Tuesday, October 23, 2012

KnitCity: A Splendid Time, With Coffee



I've been silent for a while; as I mentioned, I've been on the road. I had an amazing trip to Vancouver for the first KnitCity event. It was a roaring success, and I'm confident that Amanda and Fiona will be hosting the event for many years in the future.

The opening presentation of the event was given by Sylvia Olsen, on her work to preserve the Cowichan sweater traditions among the native communities in B.C. An amazing story, and she showed some fabulous work.



I was honoured to be asked to teach, and I met so many amazing people. So many great new friends and students.


It was great to meet the amazing Kim Werker. We've been internet friends for a while, and she was even funnier and more wonderful in person. We had a great discussion about teaching, and apparently I've inspired her to reconsider teaching crochet...

I also reconnected with Ellie Karas, a student of mine from my early teaching days at the Naked Sheep in Toronto. Ellie now runs a knitting shop and events company in Tofino, B.C., Knits By the Sea.


I love Vancouver. They understand me there.


One of my students - clearly a regular reader of my blog and my tweets, brought me a coffee to class. You know who you are: and THANK YOU! Although I don't encourage bribery, a strong americano never goes amiss.

I may have bought some sock yarn, from Em of Everything Old Yarns.


Possibly the greatest thing about the event, however, was the coat check. A local troupe of Girl Guides provided the coat check service, and the deal was that it was free if you bought a box of cookies.


How could you say no?



In sadder news, my good friend and mentor Michael O'Connor Clarke recently lost his battle with cancer. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I've written about this before... Michael was a key part of my decision to change my career, and he was very present in my life as I was starting out my serious knitting adventures. I knitted a sweater for the birth of his youngest son, Ruairi. (It was red, with cables.) I remember that it was when I was working for Michael that I actually started wearing some of my handknits to work. And it was Michael who eventually told me to get the heck of out the tech industry. I will forever be grateful to him for his support and encouragement.

2 comments:

Marilyn said...

Kate, I am so sorry to hear about Michael. Thinking of you.
Marilyn

Reiko said...

Happy to provide (good) coffee any time you're in Vancity, Kate. You are most welcome. :)