Press releases
UK Ravelry Day
Saturday 6 June 2009
UK Ravelry day will be held on Saturday 6 June 2009 at the Central Hall, Coventry. It promises to be an exciting day and will include a market (outside building in the Bull Yard square), demonstrations, workshops, talks. The event is being headlined by Meg Swansen, daughter of Elizabeth Zimmermann. Other well known teachers include Jared Flood (Brooklyn Tweed), Ruth Paisley (Woolly Wormhead), Elizabeth Lovick & Debbie Bamford (Mulberry Dyer). There will also be collections for charities such as Knit in Gambia (baby clothes and shawls for older people) which is run by a Raveller and Liverpool NHS (knitted breasts which are used to teach new mothers how to breastfeed).
The theme of this year�s event is British yarn. Says organiser Jo Watson: �Last year I was growing increasingly interested in finding out why it is that a lot of the yarns I use are made abroad. We have over 60 different breeds of native sheep in the UK and although quite a lot of our wool is coarse and suitable for carpets, a good proportion could be used to make handknitting yarns. It is shocking that farmers have to burn fleeces. After reading some information on the British Wool Marketing Board�s website about how much wool is exported each year, I decided that I would try and do something on a small scale to support British sheep farmers during these tough economic times, by increading demand for British-made handknitting wools. It�s amazing how everyone who�s having a stall in the marketplace has risen to the challenge of sourcing British wool from British sheep.�
She continues: �I had an idea in the car at the beginning of January about how great it would be if Ravelry could sort of come into being for a day. So I could meet all the people I�ve met virtually on the forums, where we could all do in person what we do on Ravelry. I think Ravelry is the best contribution of the world of knitting there has been in recent times. �
Another theme of this year�s event is to support the United Nations International Year of Natural Fibres (www.naturalfibres2009.org). UK Ravelry day is the only non-academic event being held in the UK this year which has received accreditation from the United Nations.
The event is being sponsored by the new high quality UK knitting magazine, the Knitter.
The event is being organised as a not for profit day, with any leftover funds being donated to UK-based knitting charities as well as going towards next year�s week-long event. UK Ravelry Week 2010 will be held in Stirling, Scotland, during the first week of August 2010 and will include workshops by well known designers and excursions, and will end with UK Ravelry day on 7 August 2010. Details of next year�s event will be announced in June.
ENDS