Adventures with I-cord

I had meant to write about the regional day last Saturday – as soon as I got back but I was quite tired as it was a long day!  I did enjoy myself – particularly the 2 visits to Oxford Yarn Store.  I met up with some people that I haven’t seen for years as knitters from around the country converged on Oxford.  As I was early – I went to the Yarn Store to waste some time and to look at what yarn I could choose for my next project.

The morning speaker was Debbie Abrahams who is a Knitting and Crochet Guild patron.  She gave a very interesting talk about how she used a house in Barcelona which had been designed by Gaudi as inspiration for her the blanket which she designed last year.  She showed us lots of samples of how the ideas developed.  She is much more organized than I am.  I also usually differ in another way in that I prefer to design from ideas rather than images.  My next throw will contradict what I have just said as I am going to take my inspiration from a watercolour.

After lunch we looked at some of the Guild’s collection of knitting and crochet and then we spilt up for workshops.  I attended the one called Adventures with I-cord which was taught by Sue Winn from the Lincoln branch of the Guild.

I have knitted I-cord before but I had forgotten how to do it and I am attracted by some of those shawls with I-cord cast-ons or cast-offs.  We started with cast offs – this sample shows casting off in I-cord.  On the right I knit as usual and on the left – I knit into the back of the stitches which produced a neater effect.

We then tried adding an I-cord edge.

We made a leaf starting with I-cord.

We used I-cord to make a flower.

Lastly we threaded wire through to make bendy I-cord.

It was great fun and I will definitely use I-cord on something soon.

After tea and biscuits most of us went to the Yarn Store.  It was packed.  I was in there for more than an hour.  I waited until everyone else had been served until I decided what to buy.  I won’t show you now – that can be for another day.  At the moment I am still knitting a jumper and I must concentrate on finishing that before getting side-tracked by anything else.