Knitting & Stitching Show in Dublin

every year we travel to Dublin, either at the end of october or the beginning of november. once there we split up;  DS and DH go to the Botanic Gardens - and I visit the K&S. no use taking the guys, they'd just drive me mad! this year was a bit different for us though - Irish Rail introduced a new very early train (for people elsewhere this is most likely hilarious, but over here in the west of ireland the first train to Dublin left at 8 am - and it takes about 3 hours to reach the other side of the island!), which left shortly before 6 am - which meant that we arrived before nine! the show opens at 10 am and for once I managed to arrive well in time for the opening.

which meant that I was able to demonstrate spinning (and carding, because I didn't manage to card some spinning fodder at home...) - at the stall of the Irish Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers (it also has the nice bonus of being allowed in for free - which saved me from paying 15 euro entrance fee!). our group, the Connacht Textile Crafters, have participated in the last few years by producing some projects to put on show. this is the "blue" display we made (I only realized how small the printing looks, when I took the photo! it looked quite large on the sheet of paper at home....)

we didn't set many specifications - the colour blue of course was to be dominant, and the size should have been max. A 4 (I have to admit that mine was slightly larger, but I wasn't the only one:)). technique etc. was up to the designer. you can see that the designs vary a lot, embroidery, felting, beading, patchwork, dyeing, spinning - a bit of everything. I couldn't decide for one, so I went for the mood board, but I showed that before on the blog. 

 after about 3 hours of spinning and talking to people my shift had finished and I went to browse the stalls (and shop....). one of the first I found on the gallery, where the wsd guild stall is situated as well, was one set up by the Irish Patchwork Society. This showcased a joint venture between the IPS - and the Hungarian Patchwork Guild. normally I don't put up very large pix, but if you like patchwork - or flowers, do enlarge this, it's stunning! the bottom two pix show the two halves of the display, two full quilts with the most fabulous appliqued flowers! the upper three are details. I very often think that a quilt might look grand - but I wouldn't want to hang it in my home. I wouldn't have a problem with either of those!

 of course, if you go to a show like this, it's extremely hard to leave without shopping for stuff! this is my haul - less than before, but I didn't just want to add more to the stash, so most of it is material that I have already planned for projects.

the black behind everything is actually black leather - with a price of just 5 euro I couldn't resist! it's a full calf skin, soft, but not too much so, just right to use it for a bag.

you can see most of it yourself, the red and black in the middle are small bags of merino, which I want to spin into a "Lucious Lucius" yarn, hp inspired:)) there's also some blue embroidery yarn from Oliver Twists, some small bits and pieces for christmas cards, two pots of procion dyes in green, a schoppel zauberball in "shadow" (grey and black) and a small cone of Texere linen yarn. like last year, only dark blue instead of turquoise this time...

this is a detailed pic of the pw panels I bought. I plan to make a table runner for christmas out of those (I have 2 of the same) plus the two reds above. I also have a darker green and a beige/gold still in my stash from last year.... 

this is the piece de resistance - when I saw this hank of dyed viscose yarn on the Oliver Twist Stalls I just couldn't resist! those colours - actually the whole stall is an invitation to take a bath in colours:)) it's extremely hard to resist and I always have to be really careful not to overdo it!! I am not sure weather I'll use this as a fine ply for a handspun - or maybe work it into a very loose, lacy (crochet?) scarf.....hard to decide, but before I do anything with it, I'll face the job of winding it into.... something less prone to tangle!

of course I do knit on the train - but this time with the early start I was too tired to do much already on the way in! I started work on one sock from one of my handdyed skeins - but this is all I have to show for it. I did have to play cards with DS and Ludo, too - does that count?:))

now it's back to normal again, i.e. tomorrow the autumn holiday week is over and school starts again. I'll have to start my christmas preparations in earnest now - I started to stamp some christmas cards this afternoon. the plan is to colour them with watersoluble crayons, because I won't be able to embroider all the cards I need. handmade - just not handembroidered:))