Down at Denman, up at Ally Pally and Looping the Loop!

The main event since I last blogged has been teaching at Denman College. For those not in the know, this is the college of the Women's Institute, and very highly regarded it is too.
I can't tell you the caché I have appreciated through this association! But much more to the point, it was an EXCEEDINGLY enjoyable thing to do - despite the fact that I developed a cold the day before and felt really rotten as I drove to Marcham from London the previous afternoon. I wish I'd been just a trifle more assertive and asked someone to photograph ME in my teaching position at the 'visualiser' on the day. But come to think of it, perhaps my red nose and watery eyes wouldn't have come out too peachy on camera, so perhaps it was better that way!

In the photo above you can see the Plasma screen switched to the visualiser, which is only showing a pile of yarn and the table top of course, because the hands that, more often than not, appeared in the frame were, at the time, employed behind the camera. Here you will see some of the students hard at work. They were a very friendly and warm bunch and it was a joy to meet them all. I was particularly honoured (and I hope she won't mind me mentioning it here) to welcome TV interior designer Linda Barker into our midst, and she is sitting in the foreground to the right.

I also used the Plasma screen to show my PowerPoint slides, and although their preparation proved time consuming and effort-filled, I was jolly pleased I had done them. Printouts served well as reminder handouts of the day, which I do hope made my students feel they'd got some value for money!

The main college building is a beautiful old mansion that was once owned by Lady Denman, and the teaching rooms are in an extremely pleasant and well-equipped separate block, with all the mod cons - as you may have already gathered. I stayed overnight the night before, which was a life-saver, since I wasn't feeling 100%, and I was very well fed throughout my stay.

Other Matters

I also went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace with my friend Jan and we thoroughly wore ourselves out trawling up and down the many, many aisles, sampling the beauties of yarns and yarn-based products. There I bought a ball of Alpaca yarn from Alpaca Select and have since made myself some fingerless gloves. I shall be producing some more of these as Christmas Presents. The yarn is lovely to work with. The pattern comes from the September 2012 edition of Inside Crochet magazine (the one before the one with my article in it!). They're called 'Pumpkin Mitts'.

This month I finally made it up to Islington to visit Loop Yarns - something I've been meaning to do ever since I bought Sue Cropper's Loop Vintage Crochet book. The shop was NOT a disappointment: two floors of sumptuous yarnosity. AND I met Sue Cropper! I asked her why I couldn't buy a copy of Inside Crochet in her shop (OK I wanted to draw attention to my recent journalistic success!) and she enlightened me about the recent history of the magazine. Its previous publishers, it seems, let a lot of people down (I rather gather this is putting it mildly, but she didn't give me any real details), with the consequence that, though it is now no longer under their auspices, and actually LOOKS quite a lot different, she still refuses to have anything to do with it!! What a shame. All I can say about that is that I do hope they can overcome this soon, and it may prove difficult, because I have noticed that I haven't been able to buy a single copy from any shop I've been in.

But ANYWAY, I have my own relationship with Claire Montgomerie, the lovely editor of the beleagured magazine, and I still intend to attempt a second contribution to it. I am working on it currently, in fact. An article about another female magazine editor, one now long since gone, but  a continuing inspiration. More soon.......