The End of a Very Knitty Week! Knit, Crochet, and Eat Cake!

As related in the previous post, while I was being passed around in front of the Scottish Parliament, Cathy was finding out about more knitters, spinners, and crocheters in Edinburgh. Frieda told her about a spinning group at the Gorgie Farm and Joan said that she definitely should not miss the knitting and crochet group that meets on Saturdays at the Akva café.

So, on Friday, we attended the Gorgie Farm Spinning Group. This is a demonstration and working farm right in the middle of the city and there are lots of animals and great gardens here. The spinners use one of the community buildings to share their skills.

Check this out! The women used their own handspun for the rows they added to me—oh too very special!

(1) Handspun camel and silk; (2)Moorit handspun by Joan; (3) Gotland handspun from the fleece; (4) Handspun black Shetland from Smaise the sheep who lives on the Gorgie Farm.

And they were FAST knitters. In that one session I grew by five inches! Isn’t that luscious? I am so lucky! 

The Gorgie Handspinners: Kim, Frida, Joan, and Denise 

Sarah

The next day Cathy braved the cold, windy, rainy streets to make our way to the Akva Swedish café to meet up with the lively Knit, Crochet, and Eat Cake! group that meets there on Saturday mornings. What a GREAT name for a fiber group, don’t you think?

Sarah and Steph used some of their own yarns. Sarah’s was called “Head-over-heels-variegated” and Steph added some burnt-orange acrylic. 

She had been using that chunky yarn to turn out these cute fox wrist warmers. 

While Sarah’s needles whistled along, Lucy crocheted a “front post treble” stitch on the other end. Whoo—hoo!

The ladies sent us off with a hearty goodbye and Cathy stepped out into the pouring rain. Nice that she packed me up all snuggly and warm in her pack. 

After drying off and warming up in her hostel room that evening, she encountered a roommate from Brazil, Jurema, who loves to crochet, so she added some more crochet stitches as well. She wrote in my journal: “Thank you for the opportunity to restart crochet after so long a time.”

There just seems to be no end to the fiber people in this country—both locals and visitors! 

On Sunday, March 11, the next day, we boarded a train to the small town of Berwick-on-Tweed in the far northeast of England—right across the border. Cathy just had to get out of the city—she really does not like cities much. We would end up staying in Berwick for a full TWO weeks!

The very next day, upon visiting a yarn store in Berwick, Cathy learned of a weekly knitting group that meets in the local library every Monday afternoon. Of course we went! It was a lively group of knitters who laugh as much as they knit and crochet. Anne added some “pink sparkles” to dress me up a bit, and Maureen contrasted that with a lovely gold. Oooh-la-la! 

Anne adds some rows to me while the other ladies laugh and knit. 

Later that week, Cathy met Fiona, another traveler at the Berwick Hostel who knew how to knit. She added some rows of garter stitch using some of the Aran yarn Cathy had purchased in Ireland.

It is almost time to return to Edinburgh for the YARN FESTIVAL…I am so excited!

Contributors so far in Scotland: 


And we need to catch up on the crocheters! So that we don’t have to change the set-up between knitters and crocheters, we ask crocheters to add stitches to the beginning end. We have quite a variety of wide and narrow stripes, resulting in some gathers here: