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Rowan Workshop USA Tour 2009

Rowan Workshop Tour USA & Canada 2009

As Rowan’s 30^th Anniversary continues to tour the USA, author and workshop tutor Sharon Brant embarks on a series of Rowan Workshops down the East Coast of America and Canada. Over the next two weeks she will be keeping a diary of her tour and updating us here…

“Well here I am, sitting on my bed in Ken and June Bridgewater’s house (The founders of Westminster Fibers - Rowan distributors in the US) as there was a slight change to my schedule.

After a bumpy departure from England the plane managed to smooth out over the Atlantic and after all my emails were sorted it was time to get the knitting out.

I arrived in Boston nicely relaxed and ready for my car journey to a beautiful little town called Lennox in MA. Lennox is the home of Colourful Stitches a beautiful yarn store with owners Mary and Bonnie. We have had two great workshops over the weekend teaching colour and designing your own accessory. Ladies travelled miles to be there which was a real honour.

Mary and Bonnie also have the 30th Exhibition on display at a gallery in town and have done Rowan proud with its presentation. If anybody can get there it is worth the trip!!

My hotel was called the White House and it is where a famous first lady stayed, I don't know about her but she needed long legs to get on the four poster bed!!! I had a step to help me, I wouldn't recommend the hotel if you have vertigo!!!

In the morning I am off to the home of Witches! Salem, where the witch trials took place."

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Well I finally reached Salem, home of the witches. Last night’s workshop was a great event which started with an Indian take away and finished with a bottle of champagne! (My kind of knitting workshop!) I was teaching at a fantastic store in Salem named Seed Stitch Fine Yarn.

The Workshop subject was Style a Knit to Suit You. The purpose of the workshop was, for each person to create and take away with them a template of their own measurements and then use this to adapt a Rowan pattern to give them a perfect fit. The ladies who attended the workshop were a great bunch and seemed really happy with the fruits of their labour!

The weather has been bright and sunny but quite cool, I did have time to check out the witches and also visit a design museum (for research purposes!)

Where to next….let me just check my itinerary…

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Since I spoke to you last I have been quite busy, Wednesday I had the day off from workshops and made a start on a little Christmas shopping which was fun.

Thursday June picked me up and we drove from Salem to Woodbridge in Connecticut and did a finishing techniques workshop at the Knit Barn and then turned around and drove up to Sudbury MA for a workshop at Knit Purl.

On Friday evening Jess collected me and we drove up the coast road into Maine to a town called Freeport. The home of LL Bean, you mean you have never heard of LL Bean? It is a famous store that sells all equipment for outdoor pursuits and is open 24 hours. Along from the LL Bean Mecca are a number of outlet stores and guess where my hotel is, yep you have guessed it right next door to the stores. I was pleased to say I was busy in a workshop all day today in a wonderful store called Grace Robinson's, well worth a trip for any knitting lover. Her stock is huge and the staff are so nice and so knowledgeable.

I started my workshop day today by being picked up by Grace's husband David and the next thing I could see blue lights coming from behind and we had been pulled over. Grace had forgotten to show the registration stickers on the car which should have been put on back in June! She said it had been raining in June so she couldn't stick them on. David and I did comment that it was now November and she just shrugged her shoulders! Well it was a first for me and it felt like the movies!!

We had a great design workshop and spent many hours laughing and joking, oh yes we did do some learning too. I think all the ladies really enjoyed it and went away with lots of ideas for their knitting projects to get them through winter.

I have stayed at a wonderful hotel here in Freeport and couldn't resist ending the day in the jacuzzi which is in my bedroom!

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Well I came back to Nashua NH on Sunday and spent a day in the Westminster office yesterday, our plans were to discuss a few things for next year but turned out that most of the day was spent on Pest Control! We had a Rowan Squirrel making himself right at home in the boxes of yarn!

The local animal police patrol was called and we managed to get him into one area. He set a humane trap (he obviously couldn't resist the cracker and peanut butter) and was on his way to his friends in the trees later that afternoon.

Today I am just sitting in Boston airport as I leave for Toronto. I will be collected by Carolyn from Main St Yarns in Ontario where I am workshopping tomorrow.

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Since Nashua, I flew from Boston to Toronto, I was picked up by a lovely lady called Stella who originally came from London, and so I enjoyed catching up on how things are back in the UK.

I arrived at Carolyn's lovely store in Milton Ontario, all the yarns you need and a lovely Rowan corner. I enjoyed a full day workshop there with 12 ladies and we did Tips and Techniques. I stayed with Carolyn and her family, a free spirited son called Nathan and a cheeky husband who loved to talk politics! We had real fun and lots of laughs. It is just good to know the mum and teenage son relationship is the same wherever you are in the world! - Nagging about homework and trying to get them out of bed and ready for school on time.

On Thursday I flew over to Ottawa and was met by Giselle, the owner of Wool n Things, A real treasure trove of yarns and a fantastic range of Rowan. We had three days of workshops; a workshop based around the Autumn Winter collections, Tips and techniques on Saturday, Style a Knit to Suit You on Sunday. Giselle did so well by filling all of the classes, on Saturday I had 22 ladies! - Which kept me on my toes. I was joined by two sisters, Monique and Helene for all three days, they were real fun as they spent most of the time niggling at each other, real sisters!! And real characters. They had fun having dinner together, drinking a bottle of wine and discussing their knitting each evening.

I am now just waiting to picked up to go to the airport to start my long journey home, it is snowing outside but hopefully not bad enough to delay my flight. The family is looking forward to me coming home, most probably just to do some washing and clean the house!! - I can't wait to see Charlie the dog, and yes of course the children and my husband!