Helygen Celli

Handwerkbeurs / Fair

Yesterday I was at the Handwerkbeurs, a craft fair, in Zwolle, invited to be present at the sock knitters table. With the  knitted socks and some hand dyed yarns and photobooks I presented my three sock patterns. I was a lovely, yet very impressive day. There were a lot of visitors and a lot of people interested in knitting socks.

In the Netherlands most women are familiar with knitting socks with four large needles tucked under their arm. Knitting with little bamboo or wooden needles or a circular needle isn’t common practice, not to mention knitting a sock toe-up or even two at once.  Luckily there is an avid sock knitting community in the Netherlands, active knitting in public to demonstrate how socks are knitted nowadays.

That’s what I did yesterday most of the time; showing people the techniques and methods. Explaining the advantages of methods and materials. Enthuse people to start knitting socks themselves or trying a new kind of needle or technique. Showing the ease of knitting socks with a circular knitting needle, while talking to people, convinced them to give it a try. I think the circular knitting needles sold well at the fair :-)

Besides that, I helped some people with their knitting problems. How to avoid holes between the gusset and heel, how to work cables without a cableneedle, choosing yarn for specific socks and so on.

Being at the craft fair also means buying new stash (of course!), talking to shopowners about the new materials and books, meeting people from Ravelry and other groups in real life. Sharing stories, showing the new bought stash, looking at each other knitting projects ….

I didn’t notice any effect of an economical crisis yesterday;-) Actually, I save my money to spend it on the fair.

Bart & Francis had a large booth with their amazing yarns. I bought four cones for a weaving project, it will be a throw or be worked in a weaving for a jacket. Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions for tree skeins of Evilla artyarn for weaving a ruana in some nice green and purple colors. I preordered some stuff at Wolhalla; a few balls of Trekking sockyarn for knitting stranded socks, the book the Eclectic sole, a nice purple pin for my wraps.

Marlies showed me the supersoft Mini Mochi yarn of Crystal Palace.  It wasn’t on my shopping list …. this gradient striping soft single spun yarn in green and purple I couldn’t resist. Neither could I resist to buy a ball of Classic Two (Kaalund Yarns) in the color lavender at the booth of 7 katten (7 cats)

On my list were  Knitpro needles points, circulars, cable connectors and tiny glove needles, so I had to visit Yvon. Glinster sockyarn (80% alpaca / 20% silk) is such a tempting yarn, new in the Storm in the Attic collection. It is just a must have! I still have about four or five different types of undyed SoZ yarns in my stash, waiting to get dyed for a specific project. I love to touch and feel this yarn every once in a while, dreaming of the perfect colors, the perfect garment …..

Al those new yarns , I like to get them on the needles right on.
This weekend, I’ll be browsing Ravelry for the perfect patterns ;-)