Weekend 2 at the shop

The shop has been full of activity this weekend with lots of people coming along to learn how to knit and crochet, how to  follow a pattern and i demonstrated lots of new techniques to jazz up their tea cosies.
Over the weekend we have had around 40 people in to the shop to find out more info and to take part in the project.

One of the most wonderful comments, which I have heard a few times from different workshop participants over the past few days, is that this project has inspried people to pick up their needles again after not knitting for years, it didn;t take long for those people to rememeber how it's done!

Many people have said that they thought no one knitted any more, that they thought it was a forgotten craft and that it's really nice to see this project happening in their town centre. I'm really happy that through this project people will continue to knit, some ladies have even said that they would like to start their own knitting club in their local communities after attending the workshops.

Here are some snaps from over the weekend:

Participants ::

Sarah and Lorna from Burnley attended the Learn To Knit Workshop on Saturday and did extremely well learning how to cast on, knit, purl and cast off. Sarah also learned how to add in a new yarn colour and says she would like to make a stripey tea cosy.

This weekend I've had a few ladies from my local knitting club in Salford working in the shop with me. Jan (who writes the blog: Enthusiastic Crochetoholic) has been with me for the whole of the three days has been crocheting and knitting away and is on her 3rd tea cosy already!!

Marie, also from my knitting club, come along to the shop today. Marie always takes part in my community knitting projects and is always really enthusiastic about taking part.  She is making a tea cosy from my 'Tea Cozies' book called 'Counting Sheep' - i can't wait to see how it turns out.

Artist Liz Noble visited the shop to make a tea cosy with her mum and friend - they are making a collaborative piece for the project. Liz is the artist who will be covering the bandstand, opposite the shop, with knitted leaves and flowers for the Big Knit event on June 19th.

Cosies ::

Valpuri Vihriala (who writes the blog: Purlpuri Handknits) is based in Manchester and is currently creating her final installation for her Interactive Arts Degree at Manchester Met University. Valpuri is an artist who works with knitting and crochet as her primary medium and commented that this project had given her a well earned break from her uni work! She is currently making a strawberry themed tea cosy.

This wonderful tea cosy has been crocheted by Jan and has been inspired by a particular tea pot from the Towneley collection which has a scalloped pattern in the ceramic design.

 I knitted up a fuzzy green tea cosy today and trimmed it with a brown crochet ruffle. Lots of people said that this particular tea cosy has a quirky personality about it... i'm not sure why! but was flattered by the comments.  I was inspired by the earthy tones and colours featured on some of the Towneley Tea Pots and by some of the decorative trims painted onto the tea pots.

Thank you to every one who came along to the shop this weekend, i'm really looking forward to next weekend when we shoud have some more stunning tea cosies to show. I have given out lots of patterns to people interested in the project but unable to attend the sessions in the shop.