The Alexandra Palace Knit And Stitch Show
On
Thursday 10th October 2013 my Mother and I went to the
Alexandra Palace knit and stitch show. We both had a wonderful time
and I can not wait to go again.
We
awoke at around 6:30am and got ready, then my Father dropped us off
at the train station so that we could catch the 8:15am train. Our
travel time was an estimated hour and a half. We then arrived at
Euston train station in London, before catching a taxi and arriving
at the show for 10:30am.
The
first thing when we arrived outside was a taxi, in a completely
knitted cover. When I talked to some of the people who did the cover
they revealed that they were a knitting group called materialistic's
who had undertaken the challenge on behalf of a new author who's book
comes out November 2013. The project had taken the group
approximately six weeks of which they had the taxi for a period of
two days. The taxi itself was covered with brightly knitted panels
and decorated with little knitted creatures like ladybirds or
caterpillars with French knitted words along the back of the sides.
The knitting was very well done and you could see that they had put a
lot of time into it.
Materialistics website: http://susan-mcbride.wix.com/materialistics
Materialistics website: http://susan-mcbride.wix.com/materialistics
F.A.D website: www.fad.org.uk
When
we arrived at the workshop we saw that it was being ran by a group of
about five different university students who all worked with FAD. The
first thing they did was ask my Mom to sign a piece of paper whilst
one of the other girls asked me whether or not I could knit. When I
replied that I could they were all very surprised.
I
wheeled up to the table and they gave me a selection of different
patterns from which I could chose one to try. I chose the bow tie
necklace that I would then make whilst my Mom went and had a look
around.
The
first step was to make a plat long enough to fit around my neck,
before moving on to the next step that was to knit a rectangle.
Finally make a second plat and tie it around the rectangle to form a
bow and pining it to the longer plat. This is your finished necklace.
The
girls were all very impressed with my skills . Then we signed the
last of the papers before carrying on with our day.
The
next thing we did was have lunch which was a sausage roll for myself
and a Cornish pasty for my Mom.
Once
we had finished our meal we continued to look at the stalls set up
around the hall. There was a great variety of things either on sale
or at least on show. I brought several balls of wool in different
colours like red, purple and even multi coloured for Harley Quinn,
Lockheed the dragon and my Mermaid respectively
Then
I went to a workshop that my Mom had signed me up for earlier in the
day. It was learning how to make a mouse with Vanessa Mooncie a new
author who has recently published her new book on crocheting animals.
She was a really kind person and I even got to ask her a few
questions like: How long have you been crocheting for? She replied: I
learnt to crochet back when I was a young girl but never really got
into it until about ten years back. I also asked her what is your
favourite thing about crochet? She replied: My favourite thing about
crochet is probably how portable it is as you can take it practically
anywhere with you. I really enjoyed the workshop and had a lot of fun
whilst making my mouse (named Marshmallow).At the end of the workshop
if you had not already completed your mouse you were allowed to take
the pattern away with so you could complete it at home.
Her website: www,vanessamooncie.com
Her website: www,vanessamooncie.com
When
we finished at the workshop we continued to look around the stalls
that shelved everything from wool and embroidery floss to buttons and bejeweled crochet hooks and knitting needles. It took quite a while
for us to get around simply due to how many stalls there were and how
busy the show was. There were quite few people crowded with in that
room.
Then
eventually when we had manage to look at, at least most of the stalls
when went into the hall opposite and began to look at the exhibit.
Though it was mostly knitting it was still very impressive to see all
the different styles and stitches on show. The exhibition was made up
of several different exhibitors including the
London
School of Fashion. Fashion was most defiantly the item that was on
show the most but it was interesting looking at the different jumpers
and other items on show.
The
last thing we did was look around the last few stalls before we
caught a taxi to the train station, had dinner and headed home.
As
I have previously stated I very much enjoyed the show though the only
problem was that the hall was far to crowded and to a wheelchair user
like me this could become very distressing. Another problem that the
two of us encountered was that the only way that the Alexandria
Palace was in any way accessible was via taxi though I understand
that this is not the organiser's fault. There were many workshops
going on throughout the day and with more awareness we would have
been able to attend more. The stalls themselves were all lavishly
decorated with different items and I believe that there was something
there for people of all skill levels.
Overall
I can honestly say (as previously mentioned) I very much enjoyed the
show and hope to go again.
