On Tuesday evening, I went to central Copenhagen for an event where Marianne Isager would speak about her inspiration and design ideas. I ordered 2 tickets for the event in the early summer, but it turned out, that the friend I had thought would go with me, was unable to. So in the very last minute I posted in the Danish Knitters group on Ravelry, that I had an extra ticket to trade for a skein of yarn.

I was fortunate enough that Lisbeth replied that she would love to go. I had’t met her before, but we arranged to meet outside Sommerfuglen (who had organized the event) and then go and have something to eat before going to the venue.

We clicked immediately and had a great time eating Indian take-out and chatting about knitting. Lisbeth had some lovely yarn for me and we talked and talked and then we had to go.

When we entered the venue, we immediately realised that we were very yong compared to the rest of the crowd. But we got a seat and took out our knitting and in a few minutes Marianne Isager began her speaking. Now is the time to explain why I had ordered the tickets, even though I don’t really like most of her designs (I adore most of her daughter’s design (she is Helga Isager [ravelry link]), but that’s a different blog post:-)). Marianne Isager is one of the most respected Danish knit designers and is very inventive with new techniques and patterns, and I thought it would be interesting to hear about where her inspiration for the new designs come from.

It was. She talked about getting inspiration from travels - from artefacts at museums (and this is mostly her fairisle knitting patterns) and from old sweaters. She had a lot of her garments available for trying on, but unfortuntely we weren’t able to take any pictures. She showed some of her new designs (childrens) and some of them were really very interesting. I especilly liked a girls tunic inspired by the H.C. Andersen’s fairytale The Snow Queen (sorry, that I can’t show you pictures (they are copyright protected), but follow the link to see it).

All in all I had a great night – but the most giving part was hanging out with Lisbeth. I love making new knitting and sewing friends! And she also sews a  lot!