Knit Nation, Day One

On Thursday morning I got up alarmingly early (for me, that is!) and schlepped across London to get to Imperial College. At 8am I registered for my classes at Knit Nation! The first day was an all-day session with Nancy Bush learning about Estonian lateral braids and wrapped nupps. It was amazing. We learned a braided cast-on that took about two hours to learn, five different lateral braids and practiced working wrapped nupps over the course of 6 hours. I'm quite pleased I managed to finish the sample, since the needles I brought weren't working with my yarn and I had to borrow some. I wore my sage-green shawl, which Nancy seemed tickled about - it was one of her designs! She's a fabulous teacher, and I hope she comes back to London some day.

I had also indulged in a trip to the marketplace preview, where there was an entire stall of the fabled Wollmeise yarn! I've never seen so many amazing colours in one place. Foolishly, I left my camera behind for the weekend, but here are pictures of my two skeins of yum.

I also hit the Fyberspates stall for some spinning fiber and came away with this bag of roving. One of the fibers they produce is a blend of wools, silk and sterling silver filament called "Sparkle". They had 100g bags of ends of rovings in a mix of colours, perfect for sampling and making a special little something.