WWKIP 2009

Saturday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day (WWKIP) (technically, it's Sunday, too, but our event was Saturday). We had a great gathering here in Hillsboro, Oregon at the Glenn & Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center, who graciously allowed us to use their outdoor facility at no charge.

Tami (that's her in the left corner of this picture) spent a lot of time organizing for this event and it was awesome. There were goody bags full of samples and patterns and stitch markers and discount coupons. These were not just any goody bags; they were handmade, beautiful, useful bags courtesy of Sara and Debby. The first 40 people to arrive each got one. I don't know if anyone got a final count of attendees, but we ran out of bags before we ran out of people.

We had doorprizes galore! Yarn and books donated from All About Yarn, Kathy's Knit Korner, and The Knitting Bee were given away every few minutes throughout the day. And this was in addition to discount coupons they provided for the goody bags.

Speaking of the goody bags, they also contained samples from Frog Creek Fibers, StitchJones, The Cupcake Factory, and Abstract Fiber along with stitch markers from Girly With a Twist and patterns from Kathleen and yours truly.


Oh, there was also a big table full of yarn that people brought from their stashes to give away. I managed to empty out all the remaining acrylic from my closet, along with a whole bunch of leftover fun fur. Yes, I had fun fur in my stash. I used to make gloves and flip-flops decorated with the stuff and actually sold quite a few pairs. Those days are (thankfully) gone, so the fun fur has moved on to greener pastures. It's still great for trims and especially for toys, but I don't need it in my house. At the end of the day, any yarn that was left was loaded up and will be delivered to a local Senior Center for their use.

Toolman had made some drop spindles from old CDs and some dowling, and Bobbie found some interested folks, put spindles in their hands along with some fiber, and by the end of the afternoon, we had new spinners! Judy is still resisting the call of the spinning goddess, but we haven't given up on her yet!

Duffy brought her wheel and finished some beautiful singles from some Dicentra Designs fiber. Can't wait to see it plied!


We also collected premie hats to add to the collection that will be donated to local hospitals at the end of the year and squares for the Barnraiser Quilts that Larissa is putting together to be auctioned off at the Sock Summit as a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders. Bobbie offered a few prizes for folks who knit up premie hats at the event and they went quickly. Doesn't take too much time to knit those tiny hats, that's for sure!

For those who got hungry or just wanted to stretch their legs a bit, the Hillsboro Farmer's Market was just a short walk away. I went down there before things got rolling and ran into several friends I hadn't seen for a while. I also purchased coffee from Insomnia Coffee Company cart (there's a Thursday afternoon knitting group that meets at their store), some absolutely wonderful local strawberries (you could smell them all down the block they were so ripe and sweet), some cherries, and a delicious pastry. I haven't been to the market for quite a while since I usually work on Saturdays, so it was nice to get a chance to visit.


It was a wonderful day! We had to be out of there by 2:00 as they had a wedding happening in the evening. Inside the building, it was all set up for the reception and it looked really nice.

Everyone pitched in to help clean up and at 2:05, you couldn't tell we had ever been there. A great ending to a great day!

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the day, and especially to Tami for putting the whole thing together. Hope we can do it all again next year!