beaded bag, probably 19th century. Part of the collection of the Knitting and Crochet Guild, UK

Last year I delivered a paper at the In the Loop conference in Glasgow entitled Sparkle: the art of bead knitting. The knitting-related conferences have been organised since 2008 by Linda Newington of Winchester School of Art, and this one was subtitled From Craft to Couture. The three-day conference featured lots of interesting speakers and covered the many different aspects of knitting. You can read a good account here and more information about the knitting reference library at Winchester here

As part of my research into beaded knitting I visited the Knitting and Crochet Guild at their headquarters in Holmfirth, Yorkshire last summer. The lovely, heavily beaded bag above is in their collection (every stitch knitted has a small glass bead on it!). The Knitting and Crochet Guild is an excellent institution and is run by volunteers – relying on subscriptions to maintain their large collection of knitted items and patterns. I joined and am now pleased to say that not only will I be attending the next meeting of the London branch on 6th February, but I will be giving my talk on beaded knitting, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation of images of gorgeous beaded knits!

For more information about the Guild see here, and for details of the Central London branch meeting see here. Non-members are welcome to come and although I’m not quite sure what happens at these meetings, I’m sure there will be lots of lovely knitters and cups of tea!