Girls Just Wanna have fun!

We had a fabulous time in Darlington and were treated to the most spectacular northern hospitality by the Chris (Rowan Consultant) and Steven (Binns Store Manager). It was fabulous to finally meet Emma, Sissel, Chris, Geraldine and Kerrie.

And they say, women can't keep secrets

The Liberty Rowanettes decided to spring a little surprise on Emma, Sissel and Chris. In the guise of, Polly is coming to Darlington alone, I secretly conspired to coordinate the trip with several of the Liberty Rowanettes. This involved, digging around trying to locate email address, etc. since the event could not be posted to the Rowan Forum. After finally getting together a preliminary list, we tried to get tickets... which proved a bigger challenge than originally thought, since the cheap tickets were listed but not available. Finally, after a spate of email we were finally sorted ... and tickets were distributed.

The morning

Who could sleep? The excitement of a rail trip, the thought of yarn, meeting other Rowanettes, fear of missing the train? Need I say more?

We met up in Kings Cross, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Bags filled with all the knitting we were going to do (d'oh! why did I bring charted knitting with me? Like I was going to gab, read a chart and knit on a moving train?) To add excitment to the trip, GNER allocated our seats in 2 carriages (what! on a block booking?) I had to suddenly become very New York and send a lady scurrying away so that Jacinta did not have to go to the other carriage. Sam added a bit of excitment to the journey, by flinging herself into the train, about 2 seconds before it started moving.

'Are you a knitting circle?', asked one of the stewards on the train. Sarah politely, replied, 'Yes, we are travelling up to meet some other knitters'. I was thinking (rather mischeviously, 'No of course not, you mean you don't usually see 7 or 8 young women knitting on your trains?)'.

Finally we arrived. Here's the proof.

Sam, Jacinta, Jill, Amelia, Wendy, Sarah

I wanted to claim credit for this photo opportunity, but it wasn't my bright idea to take this photo, it was Jacinta's. Hey, credit where credit is due.

Girl Guides

Good thing Sarah and Amelia were there to sort us out...left to my own devices, I would had either stumbled around lost in Darlington, or gone and got myself a taxi (see last week's trip to Caterham). Clutching a copy of a streemap.co.uk printout, they led us straight to Binns.

Darlington & Binns

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got to Darlington. I mentioned that I was going to Darlington to a few colleagues at work, who immediately replied with rather rude comments about the visiting 'rust belt' and sucking of air through teeth, about how dangerous it is out there at night and the lager lads. Of course, I didn't tell them that I was going up with a bunch of knitters to meet another bunch of knitters that we knew from the internet... there just isn't enough hours in a day to get them to understand this...and really, I wouldn't want them to hurt themselves when they fell out of their chairs.

There was a lovely market outside of Binns and the girls found a used book stand and got a copy of Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Knitting and an Edina Ronay hardback knitting book at bargain prices.

Binns has a lovely wool department. The shelves are immaculate, well displayed and the lighting is fabulous. There was ample supply of Rowan, Jaeger and Patons...lovely knitted samples and wonderfully knowledgable staff. We were also treated to a lovely tea in the Gold Card Lounge and visited by the charming Steven, who was very surprised to hear about the raid from the London Knitters and even more flattered to be visited by a Norwegian knitter.

Kerrie actually found me in Binns. Left to my own devices, I might not have found Binns at all. It's hard to find anything, when you're floating on a cloud.

The Knitting

Sissel is an extremely skilled knitter. I can only aspire to fair isle as she does. You can always tell a knitter from a non knitter. Hand a non knitter a garment and they would look admire and hand it back to you. Hand it to a knitter and they would look, admire and then turn it inside out to check out the steeks, whether you weave or carry your yarn, knot or splice and check out the stitching. So, we all poked and prodded the lovely traditional fair isle that Sissel made Oliver. It was really beautiful.

We also passed around Emma's shawl. She spun the cashmere and merino yarns herself. It's wonderfully soft in a heathery taupe. The spinning is very consistent and I couldn't find a single point where the yarn might had been joined.

I got my hands on Geraldine's Alfie bag. She got the same shades as I did last year, a browny colour and peach. I thought they looked horrible together and gave the wool away. In actual fact, the colours went together very well. So maybe next time, I'm going to trust Rowan in their colour choices.

Chris also showed us some lovely bags that she made using Paton's 4 ply. I'm inspired to try out some of her ideas, since I love doing little bags. She also reworked a Louise Harding design from the colours book. Her colour sense and knitting skills and no-nonsense attitude is just want you want from a knitting consultant.

Here's a shot of most of the knitters. I wasn't bossy enough and certainly didn't have the foresight to take a photo whilst everyone was there... but before we all melted into the night ....

International Knitters meeting in Darlington...
Sissel, why are you hiding behind Jill and Geraldine?

The time just flew and before we knew it, it was time to go home. So the morale of the story is.... don't invite me to join you for an afternoon of knitting, I might just bring 10 or 20 people with me :-0

Posted by atu at September 28, 2003 05:17 PM