George Bernard Shaw famously said that those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach. And although I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I can’t stitch, the plain fact is that at the moment I don’t, so last week it was rather a treat to at least be able to teach!

Yes, it was the Knitting & Stitching Show, and although unfortunately I was unable to teach James the Snail, the Little Wildflower Garden workshop went ahead as planned. Well, almost as planned – the tail end of the railway strike combined with the workshops being moved to the far end of Alexandra Palace meant that several morning classes were a few attendees short. But those who were there enjoyed themselves and made great progress with their freestyle gardens.

Apart from teaching, did I acquire any stash at the show? Well, a few things: some pearl purl and coloured rough purl for kits, turquoise silk dupion and silver kid for the metalwork course I’m teaching in November, and some bottle green silk just because I liked the look of it – every show needs one impulse buy, don’t you think?

But even more fun than the stash were the people! Such as the American lady who got her times mixed up and arrived at the workshop 15 minutes before it ended, which led to her treating me to a cup of tea during which we had a quick one-on-one workshop and a lovely chat about (among other things) wine tasting, being an ex-pat, and Flanders & Swann; and Marlous, my fellow Dutchwoman and RSN student also known as the Stitching Sheep, with whom I caught up while she was helping out at the Golden Hinde stand.

And then there was the RSN stand. They are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year, and one of the things they used to entice people into the weird and wonderful world of embroidery was a big anniversary design set up on a slate frame. Future Tutors took it in turns to work on it, and members of the public could sit down and add a few stitches themselves. As I was chatting to the Future Tutor on duty, a lady looked at the embroidery and said “oh, I could never do that!” A short conversation elicited the fact that she did cross stitch and had also mastered French knots and blanket stitch, so we encouraged her to sit down with me and we stitched together. 10 minutes later she knew how to do detached buttonhole stitch to make a frilly edge. Result !

Another way of sharing the love of stitch is through my kits. It is my firm belief that anyone can stitch if they can just be persuaded to Have A Go. I try to make the instructions as detailed and complete as possible so that it does’t matter whether you’ve done Hardanger or freestyle or Shisha or goldwork before, if you methodically work your way through the instructions you will create something to be proud of. And although the contents of the kits are, to some extent, more important than the looks, I want my kits to be something to be proud of too! So one by one I am turning the loose-leaf instructions into neat booklets, and more and more of the kits will come in a useful (and recycleable) box rather than a plastic grip seal bag, as the Goldwork, Appliqué and Quatrefoil kits already do.

But whatever form the instructions take, one thing remains the same: a lot of measuring, cutting and ironing of fabric. I didn’t count them all, but including the backing fabrics I must have ironed well over 170 squares last night while watching an André Rieu concert (makes for very rhythmic ironing…)

The only other news at the moment is that I have decided to temporarily pause my RSN Certificate. What with a course to teach, and other stitching obligations in the next few months as well as our main business, I simply haven’t got the energy to give it my full attention – and it definitely needs that. So I have cancelled the classes I had booked, and I must say that has considerably reduced my feelings of stress. Who knows, I may even pick up some stitching just for enjoyment!