Sunday, September 19, 2010

Iknit Weekend 10th September

Following a very last minute decision on Thursday at 5.30pm, I decided to jump on a train on Friday morning and head to the Big Smoke. Alone.

So the plan was to take a train to Paddington, get a Circle line train to Victoria, then walk to IKnit venue using printed directions. Easy Peasy.


If only...

So the train to Paddington is OK, apart from a debate with fellow passengers regarding booked seats, but that got sorted. I even managed to update the website on the train, so that was cool.

London Underground - not cool. In fact very humid and hot, and Circle Line & District Line cancelled due to signalling problems. Very not cool. I don't think I've been on the Tube before on my own either.

So after much confusion I picked the Bakerloo line and made my way down to the platforms. As I looked to my right I could see a Bakerloo Line train about to leave. What the hell...if's it's going the wrong way I'll just get off and come back down the line. No one will know or notice.

Yeah...that was until I ran onto the train, jumped through the doorway just as the beeping for the doors to close started, only to forget that I had a backpack on that was currently stopping the doors from closing. I was pinned against the door, with the London tourists and business people either ignoring me or simply Not Noticing. I couldn't move my arms and taking off the back pack I figured was a bad idea as it would likely drop on the platform and the train would leave with my bag stranded. So I'm still pinned there, now crying 'help!'. A kind businessman opened the doors and released me from my predicament. Oh the embarrassment. I was thinking, 'This train better be the right one, or maybe I should just get off at the next stop in any case'.

It was the right train and I decided that I had provided some entertainment for the passengers and I couldn't be bothered to get off until I got to Victoria.

The walk from Victoria to the venue was fine. A part of London that I haven't been to before. I knew I was in the right place when I saw this:


I spent the afternoon volunteering on the p/hop stand with Clare and Alex before another Clare arrived :-)

All About P/HOP

P/hop is charity knitting project that raises funds for the emergency medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders.
And it goes a little something like this…..
Incredibly generous designers donate their time and knitting patterns to p/hop. These patterns are then available for you to download here. The idea is you donate based on how many hours of pleasure you’ll get from knitting your p/hop pattern. There is no set price for a pattern; you can donate 50p or £50. It’s entirely up to you – P/HOP = PENNIES PER HOUR OF PLEASURE!
You can donate in pounds here or in dollars here.


It's a brilliant idea and I will certainly be downloading patterns for my next knitting project.

I really enjoyed the experience and it was a bit unnerving to start with to try to remember everything that I needed to say about p/hop and Medicin Sans Frontieres, but by the end of the afternoon, I think I had improved.


Atomic Knitting donated some knitting gift bags to the raffle and here's Clare and Clare drawing and announcing the raffle.


I also got a chance to meet a number of vendors and customers including Anne from Artisan Yarns, Ruth and Belinda from Knit Expo, Jon from Easyknits, Suzie Johnson and Marianne from Picperfic's Fluff n Stuff....phew and so many other customers that I met on the stand! Thanks for stopping by for a chat!

I purchased some yarn too, and am in the middle of knitting it up right now, so pics to follow.

I should mention too that I've set up a Ravelry group here, for those interested in keeping in touch with Atomic Knitting updates and also the Bridgend Knitting group

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