er ... Joyce Meader?

The excellent ‘I Knit London’ are holding a weekender from 11th – 12th September with scheduled events including workshops, classes and presentations.

I spotted a couple of workshops to lure the vintage knitter: the first one features Susan Crawford (knitwear designer, knitting teacher and lecturer in fashion and textiles).  Susan is co-author (and publisher) of the newly republished A Stitch in Time, apparently her presentation on Vintage Knitwear is not to be missed!  You can catch Susan on Friday 11th September between 4pm – 6pm.

The second one is held by Joyce Meader, an historical hand-knitting expert. She has a wide and extensive collection of commercially printed patterns from the 1840s to the present day which are used to hand knit items for museums, re-enactors and for private commissions.  Joyce will be hosting a free presentation and discussion of Knitted Comforts for Your Soldiers from Crimea to Today and showing some of her vast collection on Saturday 12th September between 12pm – 2pm.

You can find more information on these events at the I Knit London website.

What better way to hail the start of summer than building a good old Sussex trug to store all that garden produce in. I went on this great course last week organised by Plumpton College at the Netherfield Centre, where they show you how to build a trug from start to finish. I’ve been laughing about it with friends since I booked it … it’s like I’ve picked the most obscure course I could find, and I’ll admit to a brief ‘what was I thinking of?’ moment when I entered the barn at 10am last Friday, but I can’t recommend it enough! Lovely way to spend the day, really meditative as you wittle away at the willow and build the shape. It helped that we had a fantastic tutor, a real craftsman who takes great pride in what he does, loves keeping his craft alive, and hasn’t even hit 40 yet.

Now if I could just stop those damn slugs from eating my tomato plants, I might have something to put in it – you didn’t think that was all homegrown in the photo did you?