Powerscourt Townhouse

Yarn Tasting 2012 can really be summed up by that picture: lovely new yarn and fibre, and it’s hers, all hers!

We were so excited as 7.30pm approached on Friday – we had so much to share with you and so much to talk about. We gathered in the Powerscourt Townhouse Theatre for the first part of the evening (the same space we’ve used before, though it’s now a rather spiffing performance space used by Jig), and it was on with the show.

We had not one, but two eminent guests – Carol Feller and Ysolda Teague. Carol was at last year’s Yarn Tasting, so she talked about what she’s been up to in the last year. It won’t surprise you to hear that she’s been busy – she launched a new collaborative project with Hedgehog Fibres on Friday (we’ve got kits for the hat pattern all made up for you), and she’s now got a craftsy class for this gorgeous cabled cardigan:

There were also lots of Ravi cardigans in the audience – you’ll remember that Carol had a KnitALong to celebrate her 100th pattern and that we had a chance to see it during her workshop back in May. Lisa was wearing hers, and we kept seeing them walking by:

Our next guest was Ysolda Teague. She’s a true knitting superstar, having built an international reputation with her charming, innovative and colourful patterns. Her talk to us was fascinating: it detailed how she had come to be a knitter in the first place (because of a doll unfortunately named Annabel), and how she’d embarked on a career as a designer.

The only really committed knitter in her family was her grandfather, who learned to knit while serving with the RAF during the Second World War. The picture above shows the two of them, both wearing garments he’d made. He was with us in spirit, I think.

If you’re on twitter, then you may have noticed #yarntasting trending in Dublin on Friday night – we were all encouraged to tweet with that hashtag, and hence there was this sort of thing happening all over the place (and if you’re not following us yet, we’re @ThisIsKnit – it’s a great way of getting our news very fast indeed).

As the samples of yarn were handed out, each member of the audience got a sheet of paper with ready-attached strands, so it was easy to record first impressions as we knit with them.

As the weights of yarn were distributed and eagerly pounced on, we got to see sample garments made up from each. For example, Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk is what was used for this garment. If there’s a sweeter poncho available, we’d be very surprised.

As you arrived, you received a This Is Knit goody bag, with a copy of the Debbie Bliss magazine and a raffle ticket. Then, right through the evening, tickets were drawn for really excellent prizes, ranging from special skeins of Malabrigo to jumper quantities of Studio Donegal Merino 2-ply. (If you won one, we’d really love to see what you make with your well-gotten gains!)

Then we went downstairs for the second part of the evening: hanging out in the shop, knitting at the tables outside, trying on Carol and Ysolda’s lovely garments on the balcony, with refreshments served by Rónan and Liam, our delightful barmen.

In the shop, there were a lot of happy people with wide smiles and arms full of new yarn. It’s going to be a very warm and colourful winter.

On the balcony, there were heaps and heaps of the garments we’ve admired online and in books – lovely sweaters like Ysolda’s Chickadee…

…and literally piles of mittens and hats and shawls…

And quietly overseeing it all, James McCullagh’s breathtaking staircase ceiling in the original Powercourt townhouse. It’s one of the world’s great Georgian buildings, and we get to have our friends over to visit.

We’d like to say a very big Thank You! to the Pepper Pot, to Jig, and to the staff and particularly the security personnel of the Powerscourt Centre. It was a wonderful evening, and you all made it easy.

We’re delighted to announce that This Is Knit’s Yarn Tasting will be on Thursday September 8th, from 5.30pm till 8.00pm.

This will be the third Yarn Tasting – the first was in 2009 (you can see Julie’s stunning pictures of the night at that link) and last year’s was bigger and better (Julie’s blog has memories here).

As before, the loft upstairs in the Powerscourt Centre is the venue, and there’ll be lots of new yarns, special guests, raffle prizes and all manner of good things. We’ve already started putting together the yarn samples for this year – there will be delicious things, such as…no, we mustn’t.

To reserve your place you can click on over to the official booking page here or telephone us at 01-6709981.

This picture was made possible by our friends in the Pepperpot.

Saturday last was WWKIP Day, and we had what could only be called a ton of fun. There was yarn, there was cake, there was knitting, there were prizes, there was tolerable weather and there was the very best of company. That’s the short version…

… and here’s the longer one!

We started on the balcony in the Powerscourt Centre, where people who’d never crocheted or knit in public before and people who have been doing it for ages gathered to make lovely things. There was tea and coffee and cake (the Pepperpot coming up trumps again!):

It wasn’t a surprise that there were some really beautiful finished objects – a brace of Laminaria shawls, for example, one in grey alpaca lace from the Dublin Dye Company, one in Louisa Harding Mulberry silk:

There was also yarn at the other end of the process: blink and you’d miss the Natural Dye Company goodies vanishing into capacious bags:

The prize raffle had exciting and mysterious prizes:

Of course, there were also brightly coloured WIPs…

… and a bright pink sheep:

The weather didn’t look very promsing for a good part of the day, but when we moved up to Stephen’s Green for the rest of the afternoon, it turned out rather fine. As you can see, it was perfect strawberry weather:

We met more amazing lace in the Green: here’s a stunning example of Jared Flood’s latest shawl pattern, Rock Island:

Could the collective noun for knitters be a picnic blanket of them?

Back in the shop, Jacqui and Dixie had to miss out on a lot of the day’s excitement – after all, there was yarn to be wound.

WWKIP Day is a chance to catch up with people we met the previous year, or only know from Ravelry, or have never met at all. As we sit on the balcony or in the Green, friendships begin that change lives. It’s a powerful thing to be a part of. Roll on WWKIP Day 2012!

But first, roll on June 30th, when the fun continues at our Fifth Birthday Party! We hope you’ll be there, but we’re running out of places fast. There’s a booking link at the bottom of this post, so if you haven’t booked a place, you can do it with just a couple of clicks.