Saturday 2 September 2017

"The yarn is almost as fine as sewing thread"

I tell the woman who has asked about the piece of work displayed in the "best of show" cabinet. It is is the piece of work which has won the "best of the best".
It is an exquisitely fine piece of work, circular with nupps. (The knitters among you will know what I mean - for the rest,  tiny-almost-bobbles made with the yarn. They are particularly used in Estonian lace knitting and are very difficult to make as well as these are made because, to look really good, they need to be absolutely even. These are and there are also a lot of them.) 
I explain how it has been made. I explain the yarn. 
The visitor tells me about the class her group will be doing next year. Someone is coming from another country town near hers to teach them. I ask questions and then tell her about the class I ran. She asks more questions about where I sourced the yarn I used, and how I approached the class. She scribbles notes all the time.
    "Thank you so much," she tells me and goes off to look at more work.
A friend has come to demonstrate. She is good with people. She knows her knitting and crochet and actually judges at another show. We go around the knitting and crochet so I can get her views - yes, she approves of the way the judging was done here too. I knew she would. The two judges have similar approaches and high standards.
I send people off to the photography section. I tell someone else where to find the mosaics. Phew! Sit down for a moment? Crochet a tiny round?
I am half way through the round when the convenor appears. Mild panic. The co-convenor says, "A...'s brought the Governor's wife to have a look. Quick! Name tags!" We scramble for the official name tags and clip them on over the guild names. The "official party", the Governor's wife and her secretary-aide, are looking at things as they move towards us. 
You know when people are genuinely interested don't you? The Governor's wife was. She stopped to look at more than one thing, asking questions of A.... as she did so.
They stop at the "Best in Show" cabinet. A...asks me over, "Can you tell her about the knitting please? She wants to know how it was made."
So I explain. She asks questions. I wanted to know whether she knitted but I wasn't certain it was proper to ask her a question so I just answered the questions and explained why the work was so special.
     "That really is lovely," she told me and her gaze lingered on it a moment longer before she knew she had to move on to admire something else. As she left she though looked back at the piece of the work and smiled again.
I hope we get the opportunity to tell the winner how much the Governor's wife liked it  because it really is a lovely piece of work. 

1 comment:

Jodiebodie said...

Cat, you are so knowledgeable about lace knitting and so many crafts but also very generous in the sharing of your expertise. We are lucky to have you in our midst. I am sure you are much appreciated by the show organisers.