Alice in London
Saturday morning - 9:00 am - back on the Subway down to Victoria - a 10 minute walk to the Horticultural Centre - up the stairs to the third floor for my Workshop with Alice...
Alice explained her charting system, and the way she starts and ends her infinite cables that are required for Celtic style cable type knitting....and we all knit away on our swatches.
We also got to see, examine, fondle and drool over, swatches in the new Bainin yarn, the actual Boudiccia braid sweater (both inside and out) and the new Eala Bhan design, both knit by Alice herself in her 2 ply Hebridean Yarn - all things Alice available at Virtual Yarns.
Alice said that she had worn her Eala Bhan sweater on Friday but it was just too hot to wear it on Saturday. Alice was very stylishly dressed -- wish I had photographed her shoes (heels, with high laced fronts - open toes and cut outs) -- with a pin tucked pleated skirt and silky blouse.
While the class was busy knitting our Celtic infinite line cable swatch.....Alice mentioned that while knitting was the main focus of her life for years, she has many interests.....and the bio in the back of the new Aran Knitting book describes her as a fibre artist........I'm thinking that Eala Bhan is her ultimate cabled sweater -- it has shaping within the body of the design to make it a truly feminine fitted cardigan -- and was as spectacular as I knew it would be.
In the photos of Eala Bhan, the model is wearing a wonderful plaid skirt - turns out this is Alice's own skirt, a Vivienne Westwood design. Vivienne Westwood has been designing since the 70's, and has a definite style of her own - she consistently uses traditional British fabrics (such as Harris tweed and tartan) in her designs -while forming unusual silhouettes. The tartan skirt in this photo -- I really wanted to see the whole skirt.
EDITED TO ADD: Turns out I must be blind! On Friday, while doing some retail therapy at the I Knit market, I stopped off at the I Knit booth to pick up my copy of the new/revised Aran Knitting -- Alice was there and she signed it for me -- she was wearing her beautiful Eala Bhan sweater, and THE SKIRT! Click here to see a photo taken by an obviously more with it blogger than me LOL
This made me rethink my whole impression of Alice....I'd imagined her as living on a remote Scottish Island, probably wearing tweeds, wellies and sweaters (sort of like the Queen at Balmoral - with her head scarves and her Corgis LOL)......but Alice said herself, London is only 2 hours away, and both times I've seen her she has been very stylishly dressed (I mean up to the minute stylishly - I don't know why I would be surprised by this as she is a woman who loves fashion - she had to be to design all of these wonderful sweaters.) I'm sure that living on Lewis she has plenty of opportunity to wear her sweaters and her wellies too!
Happy Knitting
Alice explained her charting system, and the way she starts and ends her infinite cables that are required for Celtic style cable type knitting....and we all knit away on our swatches.
 |
| Just lovely! |
We also got to see, examine, fondle and drool over, swatches in the new Bainin yarn, the actual Boudiccia braid sweater (both inside and out) and the new Eala Bhan design, both knit by Alice herself in her 2 ply Hebridean Yarn - all things Alice available at Virtual Yarns.
While the class was busy knitting our Celtic infinite line cable swatch.....Alice mentioned that while knitting was the main focus of her life for years, she has many interests.....and the bio in the back of the new Aran Knitting book describes her as a fibre artist........I'm thinking that Eala Bhan is her ultimate cabled sweater -- it has shaping within the body of the design to make it a truly feminine fitted cardigan -- and was as spectacular as I knew it would be.
In the photos of Eala Bhan, the model is wearing a wonderful plaid skirt - turns out this is Alice's own skirt, a Vivienne Westwood design. Vivienne Westwood has been designing since the 70's, and has a definite style of her own - she consistently uses traditional British fabrics (such as Harris tweed and tartan) in her designs -while forming unusual silhouettes. The tartan skirt in this photo -- I really wanted to see the whole skirt.
EDITED TO ADD: Turns out I must be blind! On Friday, while doing some retail therapy at the I Knit market, I stopped off at the I Knit booth to pick up my copy of the new/revised Aran Knitting -- Alice was there and she signed it for me -- she was wearing her beautiful Eala Bhan sweater, and THE SKIRT! Click here to see a photo taken by an obviously more with it blogger than me LOL
This made me rethink my whole impression of Alice....I'd imagined her as living on a remote Scottish Island, probably wearing tweeds, wellies and sweaters (sort of like the Queen at Balmoral - with her head scarves and her Corgis LOL)......but Alice said herself, London is only 2 hours away, and both times I've seen her she has been very stylishly dressed (I mean up to the minute stylishly - I don't know why I would be surprised by this as she is a woman who loves fashion - she had to be to design all of these wonderful sweaters.) I'm sure that living on Lewis she has plenty of opportunity to wear her sweaters and her wellies too!
Happy Knitting
i bought eala bhan and boudicca's braid !! and you ???
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