On view was the Guild's display for this year's shows, on the theme of 'Passing on the Passion'.
It features a few items from the Guild collection, including a Kaffe Fassett 'Foolish Virgins' jacket, a crocheted top from C&A, and a knitted crown.
That's one of the very few photos I took at the Convention - I was too busy knitting most of the time. (I bought some Rowan Felted Tweed in John Lewis, and started knitting a Heidi Kirrmaier cardigan, but that's another story.) I also spent some time looking around the centre of Birmingham - it's not a city I know well. The hotel was in the Chinese Quarter, with the Bull Ring markets nearby. Around the corner are the National Trust Back-to-backs, which are fascinating. Several of us who arrived a day early for the Convention went on a tour.
And I spent a lot of time in the Museum and Art Gallery. It has wonderful collections, including a new display of the Staffordshire Hoard, which is amazing (and very difficult to photograph through the glass cases - I tried).
At the Convention, as well as the Guild's AGM, we had three very good talks. Betsan Corkhill, of Stitchlinks, talked about the role of knitting in healthcare. The second talk was by Emma Price of In the Woolshed, which produces natural dyed yarns. She talked about her career to date, initially alternating between accountancy and spending time in India with people practising traditional crafts, before starting In the Woolshed. She now also leads textile journeys to India. And finally, Denise Musk, a life member of the Guild, brought along some of her machine knitted garments in amazingly complex fabrics, and talked about how they developed from her initial ideas.
As well as the talks, there were two workshop sessions led by Guild members, with six topics on offer in each session. But I skipped one session in favour of the Staffordshire Hoard and Pre-raphaelite paintings, and so only did one workshop. It was on Moebius Knitting, with Fiona Morris. Fiona brought along some very inspiring samples, and taught us how to cast on - a surprisingly quick technique. I didn't get very far past casting on in the workshop, though I did finish one round and I've subsequently done a few more.
It's very satisfying for anyone with a mathematical background that it is a genuine Moebius strip, with one edge and one surface. But my sample isn't very tidy and I'd like to do more practice and then try one of the very nice cowls that Fiona showed us.
I contributed to the Convention, too. There was a 'show-and-tell' session on Saturday evening, when members could show something they made during the past year. I took the summer scarf, started in April, which is now finished - I'll write about that later. And Maureen and I did a short presentation on 'How to do a Trunk Show'. I had brought two items that haven't previously featured in trunk shows and talked about them - but those are two more stories for the future.
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