The UK S’n’B day was a thoroughly brilliant event and first and foremost, thanks to Gerard and Craig of I Knit London for all the organising and planning they did in order to make it happen. Bravo!

The Missability Radio Show stall was very busy for the entire day while I explained Missability to anyone who wanted to know about the project. I was beside Betsan of Stitchlinks, but we barely got a chance to catch up between Betsan giving her talk and the large volumes of visitors drifting past our stalls with questions! It was great also to meet so many of the knitters who entered The Knitted Walking Stick Cosy Competition Round #1. As well as meeting the winner in the real life category in Round #1, I got to meet the lovely laughingmouse, inventor of the fabulous monster-cosy that is, to date, the only entry in Round #2 of the competition. Also, it was very exciting for me to do an interview with Phillipa of flat four radio for a show she is putting together about knitting. Her kite-themed cosy was admired by all who saw it and I learned a lot from her concise interviewing technique. One of the things I regret about The Missability Radio Show Podcasts is the omnipotence of my enthusiastic voice all over the recordings; Ms. Law wisely explained before she even had her microphone switched on that she would ask me questions and then just record me talking – a technique that reflects more experience than I had when conducting interviews for the show, and which I imagine obtains much clearer audio than unrestrained conversation!

Overall I met some great people and many talented knitters and realised that one of the best things about going to knitting fairs is being able to see everyone else’s knitting projects up close. I saw a very beautiful Seraphim shawl and several really luscious poppies, and learned about several social projects involving knitting, including the marvelously diverting Pom Pom International project, the S’n’B London Blanket, the Origins Ginger Knits project with Shelter, The St John’s Ambulance Stitch in time tea-cosy project and the biggest Christmas stocking challenge. This publically-spirited approach to knitting was exciting to see; people were knitting scarves, red squares and other socio-cultural joy right next to The Missability Radio stall for the whole day.

It was great to see so much knitting going on and to be able to enjoy projects like this beautiful sweater, knit from sock wool oddments.

I did wish that we had gotten a chance to knit up a square for inclusion on the S’n’B London blanket. I doubt we could have done anything more shocking than the naughty knitted penis submitted by one mischievous bunch of knitters; (the brief I believe was to make a square to represent in some small way the presence or existence of your knitting group and to submit, together, something symbolic of your S’n’B group…) but it would have been nice to have found the time to make an Oxford Bluestockings contribution for the blanket.

…to be truly representative of The Oxford Bluestockings, I’m guessing our square would have to have reference to the Kiri Shawl that everyone but me appears to have made. (Aliki appears to have made four at last count…) It would also have to have the infamous and fantabulous Wonder Woman Jumper represented somewhere on it and Liz’s now famous (many people admired them at the S’n’B!) Hopscotch socks featuring somewhere. The ensemble of Bluestockings-related items would not be complete I imagine without some knitted walking stick cosies also and naturally, any submission we made to the blanket would have to be completed in Oxford Kitchen Yarns. Speaking of which, it was an absolute pleasure to see the Oxford Kitchen Yarns stall up and running! All the yarns laid out in beautiful, rich skeins of joy would have been gorgeous enough all on their own, but the Oxford Kitchen Yarns banner was a really special touch.

I couldn’t resist a skein of that bright, buttery yellow and have got some suitably bright primary colours to go with it in some kind of amazing vest to be designed in forthcoming months. As well as Oxford Kitchen Yarns there were loads of other really great UK Yarn suppliers and it was fantastic to see so many small, independent, UK producers present at the event.

I was really glad to be at UK Stitch’n’Bitch with all my friends; the support for Missability was great and it reminded me of how the walking stick cosy competition wouldn’t have been possible were it not for these talented knitters. We all missed Liz who managed to be involved anyhow through the medium of the Hopscotch socks and her green, spiral-pattern walking stick cosy.

As the day was drawing to a close, we were packing up The Missability Radio Show and Oxford Kitchen Yarns, and the time to draw a winner for the raffle arrived. The Missability Radio Show was honoured when Debbie Stoller pulled out the winning ticket!

…and thus it was that Carmen won a massive pile of Missability related editions and joy! Many thanks to the inimitable Debbie Stoller and I hope the winnings prove interesting and enjoyable.