Saturday, 13 June 2015, marked the 10th anniversary of World Wide Knit in Public Day (WWKIPD). For those who haven’t come across this event before, WWKIPD began in 2005 as a way of bringing knitters together. Knitting is typically an independent activity, but it can also be very social – and portable! Not only does knitting in public break the stereotype that only ‘grannies’ knit, but it creates a social network between people of all ages, all skill levels, and all backgrounds.
In celebration of WWKIPD, Top Floor Art’s Craft Circle teamed up with the Belfast Stitch and Bitch group and organised a tour of Belfast on one of Belfast’s City Sightseeing Hop On/Hop Off Bus Tours. We met at 10am on Castle Street in Belfast, boarded one of the buses and we were off!
Our first stop was at the Titanic
Quarter. We stayed there for approximately an hour, getting snacks and enjoying
the sun!
Our second stop on the tour was the
Parliament building, Stormont.
Crafting on the bus continued….
Our next stop was the lovely St George’s Market. We stayed for
lunch and a dander around the stalls! Of course we never stopped knitting….
And we saw Stephen at the Top Floor Art stall:
And Louise (you can just make her out in the
background!) at the Lighthouse Yarns stall:
Next stop on the tour was the Botanic Gardens/Ulster
Museum/Queen’s University Belfast. We had a cup of tea and a bun to rejuvenate
before boarding again for the last part of the tour!
We finished the tour on the sunny lawn in front of City Hall,
where we held a prize draw with several donated prizes from generous
contributors, including Starbucks (a gift basket and £10 gift card), Top Floor
Art (a Belfast map butterfly by Emma Whitehead), A Million Paper Stars (a hand
embroidered necklace), Lighthouse Yarns (a skein of Botany Lace yarn), and
other items such as handmade stitch markers, colouring books and pencils, and
badges.
It was a great day, and everyone had a blast. Can’t wait to
see what we come up with next year! Hope you can join us!
Jaele