We made it back home last night after the Contemporary Irish Knits launch party tired but very happy!  It is always such a pleasure to get to visit This Is Knit and the Powerscourt centre, such an elegant building with a lovely atmosphere.  This time my husband, Joe, got to come along as well so I actually have some photographs of the event to share with you!

I want to give a big thank you to all the mills and hand dyers who came along so that knitters got a chance to see the yarn ranges and talk with them.  Donegal Yarns, Cushendale Woollen Mills, Kerry Woollen Mills, Hedgehog Fibres and Dublin Dye Company were all there, and we even have the photo to prove it!

From left to right in the photo there is; Chris Weiniger (Donegal Yarns), Tristan Donaghy (Studio Donegal), Miriam Cushen (Cushendale Woollen Mills), Sean Cannon (Kerry Woollen Mills), Carol Feller, Beata Jezekova (Hedgehog Fibres), Elana Kehoe & Yvonne McSwiney (Dublin Dye Company) .

I got started before the launch signing a big stack of books for knitters who had pre-ordered.

Thanks to all you great knitters out there This Is knit sold out of the book.  Fortunately I had an extra box of books along with me so no one was left short!

I am so looking forward to seeing all of the finished knits as they appear, its so much fun to see all the variations created by different knitters to make the patterns their own.  I love talking with knitters about how the garments are constructed and possible ways of modifying to suit their own body type.

Overlapping with the book launch was the Yarn Tasting event that there were many, many knitters at (as you can see!)

At the event I got to meet the super talented (and so very nice) Kate Davies.  She also had a display of her garments and patterns up and it was lovely to get to see (and fondle) them all in person. Her historical perspective on knitting was really interesting to hear, I’m going to be keeping an eye out for her upcoming articles to read a bit more.

During the yarn tasting both Kate and me (much to our surprise) got to give a speech so attendees got to see a mini-fashion parade of a few garments from the book in action.  Thank you very much to all of the eager models (Lisa, Elana, Eimear and Aoibhe) who did a great job.

And of course there was cake (again from the amazing ‘Pepper Pot’ in the centre)…..

It was so very pretty it was a shame to cut it but it just had to be done!

Siobhan from This Is Knit was also busy snapping the event so keep an eye out on This Is Knit’s blog for some additional lovely photos of the event.  So even if you couldn’t be there you can still get some of the virtual pleasure from it!