The BEST WWKIP Day Ever

Clockwise: 1. Marie, Melyssa and Abraham with Christine grilling corn with her hubby in the back; 2. Seven our new alpaca friend; 3. (l-r) Holly's pooch, Holly, Michelle and Denise L. from the Anaheim Hills group photographing me photographing her; (l-r): Gloria, Victoria, Renata and Rachel chatting in front of the prize table.

This past Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day! Many groups in and around Southern California held WWKIP events. Of course this year, my knitting group held our annual picnic to coincide with WWKIP. We invited other knit and crochet clubs from Orange County, Long Beach, Los Angeles and anyone else to join us in the festivities. I think we had the very best WWKIP event. In fact, I think we may have had the best event all around! Okay, so I may be a little biased, but I don't know if the other groups say the following about their WWKIP events:

• We had jugglers and spear throwers who brought juggling and a unicycle. I didn't get photos of the jugglers, but Christine from Long Beach SnB did here!
  

• We had vivacious knitters that tried to knit while hula-hooping!

Above: Zona trying very hard not to drop her hoop and her stitches!


Above: Rachel also trying to keep up her hoop and stitches.

• We had animals at our picnic, including an alpaca! People brought their dogs, some kids brought their surprisingly cute rats and new ATS members Amanda and Margo brought their alpaca Seven, named so for his 7-7-07 birth date. I was really resisting stealing him away in my car, and since he's small, I was thinking that I may be able to pass him off as a rare dog breed or something. ;) Zona snapped a photo of the kids playing with the rat right above my head - eek!.
  

Clockwise: 1. Some kids playing with a pet rat. Rat is on the long-haired girl's shoulder; 2, 3. Seven the alpaca showing off his cute face and new haircut for the camera; 4. Seven smiling for the camera.

• We had musicians singing for us with their guitars. Zona also has a picture of Jeff and his guitar.
  

Jonathan and the kilt-wearing Jeff singing some tunes for us.

• We had several games and contests including a speed knitting war and a mystery fiber game! I didn't snap photos of the finished war fish, but Denise L. did here and here. Zona has a photo of the prize table.
  

Clockwise 1. Robert and 2. Chia working on their Knitting War projects, trying to kill each other off; 3. & 4. Courtney, Shawn, curious boy and Zona check out the Mystery Fibers.

• We had lots of spinners too, including a few very handy and crafty kids who got the hang of spinning in no time!

Clockwise: 1. Kristi spinning some luscious green wool ; 2. Jamie gets the cutest apprentice to help him spin some undyed wool from a small mill; 3. Me spinning some silk; 4. Aliza wanted to learn to spin, so I let her try out my wheel as her brothers watched.

• We had customized name tags! I made about 30-35 name tags for the folks that I knew from ATS and the Anaheim Hills Knit Night. I'm just a little bummed that I forgot to take photos of two of my favorite tags that I made. I made a "King Snark" for Robert, who is undoubtedly the bitchiest and snarkiest member of our group. (Robert wore his tag with pride, btw.) I also made one for Zona's very understanding hubby (Jeff the guitar-playing kilt dude). I gave Jeff a club of his own: S.P.O.O.F. (Supportive Partners Of Out-of-control Fiberholics)

All in all, we all had all the ingredients for a stupendous WWKIP event. We had good food, great people, fiber, prizes, laughs, good weather and an alpaca. Really, what can one ask for? I have more pics uploaded in my Flickr (lots more of Seven).

All this fun would not be possible without our group's fearless leader, Renata who did most of the arrangements, from the park permit to the pop-ups, tables, banner, jugglers and spear throwers!



Clockwise: 1. Karen and Debbie ; 2. Me, Rachel and Zona; 3. Abraham working on his needlepoint while Jamie knits.