If you love to knit socks – and, let's face it, once you've started knitting socks, it's impossible to stop – you'll already have heard about Cookie A's super sock designs. Her book, Sock Innovation, is due out, and London yarn supplier Loop will be hosting the book launch on Sunday 5 April from 4-6pm. You'll be able to meet Cookie A and buy copies of Sock Innovation, and if you don't fancy ordering individual patterns from the US, Loop also stocks Cookie A patterns here in the UK.

Entry to the book launch is free, but if you want to go please call Loop on 0207 288 1160 to let them know you'd like to attend as space in the shop is not unlimited.

Can you tell what it is? It's hard to guess from these close ups of bright, fluffy, brilliant fibre work, but these snaps are all part of the UK's Crochet Coral Reef – and it's coming to the Stitch & Craft Show 2009 at Olympia in London!

Rowan is 30!

To celebrate, they've organised an exhibition of some of the iconic pieces which helped build the company we know and love today. It's a unique opportunity to see designs from past issues in real life – without knitting them yourself, that is!

The exhibition lauches tomorrow at the North Light Gallery in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Entry is free and you can visit the exhibition from 10-4 on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 August and Friday 12 and Saturday 13 September, after which, we've been told, it will be off on travels around the globe.

Weekend knitting workshop

The
Saltaire Arts Trail takes place from 11-21 September, and this year
includes an ace knitted river. The Saltaire
knitted river. We mentioned the river in issue 43 of Simply
Knitting, when we featured the Saltaire Knitterati, the people behind
the river, as our club of the month. They mentioned at the time that
they could use a few extra hands to help the project come to fruition –
and of course, you turned out in force!

"Please
allow me to complement you on your readership!" wrote Knitterati
organiser, Maria Crimmins. "Our River has been contributed to by people
the length and breadth of the country.  One lady said that she
knitted her squares whilst watching Wimbledon!"

What are you doing for World Wide Knit in Public Day? It's this weekend - Saturday 14 June, to be precise - so it's probably time to start thinking about it. If you fancy meeting up with some like-minded knitters, there are KIPs listed on the WWKIP Day site in locations as, well, local (to Simply Knitting HQ at least!) as Bristol or as far flung as Anchorage, Alaska.

Alternatively, if – like most of the Simply Knitting team – you're planning on spending the weekend with non-knitters, you could resolve to get your pins out in public anyway. Whether it's at the pub, on the bus or in the queue at the supermarket, it's easy to raise a little bit of awareness of knitting, to say: we're here, we knit, and we're cool!

When we heard that Brandon Mably was teaching a course at West Dean College in Sussex, and decided to find out a bit more about what's on offer – and there's a lot!

Brandon's one-day workshop on 24 June is entitled Colour in Design, and will draw on his own marvellous sense of colour and design, as well as all those useful hints he's picked up from working with Kaffe Fassett for so many years.

West Dean is also offering a broad range of short courses from spinning to felt making through beginners knitting, colour work and texture and jewellry. They also offer longer textile courses, right up to MA level and courses in a range of other disciplines. The only downside is that it's a bit far to commute from Bath, but there's always the summer schools – perhaps a bit of blacksmithing would liven up the office?

Today, Tuesday 22 April 2008, is Earth Day so in honour of the occasion, here are 22 yarn related things you can do for the planet.

The Institute for Figuring is creating a crochet coral reef. It's easy to make despite the serious maths which inspired it and a very pretty homage to the world's disappearing underwater landscape.

If you're new to crochet or fancy kick-starting your coral creation in the company of like-minded yarnies, join Prick Your Finger and the Cast Off Knitting Club on Saturday 26th April from 2-5pm at
The Florist  Pub, Globe Rd, E2 (just opposite the Prick Your Finger shop) for a free workshop session.

Rachael Matthews, who writes our regular Cast Off column, says, "If you are new to crochet, come and learn! The marvelous thing about this project is that it's experimental, so don't worry about making mistakes – it can all look like something that grows under the sea!"

And with all the weird and wonderful sealife out there, even the strangest bits of crochet will find a happy home before the whole reef goes in display at the Royal Festival Hall in May.

"We will provide some yarn, hooks, and lots of plastic bags and video tape to chop up and mix with the wool," says Rachael, "but please bring any materials you have going spare. There will be lots of workshops on the Southbank over the summer. Our Saturday workshop is just the beginning, so come along and get hooked!"

On Friday 21 September at 10am, Craft 4 Crafters opens at Newark and Nottingham’s George Stephenson Pavillion.

With an amazing 90 exhibitors, the three day Stitch & Thread 4 Crafters and Paper & Card 4 Crafters covers the full range of crafting from knitting to card-making, through buttons, embellishments, and pretty embroidery.

The folks who do those lovely smoothies we've been knitting hats for are hosting their own village fete.

As they don't have an actual village as such, they're organising a big bash in London on 4-5 August.

Don't feel left out if you're not in the capital though - the fete is touring the country from July to September.

It's going to be a fun event - and rumour has it there'll be some knitting involved...more hats perhaps?

You can also register your local village fete on the Fete Finder, and perhaps discover another great day out nearby. Good stuff.