This was the third year I've been to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. This year I went on the Friday after the insane crush of last year, and it was much calmer. Apparently the Wednesday was even better. Somehow I only had time to see most of the exhibition and about half of the shopping stalls.
The Knitted Flower Pergola was the first exhibit in the foyer - I loved all the details like these budgies! It was a community knitting project to raise funds for Livability John Grooms Court, a home for disabled adults in Norwich.
Just like last year, I was drawn to Ann Small's exhibit. Her "A Walk On The Wild Side" collaboration with Sue Walton included several flying beasties which I wanted to take home. She uses potassium permangenate to colour her fabric rather than tea as it can be bleached back with lemon juice - I mostly remember potassium permangenate baths as a kid for my eczema so am glad there was a happier use for it.
Another highlight was Caren Garfen's exhibit "She Was Cooking Something Up". This consisted of a stitched kitchen showing stats and messages about women's body image - it was pretty hard-hitting at times.
I spent quite some time in the felting exhibition (including laughing at the giant genitals of the "Lust" figure from the Seven Deadly Sins). One of my favourites was the teddy skull (Ursulus Teodorus Ruxpinus) by Stephanie Metz.
I'd seen pictures of the Hobbit knitting by Denise Salway ("The Knitting Witch") all over Instagram so ran around at the end trying to find it. Denise was really friendly and Smaug was so cute in his tiny knitted glory!
I think next time I'll try to go for a couple of days so I can do some classes, spend more time looking at the exhibits and do some leisurely shopping. I'll need to catch up on lots of my UFOs before then to make space in my craft room...
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