Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Where in the World......

I decided I was going to start Tip Tuesday but didn't quite make it so what can I do for Wednesday? I want to get something going that is regular and helpful. It needs to be middle of the week because Monday and Friday get busy - the weekend is unreliable so mid week it is. After pondering what it could be, staring at the little spot on my finger, picking at the little skin bit on my cuticle, petting Chief, playing with Bert, changing the TV channel multiple times, closing the shade (why does it get dark SO early nowadays!?), and doing just about anything I could think of but think, I came up with a plan. Ready? Here it is:

Worldwide Wednesday

Are you excited? Are you wondering "what the heck is she talking about!?" Here's the deal. For at least one week or weekly if I can remember to do this, we will explore the world and things knitterly. Museums, shops, blogs, podcasts, whatever is in the world that promotes knitting. It's a wide topic but I figured I need something fairly broad to keep this up more than a few weeks.

First up - The Victoria & Albert Museum

I LOVE this place. Every time I go to London this is one of the first places on my list to go see. It's not your typical museum. Not many paintings and statues but instead it's a craft museum. They have textiles you wouldn't believe including fabric from King Tut's tomb and little,tiny perfect lace samples. They have a clothing section of historical outfits. They have stained glass - wrought iron - quilting - crochet and yes folks - a big knitting section.

If you're not able to get to London in the near future you can enjoy quite a bit of the V&A in your own home. They have a large knitting section on the web site with oh so much to explore.
The sections of this web site include: Knitting Items from the Collections; Share Your Knitting with Others; Your Stories of Learning to Knit; Regional Knitting in the British Isles & Ireland; Knitting Designers; Knit a Work of Art; 1940s Patterns to Knit; Knitting Patterns for Children; Free Knitting Patterns from Rowan; Knitting in the Archives; Knitting Links; How to Knit on Video; Knitting Podcasts; and Knitting Booklist. Clearly they believe in knitting.


Since I have no pictures from inside the V&A, I leave you with a pic of a yarn shop in Wales. This is Undy Yarns in Magor, Monmouthshire. The building is a converted church. They're still in business according to the web site.

Let me know if you like the idea of Worldwide Wednesday. Next week - Shetland Knitting - WWII Knitting and maybe a few other museums on line.


Stay warm - knit.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the idea of Worldwide Wednesday! It is a great way to share your knitting knowledge with those of us (me) who are less versed in all things knitted. If I ever make it to London, I will definitely have to see The Victoria and Albert Museum. At the Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library, I was excited to see some knitting in the display of his early log cabin years and my friend laughingly told me that wasn't the part of the exhibit that I was supposed to be paying attention to. Needless to say, she is not a knitter!

Anonymous said...

Um...the above was from Your Secret Pal who was so excited to post the message that she forgot to sign it!

Wye Sue said...

I dont believe it !!
I live very close to the English/Welsh border and have never been to Undy Yarns... I do often go to Monmouth shopping as it is nicer than my 'local' town of Ross on Wye...
And as far as I know they are still trading - now I know what the buiding looks like I must take myself down there ...

Toni said...

Thanks for posting the links! Things are finally slowing down enough that I'm hoping to get to explore the knitting & VA links--it sounds fabulous!!!!