Yes, I have taken part in another knitting festival! This time in Drammen, approximately 40 minutes drive west of Oslo, organized by Norsk Strikkeforening/Norwegian Knitting Association. It was their first festival since the Association was set up last year, and a success. Hotel Union Brygge in Drammen and the theatre Union Scene, next door, was the setting. They were so close that I could easily spend the whole extended lunch break during my knitting design workshop there. As you can imagine most of the attendees to my workshop did, and brought their own packed lunch so they would not loose a minute browsing all the stalls present. The program started on Friday evening with a talk by Kari-Helene Rane from Purl Alpaca Designs, which I unfortunately missed.
Here are some of the yarns on offer, note that some these are by Permin, the Danish yarn producer and agent. Bonnie, a ribbon yarn in pure cotton is one that I have chosen for one of my new designs, soon to be revealed, for Familien. There were 11 stall holders present, and lots of tempting yarns on offer. The knitters present did buy quite a lot, especially since several of the yarns on offer are not the ones you usually find in the local yarn shops. Here is the complete list: Norsk Strikkeforening. Most of the workshops lasted 3 hours, while mine was 6 hours on both Saturday and Sunday with an extended lunch break. The festival program continued on Saturday with more workshops, a fashion show by Du Store Alpakka and a dinner.
There were about 100 knitters who took part in the festival, and some I talked to had decided to stay on after the talk on Friday and promptly booked 2 nights at the hotel. That was such an excellent idea in my opinion, and I need to plan to just come as a visitor to a festival and not always be a workshop holder so that I can enjoy it fully!
I am eagerly waiting to hear if there will be another knitting festival next year organized by Norsk Strikkeforening. If you missed it and want to know what other festivals and workshops I am holding this autumn, below is a list. There are only two workshops I will be holding in English at the Wollness Wochenende on the outskirts of Vienna in October (16. to 18.), see the Austrian Yarn Club. Here is the list of the Norwegian workshops in Norwegian:
Kurs som holdes i høst:
September: 5.: Montering. Ullensaker Husflidslag, informasjon kommer her: http://www.ullflid.org./kurs.html
September: 26. og 27. : Strikkedesign (ØA-9). Østre Aker Husflidslag, Oslo. Last ned kurskatalogen og se s. 29 http://www.husflid.no/lokallag/oslo
Oktober: 24. og 25.: Strikkedesign. Vestby Husflidslag. Last ned kurskatalogen og se s. 30 http://www.husflid.no/lokallag/akershus
Oktober/November: 31. og 1.: Strikkedesign. Ullensaker Husflidsforening, informasjon kommer her: http://www.ullflid.org./kurs.html
November: 7./8.: Japanske Mønstre/Hullstrikk. Strikkehelgen i Stavanger, se her og mange av kursene er allerede fulle: http://strikkehelgstavanger.weebly.com/kursholdere.html
