Report: Etsy Labs Just Knitting
Written by AnnaDenise on Sunday, June 03, 2012 at 13:16
You know those days when everything just seems to come together? Yesterday was one of those days when fashion designer Hanna 'raori' Westergren opened her doors (and garden gate) to a very international group of creative ladies (Etsy sellers, buyers, and newbies) for our second Etsy Labs event in Belgium.
Together with Emilie 'EmAime' Danel and Johanna 'ihan.itse' Vähätalo, Hanna taught beginners and seasoned crafters how to knit 'the normal way' and 'the Scandinavian way'.
Against all odds the sun came out and we spent the day sitting in the grass drinking chai tea lattes and eating the amazing cakes Hanna had prepared, introducing ourselves to each other. It was lovely to see how even complete beginners (like yours truly) actually managed to knit quite a bit.
I even did a 'live' Etsy purchase, where I tried on some pieces of Hanna's collection and then used Etsy to purchase my very own, one of a kind raori skirt. No shipping!
A BIG thank you to Hanna for hosting, our lovely teachers, all of the amazing girls who came out to knit with us, Max for dragging his and Hanna's beautiful daughter and son with him to IKEA for the day, and of course, a great big thank you to Etsy for sponsoring this event and to Marta of Dutch Etsy for providing us with Etsy goodies!!! It was an absolute honor to help organize this event, and I think we'll be doing these kinds of things much more often.
Feel free to join the BXL Handmade Facebook group, where we'll keep you posted of new events and of fun crafty, handmade, vintage things happening in Brussels and the rest of Belgium.
Omg I’m so jealous!!! Can you teachme how to knit the Scandinavian way?!
I don’t actually know how to knit the Scandinavian way, as my grandma taught me the ‘normal’ way and that’s what came back to me! But maybe we should ask Hanna to write a tutorial :-)
Hi Danielle and Anna Denise, on you tube there are lots of tutorials. Look for continental knitting, the coolest thing is to learn both ways on some Islands (I think it is on the Shetlands) people use that to make fairisle patterns in their work.
A beautifull Fairisle book of the Artist Alice Starmore writes about that.