Thursday evening at Ruthin Craft Centre

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There was a good turn out of knitters and crocheters at Ruthin Craft Centre tonight. Predictably, there were more knitters than crocheters and the crochet pieces ended up bigger than the knitted ones - it is a much quicker technique. We hooked & knitted for 55 minutes. Sophie Horton, the artist in residence & chief knitter, is on the far left in the photo above.

I managed 54 rows of 26 treble stitches, plus the foundation chain and a few extra stitches on a final row. As we all took turns on crocheting or knitting a communal piece, with giant hooks and needles, during that time as well as our own pieces, I estimate I managed a similar number of stitches on this "marathon" as I would on the usual speed test 3 minutes "sprint". My trusty Clover crochet hook, with the ergonomic handle, is included in the photo below.


Excluding the partly done row that's 1404 trebles x 4 = 5616 points, plus 162 turning chains & 26 starting chains (1 point each) = 5804

Divided by 55 minutes = 105.5 points per minute

My New York points record was 319 points (76 3/4 treble stitches) and my Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show record in 2001 was 296 points, both in 3 minutes, so I must have speeded up a bit (especially as it took about 3 minutes out of the time to work on the communal piece and didn't include the final part row in the count). Maybe it was all just more relaxed!

There was a prize too - a voucher to spend on one of the Craft Centre's publications. Prizes were also awarded to the fastest knitter and the most creative piece (a crocheted flower). It was easy to find something I wanted in the gallery shop - a catalogue/book about David & Margaret Frith's pots. They are two of my favourite ceramicists.


If you are interested in fun knitting & crochet events in other parts of the UK, or joining a knitting or crochet group (or setting up your own), the UKHKA website (formerly the BHKC) is a good place to start. There is a wealth of information and useful links.

You can visit the Craft Centre and see Sophie's installation, "Hanging Out", until June 28, 2009. From the exhibition brochure -

Sophie Horton's practice on this residency... has been concerned with how textiles occupy the external environment. Can a dramatic, knitted, colouful, site-specific artwork alter an apparently fixed urban or rural landscape in any meaningful way? And can a temporary installtion survive in the memory?

Sunset from the countyard -