My in-laws visited London recently and it just so happened that the Stitching and Knitting Show coincided with their visit. My mother-in-law is an avid quilter, knitter and cross-stitcher, so I figured she'd enjoy the show. I hadn't been in several years because it seems I can't resist temptation. In previous years I'd go thinking, "I'll just look," but I always came home with bags of yarn that I loved but had no immediate plans for (and we all know what that means... it sits in a bag in the closet for years, untouched). I have spent the last five years avoiding Ally Pally, trying to work through my stash instead of adding to it. As Grandma DeeDee is rarely in town, I decided to take her and I braced myself for the spending spree to come.
Held once again at Alexander Palace, the show was an old familiar friend. Not much has changed since I last attended. There were still row upon row of vendors selling everything imaginable from quilting squares, notions and buttons, to knitting needles, patterns and sewing machines worth more than a small car. There were still the three-foot-high piles of bagged wool on the floor at the massive Black Sheep Wools stall. Women (and a few men to be fair) waded and pawed through to find deals on the yarns they love: Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Sublime, Louisa Harding, Noro (which I bought) and more. Then there were the galleries with the really amazing "artsy" museum pieces (a few pix below). And finally, the workshops, fashion shows, etc. All very familiar.
Color
I love the color at this show. The whole thing is a bit sensory overload. Found these pieces in the Gallery area and took photos just to remember the color combinations, which I loved.
Also love looking through the quilting squares (Liberty fabric or colorful batik prints are my favorites), often organized by color scheme or ROYGBIV. Then there were the balls of yarn spilling out of half-price bins or bagged up in stunning combinations of color and coupled with a fair isle pattern. Funny what the eye is drawn to and how different it can be from one person to the next. I love the combinations above, but sometimes found myself questioning others. Funny how we can be drawn to such different things.
Shading
Took photos of the needlework on these two cuties... the shading, which my horrible, rushed photos don't show well, was absolutely incredible. It was like the shading you do on an oil painting but done with thread.
I suppose like anything, there's a huge difference between the average Joe who does some knitting and needlework, and the artists who did these. Part of me would love to be snarky about some of the tacky, kitschy stuff that people make or sell, especially after seeing what real "art" looks like, but I suppose the point of handwork isn't always the artistry of the end product, but the simple act of creation. Sometimes the function of a piece is more important than how unique or special it is. Sometimes the point is in the doing and the learning, not in the beauty of the finished piece.
Just yesterday I was trying to explain that to a friend who was given some lovely yarn years ago that she doesn't know what to do with because she doesn't really knit. She brought the wool and a foot of a scarf on needles into work to show me. She hadn't touched the scarf for many years. It was riddled with holes from dropped stitches toward its start, but the knitting smoothed as the piece neared the needle. She doesn't have a burning desire to knit. It just doesn't seem interesting to her, but I encouraged her to give it another try, to continue for a while longer on the scarf and once she remembered what to do and the stitches once again smoothed, we could frog this mess and start again. I remember back to my first end products. So proud of them, even though they were a mess. And I WORE them! I didn't care what they looked like; I was proud that I had created something.
These shows remind me that we're all in different places in our knitting or quilting or crafting lives. The final product doesn't have to hang in a glassed frame on the wall to make it worth doing. It was incredible to see so many people finding joy from the act of creation (or at least from the act of buying the materials to create).
Hoping my mother-in-law enjoyed her visit to Ally Pally. We both left with a couple of bags. Tried to leave only with yarn I had a plan for... wish me luck getting through these new projects.
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