Knitting & Stitching Show in UK
This past weekend, my business partner and I attend the Knitting & Stitching show that was held in Alexandra Palace (nicknamed Ally Pally). The venue is in North London and is some 7 acres in size and is surrounded by 196 acres of parkland! Generally there are picturesque views of London. However, it was very overcast the day we arrived (luckily, the next day we spent in London was beautiful).
The show is subtitled “The Best Textiles Exhibition in Europe.” While I have nothing to compare it to, I will say it was a fantastic show. I was very impressed with the quality of work, the originality of it, the huge number of vendors offering all types of stuff — a wide range of art supplies, unusual yarns, beautiful threads, fabrics, and so on.
When I think knitting, I think afghans and the like. Yet the knitting on display at the show was jaw-dropping. Look at these dresses! Wow!
Like with the Birmingham Festival of Quilts show, the show features many individual white-walled galleries for individual artists or an artist group to display their work.
I’m told they generally get over 40,000 visitors. At times the crowds very dense. I later learned that the best time for shopping is very early or about an hour before the show closes.
Ruth Isset of Art Van-Go was demonstrating various surface design techniques.
A close-up.
Frances Pickering was signing her new book, Page After Page, on journals. It’s a fun book that illustrates her approach to journal making.
The wonderful Maggie Grey was demonstrating and selling her books, including her latest Mixed Media: New Stuido Techniques (another winner).
Above Gwen Hedley is selling and signing copies of her book, Drawn to Stitch. I ordered my copy in the States. She tells me it’s a different version, with American spellings and such. It’s also a softcover while the one she is selling is hardback. The photo above shows many of the pieces that appears in the book. She was very happy to allow photography (as were most).
A batik demonstration.
I also met a woman, Jamie Malden, who hosts Talking Threads, a UK TV show. She was lots of fun and we had a lot of laughs. I’ve got to get the photo of her up here. In the meantime, you can learn more about the show here.
All in all, it was a great show! I came away feeling creatively recharged (which is always a good thing) and with lots of goodies. Tomorrow I’ll be heading back home to NJ. Hopefully later in the week I’ll post more pictures of the weekend adventures (alas, the rest was all work, work, work).
October 12th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
inspirational stuff! Lucky you to be there and see it all.
October 13th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Love the photos, Gloria. The work done looks innovative. I like seeing work in many varieties of textile work. Thanks for posting these photos.
October 14th, 2010 at 8:29 am
Gloria- man, you SURE do get around! Good for you- looks like a real blast!
October 14th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Wen, it seems that way, but remember I’m going there to work, too! :) Rosemary, yes there was some very inspiring pieces there. Jane, yes, I feel very grateful that I had the opportunity to see it. There are a couple of those shows yearly. I’m going to try to make a point of seeing one each year. We’ll see!
October 14th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
This looks like it was a marvelous show – would have loved to see the vendors! And buy every single book! I’m jealous!!!
October 15th, 2010 at 9:52 am
It was an excellent show! And, I confess, I did buy several books. The threads and yarns were scrumptious. I bought a couple hanks of silk, thin yarn that will be fantastic for stitching, and it was extremely reasonable, even considering the exchange rate).
October 27th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing show with us Gloria, it looks incredibly inspiring.
November 1st, 2010 at 2:17 am
My pleasure, Judy!