Thank you for coming on our first Rowan Day Out to the Clothworkers’ Centre and the Spring K&S Show. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as me. Aside from the fascinating things that we saw it was a pleasure to meet two groups of such interesting people.
There were Rowan readers from the US and Ireland, from Newcastle and North London. Among them was a paper conservator, Rowan Designer Sarah Hatton, Knitting Magazine’s 
Deputy Editor and a lady whose grandmother had been a milliner for the Queen Mother. We saw a fabulous Norman Hartnell dress that had been worn by the present Queen too.
Suzanne Smith, Manager of the Clothworkers’, showed us some of the amazing textiles that the V&A store there. Alongside some astonishing knitting we saw ball gowns and hats, sample books and carpets. You can search the V&A archive online to see images of some of the things we examined.
Apologies to those who were hoping to meet Mary Schoeser, curator of the new Fashion and Textile Museum exhibition showcasing Marian Claydon’s fashion from the 1970s. She had been stuck in traffic and missed meeting you all. I caught up with her later and she told me all about the clamp-resist technique used to make the distinctive patterns on her garments. You can see the actual clamps at the exhibition at the Fashion and Textiles Museum in September or look at her fabulous book, Textiles.
We’re hoping to plan more Rowan Days Out, so if you have an idea of somewhere you think other knitters would like to go then let us know.