A few weekends ago I was back up in Glasgow for GSoY! Last year was its first year, and the second year was even better.
![Glasgow School of Yarn Yarn Cake GSOY Mug](http://i.imgur.com/4POm2l.jpg)
I do love Glasgow - I got to go back to the Botanic Gardens which I saw last year (though no woolly graffiti this time), and I also visited the Kelvingrove Gallery, a massive museum that covers both art and history. I saw some Egyptian weaving tools...
![Ancient Egyptian spindle whorl linen weaving textiles Kelvingrove Glasgow](http://i.imgur.com/1XhgAl.jpg)
Took in some of Glasgow's native Mackintosh art...
![Margaret Mackintosh Glasgow School panel art nouveau Kelvingrove](http://i.imgur.com/3UhuFl.jpg)
...and, at the church, even got to see the Mackintoshes themselves!
![Charles and Margaret Mackintosh impersonators at Queens Cross Church Glasgow GSOY](http://i.imgur.com/47I3dl.jpg)
I took Liz Lovick's spinning finer class, which was a wonderful experience and taught me a lot. You can see a few photos over at Liz's blog (you might even be able to find me in one of them!). Since the class I've been working hard on my frog-hair - mostly as a challenge to myself, though I'm hoping that I will be able to put all my practice yarns together into a shawl (I know that sampling and practice spinning is important, but I just can't bear to see "wasted" yarn!).
Here is what I brought back with me...
![Glasgow School of Yarn Hilltop Cloud Old Maiden Aunt wool and fibre](http://i.imgur.com/CHTwM.jpg)
I met so many great people up in Glasgow - some I had met last year, like the amazing Yarn Cake team, and some for the first time, like Liz Lovick and Woolly Wormhead.
Before catching my train back, I also got to have a fascinating chat with fellow designer Karina Westermann, also known as Karie Bookish. Karie was quite understandably wiped out from a very busy Wool Week, but we had a great discussion about knitting culture, the design process, and various other stuff. She's blogged about knitting as identity, the challenges of social media, and the crafting marketplace - they are well worth a read.
![Karie Bookish](http://i.imgur.com/SQIUsl.jpg)
After that, I had to dash back to Reading. It's funny, though - even the train ride was enjoyable. Rolling on through loads of countryside, mountains and tons of sheep (I mean tons). It was quiet and I got to sit and knit and tweet (ok, maybe mostly tweet)...
![Scotland from the train sheep grazing in fields and rainbow](http://i.imgur.com/vv1Cpl.jpg)
~Joyuna
No comments:
Post a Comment