she dunnknit! ‘knit the city’ goes live…

Hurrah! Knit the City launched last night in a spray of yarn, cake and sparkles, and now is set to take over the world! Giant squid wrestler, Deadly Knitshade (whom I suspect might be my studio mate Lauren O’Farrell), launched her book chronicling the yarnbombing shenanigans that she and her knitting buddies get up to in London. Great photos, funny captions and right in the back, some simple creature knitting patterns.

Plarchie the giant squid (who even has his own blog) got his own window display from the gang at Gosh! London comics shop, who hosted the party. Here are Fleece Station studio friends Alex Milway and Katie Lee cowering in fear behind him. They were both eaten shortly after this photo was taken. …And here’s the lovely book! It’s surrounded by woolly friends, including one of Alex’s Mousehunter mice and our studio mate Gary Northfield‘s Derek the Sheep.

Lots of strange little creatures popped up everywhere during the evening! I took a sip of bubbly and the Moomin’s Little My sprang up in front of Ian Culbard’s At the Mountains of Madness.

Here’s a little video I made of the launch speeches:

YouTube link

Here’s Deadlyknitshade herself, just before everyone arrived, trying to coax the little critters to hang around for the party.

Here’s Perri Lewis, sticking last-minute stars on to Wonder Woman’s bum. (You can see Perri’s blog post about the evening here.)

Gosh! London was such a fab venue for the party, our studio – The Fleece Station – has long been combining knitting and comics, so it felt just right. Here’s owner Josh Palmano overseeing the pre-launch ruckus.

Gary’s sister, Susannah Northfield (pouring champers here) made the most amazing Knit-the-City-themed cakes. Gary’s dad helped her bring them over, a real family affair.

They looked fabulous displayed on Gosh’s table made out of a sign for the Central Line. Look, there’s Plarchie! And phonebox tea cosy cupcakes! There was even a map on the cake from the Knit the City endpapers, which were drawn by The Fleece Station’s own Gary.

Whoo hoo! *Snoopy dance* (Deadly K does a lot of Snoopy dancing on Twitter.)

Super-glam Noëlle Davies-Brock, illustrator of Andy Stanton’s picture book Here Comes the Poo Bus!

Ask these lovely folk for the real family secrets about Deadly Knitshade, they’ll know all the best gossip.

We love Gosh! Here are some of the lovely team, including Casper Palmano, Barnaby Richards and Julia Scheele.

Rock legend Nick Tesco and indie comics star Francesca Cassavetti:

That lovely lady in the middle is our fab studio mate Ellen Linder and we are both proud to be included in Knit the City‘s acknowledgements: Sarah and Ellen (of Fleece Station fame) for bubble tea, brilliance and bad singing as I worked.

Noelle, Tanya Meditzky, Ellen, Tony Mines, Stephen Betts of Comix Influx, Barnaby

Here are Richard Hayes and actor Julie Ross.

Hey, Julie’s doing a play that sounds fab, Don’t Ask the Lady…! on Sun, 30 Oct at Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre, in East London – see here for details. Here’s the flier:

Grabbing Gary’s dad for a quick squeeze…

And look, there’s my Vern (of Vern and Lettuce) doing a little dance in front of the new book! Everyone go out and get your copy now!