we hope that the money we raised will help towards making life a little easier. We donated the full amount to MSF. You can donate if you follow the link, now.

You can see more photographs here.

Woolly weekends in West Cumbria

What a scorcher! It's been a HOT weekend and it's getting hotter. Where we were on the hottest weekend of the year so far? We were surrounded by fleece, having a woolly time at Woolfest; we were working on a Whopper and paddling at the seaside...

Woolfest takes place every summer in a glorified cattle shed on the outskirts of Cockermouth in Cumbria and it's our favourite knitting show of the year. With a leaning towards natural fibres there's a huge amount on offer, as well as alpaca and sheep to 'ooh' and 'ahh' at. They always look a bit bored of the camera lenses poking into their faces, or maybe it's just embarrassment at the new short back and sides. This year we spent all day Friday and a little bit of Saturday touring the stands, meeting friends and having a good natter. Gerard was especially (and surprisingly) restrained this year, although his first purchase (cashmere laceweight from Knitwitches) was enough by itself to break the budget. The portable Ashford spinning wheel was calling to him but I persuaded him that we could probably do without it right now! You can see all of our Woolfest photographs in our gallery.

We made more of our weekend away as an excuse to have a short break too. I'm a local lad so we met up with friends and spent the rest of the weekend in their back garden barbecuing veggie burgers and drinking organic pear cider and gin. It was lovely just spending time in the frsh air with only the bees, the chickens and the home-grown salads for company. And Ann and John, of course. On Sunday we made the pilgrimage along the Solway coast to Allonby, a one street village with sea views and a ninety-year-old sweet shop called Twentyman's. Their legendary Allonby Whoppers are a challenge to even the biggest ice cream fans (and the biggest gobs).

Whenever we get the chance to get away from the shop Gerard makes the most of it knitwise. As I'm the designated driver it's his chance to sit back and relax for a few hours and get some knitting done. Gerard gets his best knitting done on the M6 and it's seen some of his best work over the last few years on trips to Liverpool and Carlisle! This year is no exception. Aptly, on the journey up he made headway with Jared Flood's Girasole shawl (pictured) - for sun-worshippers everywhere, this circular laceweight shawl is named after the sunflower. He's knitting one up using a natural, undyed laceweight from Garthenor's organic British wool range. Chris from Garthenor was at the show and was delighted to see the yarn in progress. On the way back to London G started on an ambitious multicoloured intarsia hat from Charlene Schurch's Hats On! collection, using the glorious JC Rennie 4 ply that appeared in the shop last week. While I was contending with the worst hailstorm I've ever had to drive through and 3 mile tailbacks, G only had about a million ends to contend with.

Craig

Knitting in public and hunting sheep...

Saturday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day and knitters the world over were out and about doing their thing. Here in London we hosted our second IKL Treasure Hunt, sending teams of knitters and their friends scouring the streets of the capital looking for sheep, answering our tricky questions, popping balloons and knitting at all sorts of places.

The theme this year was sheep, and over the last two weeks we've been searching high and low for them. There are surprisingly quite a few dotted around London, from pub signs to historic monuments. The Treasure Hunters visited the 17th Century Painting Rooms at the National Gallery to track down Rubens' A Roman Triumph (pictured); they headed east to St Paul's Cathedral, via the historic Fleet Street and Covent Garden; north to Lamb's Conduit Street, the Lamb pub and Coram's Fields; back south to Waterloo, Lower Marsh and I Knit London. It was brilliant to see everyone - almost 100 people took part, with 30 teams traipsing around the capital. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was great to see some teams taking it so seriously!

There were some highlights of the day - Rowan, the phantom balloon burster - did his best all day with quite a few teams making it as far as the end of the street before their balloons (worth an extra 5 points!) were a goner! But he had his comeuppance in Bloomsbury Square when his attack was thwarted by the WNKers team (pictured) who were ready to defend their honour at any cost. Bottled water was involved and it was a nasty skirmish that left the enemy deflated and sodden. For those who think it wasn't worth the fight...the WNKers were overall winners by four points, so that balloon was all-important! (Just to clarify one thing...the team name refers the the Wednesday Night Knitters...OK?)

Part of the challenge was to keep knitting, and the longest scarf of the day went to Denise and Christine, with an astonishing 94 inches! Looking at their answer sheet we do wonder if they did actually do any of the other bits of the Treasure Hunt, but we have some proof they did. They are pictured here (surprised) at Middle Temple Lane on Fleet Street where they were struggling to find the answers to some fiendishly difficult clue whilst being distracted by the wine shop.

As well as answering the questions and hunting the sheep, we had knitting on Routemaster buses, knitting with naked people, knitting with celebrities (a low count this year with only Richard Madeley and Neil Pearson cornered by over-excited ladies with needles exposed), knitting on things, in things and around things. Looking at the photos when we were adding up the scores it seemed like everyone had a wild time - the naked cyclists were especially popular!

But there could only be one winner. As mentioned earlier the WNKers took the title with an amazing 83 points. It was a close call for second place but Team Amethyst took it on the tie-break with a longer scarf than third placed Team Tired. A very special mention must go to team Hobble On who were only half a point away from the medals, in fourth place...and one team member was on crutches for the whole thing! That's dedication for you. Also to The Anzacs, made up of two stragglers with no team to go to - Sarah from New Zealand, and Carol from Australia (pictured). Congratulations to everyone who took part and a huge thanks for making it such a good day.

It took a while to get the score on the doors, but, in the meantime everyone enjoyed the rest and the fresh air out on Lower Marsh, with a few pear ciders and some chocolate biscuits.

You can see all of our own photos on our Flickr page, and, if you took part please upload your own pictures (we really want to see grumpy Neil Pearson!) to the I Knit on Flickr group. If you can't do this, please email your pics to us and we will post them up for you.

Now, what shall we do next year?!

Mickey Mouse knitting...

No, we're not being rude! Today we had a visit from the delightful Debbie, all the way from Florida. We knew Debbie was on her way as she posted in the Ravelry group and got quite a few folk excited about the prospect of bringing over from the States a supply of Cinnamon Tic Tacs. She brought those...and a special gift that could only be Floridian: a set of Mickey Mouse knitting needles and a Disney Learn to Knit book!

We've given the needles to Gromit who sits atop our fish tank and we hope Nick Park doesn't mind. They are brilliant! Thanks Debbie for popping in to see us and I hope you had a great trip. Send us a postcard from your part of the world when you get home - we collect 'em you see, especially if they have sheep on....are there sheep in Florida or do the crocs eat 'em all?

Not just knitting...

Because IKL started as a knitting group all those years ago, one of the things we've always tried to do is keep that social aspect of knitting. When we first opened the shop it was important that there was at least a little space for some bums to rest and some drinks to be drunk. That's where the Chesterfield came into play and comfy it is too. Over the past couple of years the shop has changed but we've made sure that there's plenty of other stuff going on in there as well as just selling wool.

Last night was no exception. A couple of years ago one of our regulars, Justine, suggested starting a book group. We were happy to provide the venue and see how it went. The Kniterati was born and it's been two years in the running now and with only a short break during the summer of 08, we've been having a bit of bookish banter every month. Last night's meet-up saw 18 folk knitting, crocheting and discussing Mrs Pettigrew Lives For A Day. Gin martinis were available (I think a themed drink and nibbles may well be in order for all future meetings) and when I arrived late it was all over bar the martinis! It's so reassuring to see the shop being used as we intended and to see everyone feeling at home amongst friends and strangers and yarn. We've recently opened up The Kniterati Book Group to everyone via the new blog where you can sip your own gin martinis and take part wherever you may be. Head on over there now to find out what the book for July is - the next meeting is on Tuesday 7th July...

Another one of our events looms large when Worldwide Knit in Public Day arrives on 13th June. The first time we took part in this global knit-together we headed off to Trafalgar Square and had altercations with security guards who were confused about our intentions! We said we were just knitting, they said we were performing without a licence. Much hilarity ensued. Last year we decided to take the whole thing a bit more seriously and launched the world's first ever knitting treasure hunt*. We had brilliant number of teams who headed off across London in search of celebrities, policemen, woolly things and more, all the while knitting scarves and carrying yellow balloons (as you do). So this year we're doing at again! It'll be a much more leisurely affair, with a sheepy theme. Teams of 2 to 4 people are welcome to join in. See the Treasure Hunt website for full details and come along on the 13th for a sheepy stroll through London town and back to ours afterwards for some prizes and a party! If you're not in London you can check out the WWKIP Day website to find (or start) and event near you.

So, you may well ask if we ever actually do any knitting in between all this nonsense...? Yes,we do! Maybe not as much as we want to...but we do!

*as far as we know?

Sunshine, sheep-shearing and SE1...

We've been a bit quiet of late here on the blog, mainly due to all the other stuff going on! Gerard has taken to Tweeting on Twitter and has been distracted by the new high-tech till in the shop (it does barcodes and everything don't you know?) and we're still working on getting the online shop up and running...it's coming soon, we promise.

Despite all of these distractions we've had time to hold the charity tea party last weekend which raised over £450 for Diabetes UK, from the sale of raffle tickets, cups of tea and cake! Thanks to everyone who popped in on the day and to all those who baked cake and donated prizes. It was a brilliant day all round and we're looking at hosting a regular tea party now and then as anything with cake involved seems to go really well.

We're looking forward to the summer now. It's been a scorchio weekend here in London. Yesterday we tottled over to Spitalfields City Farm in the East End for their annual Sheep and Wool Fayre. We love city farms. We urbanites should do all we can to make the most of such oasises, especially those of us who live in blocks of flats with no green space. Their herb and veg garden put our window boxes to shame! There was a bit of sheep-shearing (Sophie the Southdown looked massively relieved to get that jumper off), felting, spinning, knitting and cakes, of course. It was slightly devastating to see that a huge swathe of the farm had been commandeered by TFL for the East London line extension. I'm only ashamed to say we'd never been before.

With the temperature rising we can't wait for the festival season. We'll be off to the Lake District again this year for Woolfest at the end of June (as visitors only) then in July we're hosting Camp Bestival's knitting tent again. After the success of George, The Great British Sheep last year we're preparing for a deluge of activity. This year's line-up (as well as us!) inlcudes Kid Creole and the Coconuts and Chic. Discotastic! A knitting tent in the grounds of a castle by the sea in Dorset. What's not to love?

Visitors continue to arrive from far and wide to our little IKL. Holiday season in London brings a fresh influx of foreign fibre fans by land , sea and air. We love meeting so many knitters from far flung lands. Last Thursday's knit night was overflowing and we set up a couple of outside tables to cool off as the sun set. It's a peculiarly English thing to make the most of what you've got....we haven't got a paddling-pool yet but with a bit of knitting, a bottle of cider and a bowl of pear drops...well, just close your eyes and you could be a million miles away from SE1!

Diabetes UK

Today we are celebrating Diabetes UK 75th year with a tea party (including lots of cake) and a raffle to raise some well needed funds for the charity.

Without hardly enough time to breath after the Race For Life event - for which the I Knit team have so far raised £4,000!!! - we begging for money again.

To entice the £££ from you we have managed to secure some brilliant prizes.

• gold dial phone and jewelry from Radio Days, Lower Marsh
  
• silver picture frame from Phillips Frames, Lower Marsh
  
• precious stone tea light holder from Phillips Frames, Lower Marsh
  
• afternoon tea from Greensmiths, Lower Marsh
  
• £10 book token from Crockett and Powell
  
• manicure voucher from Angela's Nails, Lower Marsh
  
• book voucher and yarn voucher from I Knit London
  
• luxury afternoon tea for two at The (soon to be reopened) Savoy hotel, The Strand
  
• champagne at The National Portrait Gallery Panoramic restaurant
  
• signed copy of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
  
• Two tickets for the ultra-hip Shoreditch House Literary Salon hosted by author Damian Barr, including cocktails
  
• Four tickets to see the Tiger Lillies in their show Shockheaded Peter at the New Players Theatre, London
  
• A bumper breakfast hamper from Grasshopper organic porridge
  
• selection of signed books from award winning novelist Stella Duffy…and a visit to your book club from Stella herself!
  
• signed copy of Allegra McEvedy’s acclaimed cookbook, LEON
  
• Two top-price tickets for Sister Act: The Musical at the London Palladium
  
• £45 voucher for Outsider Tart Bakery
  
• £50 voucher from Search Press

We also have lots of cakes, some of them kindly donated by Konditor and Cook and The Primrose Bakery. Amy Lamé has even baked some brownies!!!

So, what are you waiting for, get down to Lower Marsh!!!

If you can't make it, raffle tickets can be purchased pver the telephone for £1. 020 7261 1338

Gxx