I'm a Kipper?

Yesterday was the World Wide Knit in Public Day, KIP. I was organizing it at the Villa Cooper like last year and the year before. So, does it make me a kipper? I do like to eat fish, but smoked herrings are not a favourite.
Anyway we were knitting in the lovely garden on Villa Cooper, and this year seemed to be a success. The famous knitting café and yarn shop Lentävä Lapanen you might remember by its translation Flying Mitten was with us and brought loads of their delicious yarns for sale.

We placed the tables in the shadow, but soon they were in full sunshine. These ladies found a great place in the shadow:

The weather was beautiful, but almost too hot in the sun. Luckily we had a pop up café inside the Villa Cooper, with coffee, tea and cold refreshments to go with the delicious treats baked by two of the club members. The balcony on the garden side of the house was a perfect place for a cuppa, and the lawn in the garden could have offered excellent places for picnic if there had been even more visitors.

Skeins of yarn need to be wound into balls so helping hands make the job easy.

We had an exchange point (on the left) for materials no longer needed. I brought some fine crocheting yarns I  knew I'm not going to use ever, and found two almost untouched balls of baby wool I will use for knitting baby hats or booties for charity.

On this little table in the center was my  (Villa) Cooper's Test point. Ladies who took the test had to show their ability to read knitting instructions and show the basic skills by knitting a 14 stitches by 14 rows sample with knits, purls, yo's and k2tog's. Timing was voluntary but everyone wanted to time their performance. The majority of the test group (which was only 7 persons) finished the test in an amazing time of less than 12 minutes, a result never achieved in the official Cooper's Test that requires running. My ladies managed this in hot weather and sitting down! Isn't that lovely! They received the result card with their name and time, and a shiny heart sticker of their choice.

I have been knitting in my spare time too. In the middle is the pair I showed you earlier when it was half done, on the right a pair with the rest of that hand dyed yarn in broken seeds stitch with a dark purple yarn rest, and of the left a simple pair of cotton mix socks in a self striping yarn in lemon and lime colours from the Flying Mitten.

Rosa pimpinellifolia or the Finnish Midsummer rose was already opening its buds in the garden of Villa Cooper, two weeks before Midsummer.