I’ve been dying to tell you all about my trip to the knitting and  Stitching Show at the RDS last Saturday, but had to wait until the magazine went live on Thursday.  We had deliberately set our publication date for after the show, in order to shine a spotlight on the event, so I’ve had to stay shtum until now.

It was rather a long day, having set off at 6.15am to meet my fellow knitty friends at 7.15 in Midleton, where we caught the minibus to take the 12 of us up to Dublin.  The weather wasn’t so great on the way up, and after such an early start, it was important to stop off for refreshments.

Having arrived in a very wet Dublin, we filled in past the poor people patiently queuing for tickets in the rain and headed in our separate directions.  Some of us had booked into workshops, others just wanted an opportunity to peruse and some of us even managed to pop along for a quick visit to This Is Knit to make a couple of purchases too.

I don’t think I’ve ever visited the Knitting & Stitching Show on a Saturday before, having had the shop in the past usually meant I’d get to pop up on a Sunday, when it’s a little quieter.  Saturday was heaving and there were times when it was a little difficult to move.  That number of people in a confined area is also going to mean warmth and boy was it hot.  There were times when I’d have merrily stripped off and I did remove all knitwear, after I’d met the people I had wanted to.

Talking of meeting people, I bumped into so many people that had been customers of mine in the shop and I was sad not to have enough time to catch up properly.  I even found Moya from Patchwork Plus – Look at the stunning quilts behind her.

Having visited a good number of yarn festivals now, I had felt the RDS show to be somewhat lacking in the past and was worried it wouldn’t have enough to hold my interest for a full day.  However, I was thrilled to see that there was a real buzz about the place and the energy of the visitors just added to the feeling.

The exhibitions were incredible as usual, with such a variety of things to see and delight over.  I always think it’s important to remember that the items on show are the exhibitors work and although invitingly tempting to touch, it should be avoided.  I did notice one or two people unable to resist stroking, pinching and rubbing the displays and I also saw how agitated this made the exhibitors.  It would be a shame if this put people off of showing there work in the future or if the work had to be cordoned off.  Maybe, bigger ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ signs will be needed in the future to serve as a gentle reminder.

There seemed to be a good number of workshops timetabled in, with all of them selling out quickly.  Some were a little oversubscribed and space was at a premium, but I imagine this was probably an oversight.  It would be great to know which classes were the most popular, so groups and teachers could work on trying to get courses in these areas together to run throughout the year here in Ireland.

There were of course lots and lots of lovely, pretty things to tempt the Euro’s from your purse and despite having tonnes of stuff already, I did succumb, but only a little.  How restrained was I?

The linen type fabric was from Fabric Time and I’m going to make a smock apron dress thingy with it.  No doubt they’ll be leftovers and I’m hoping to use them to make little lavender sacks for my friends (at some stage).

The sari silk scraps and lime green fibre are to have a go at making some felted fabric.  I absolutely adore sari’s and would love to wear one all the time.  The colours and designs are truly inspiring and I’ve always been interested in crafting with these fabrics.  So when I spied the Felt Creative stall I knew now was the time to try.

Of course there must be yarn and the hank of lovely rainbow goodness is from A Fine Fish Yarns who are based in Belfast.  A latecomer to the RDS, three weeks notice I think, the stall was a riot of colour to tempt.  I’ve bought it with socks in mind, but it may well become a shawl as it’s just so pretty.

The green fibre was a freebie for taking out a membership to the Feltmakers Ireland guild.  I’ve been following their exploits for some time now and thought a membership might be  good way to stay up-to-date.  Although with all my fibre exploits, I could probably do without another addiction.

That awesome ball of turquoise and cream fluff, is 200g of merino fibre bought from the Bronte Glen  and I haven’t got a clue what it will end up being, I just had to have some.  I’m really looking forward to spinning it, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten, it may end up being knitted, woven or just looked at for a very long time.

What you can’t see here in the photo, is the lovely bundle of scraps and off-cuts that I bought from the Magee Weaving stand.  Their wool fabrics are beautiful and the stall was decorated with all of their bags, cushions and patchwork ideas.

Having checked the Magee Weaving website I’ve found they do sell their fabric in bundles of fat eights, patches and lengths, but haven’t found any information regarding the kits and off-cuts so I’ve emailed them and will update this post when I hear back.

As I said the day was a long one and we were all very grateful for being able to sit down and relax whilst Dave, our lovely bus driver delivered us home safe and sound in what can only be described as ‘shocking’ weather conditions.

I say home safe and sound, but of course I still had to drive from Midleton to Lismore 😯

If you’d like to read a little more about the Knitting & Stitching Show in Dublin, pop over to our magazine article here.

Happy Fibre Crafting!

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