Ramblings from a local yarn store

By Craig Carruthers and Gerard Allt

Summer works-in-progress...

It may be summer but the boys from I Knit still have plenty of knitting projects on the go. Find out about the events you could get involved in this summer.

So, it's summer, right? Time to put your wool away, hang your needles up for a few months and wait for the autumn when the scarf knitting starts again...well, although it's not exactly hot, there's no reason why the knitting should stop for the summer. In fact, with festivals and fetes up and down the country there's never a better time to take your knitting with you and enjoy the sunshine. Here at IKL we're spending most of the summer working on two big knitting projects - The Great British Sheep and Knit the Aylesbury, and then there's the little something called I Knit Day

It won't be long before Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl McPhee) touches down on these shores and joins us for our second celebration of all things yarny. We don't often get retrospective, but when we think back to this time two years ago, we didn't even have a shop and we were spending every waking moment trying to sew up bits of blue knitting for the Knit A River project which was rapidly taking over our flat. Things don't change much - only this month we've launched two new knitting projects, which will no doubt consume the spare moments we have that aren't already booked by I Knit Day preparations. To think that within those two years we've brought Debbie Stoller AND Yarn Harlot to the UK, well, we don't big ourselves up much, we never call ourselves the 'biggest' this, or the 'best' that...but, for once, I think a small sense of achievement, nay, pride, is forgivable. Just who we get for our 2009 show is anyone's guess! (We have some ideas, but if we told you...)

"I Knit Day" is something we never thought we'd be saying - a shop was enough! But with new stalls and appearances confirmed every week, and with such goodwill from those taking part, plus support from those here at knitonthenet, it almost makes all that stress worthwhile...almost! But we're driven and there's always more time, always more stuff to be doing...

One of this summer's other projects is The Great British Sheep. When we were asked to run the knitting tent at this year's Camp Bestival in Dorset we jumped at the chance. But we needed a project that non-knitters could get involved with as well as those who were partial to a couple of sticks and a ball of yarn. We came up with a 5 feet tall wooden sheep, naturally.

We were on the bill alongside Kate Nash (a knitter!), Chuck Berry (and his Ding-a-ling), the WI, dancing of the ballroom and Morris varieties, cocktails, comedy and camping. Hundreds of people turned up to knit with us, including many new knitters both male and female, young and old, and the sheep began to take shape. You can see more images from this fantastic weekend on our Flickr page.

But an IKL idea isn't an IKL idea unless there's a POINT! The point of the GBS is simple - take a look close to home and grab yourself some home grown British loveliness. There are over 60 breeds of sheep native to the UK and the variety of wool is immense - it's not all itchy and scratchy; it's lustrous, it's soft, it's cosy, it's colourful, it's very special and it's on your doorstep - but we challenge you to find a few balls at your local yarn store! From the Shetland Isles to Cornwall, our Great British Sheep will have a unique 'knitted fleece', made by knitters using only 100% British wool. We've had great help from farmers and small indie yarn producers up and down the land who have generously supported us so far - take a look at the list of sheep on the website to see who gave what, and if you can fill in any of the gaps then please do get in touch with us. Support our sheep! We'll be taking our sheep to a number of events over the summer and we'll be showing people what British wool is really like, teaching people to knit and crochet as we go.

If the GBS is a project celebrating the diversity of wool from the whole country, our second project is a much more local affair. The sprawling Aylesbury Estate in Walworth, South London, has stood for over forty years and has seen all life; births, marriages and deaths and has been home to tens of thousands of people since 1963. Now due for demolition this iconic and infamous London landmark will live-on in knitted form. Throughout July and August there will be free workshops and community sessions for knitters new and accomplished to take part in this one-off project. Being involved in something so local and community-based is heart-warming to us, especially in a city as vast and seemingly impenetrable as London. What amazes us the most about projects like this one, and a similar project by the Benwell Knit n Natter group in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to knit the West End of the city building by building, is the way it smashes through the still prevalent knitting stereotype. Knitting as art; knitting as social commentary; knitting as activism.

We find those tags misleading though - to us it's all just knitting; after at least a thousand years it still takes just two sticks, a ball of yarn and a little imagination to create...anything!

Related links:
www.iknit.org.uk/iknitday.html
www.iknit.org.uk/greatbritishsheep.html
www.iknit.org.uk/aylesbury.html

Gerard Allt and Craig Carruthers run I Knit London, club shop and sanctuary, 106 Lower Marsh, SE1 7AB
visit the website at www.iknitlondon.com or read the I knit blog.

Tickets for I Knit Day on Saturday, 6th September, 2008 at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London, can be obtained from the iknitlondon website.