I had the day off work today, as I had arranged to take my wife to a craft show at Earls Court Olympia: the Knitting and Stitching Show. This is the kind of thing that I knew she would really enjoy, so I thought it would be a lovely treat for her. I also decided that I might as well show willing by booking not just one place but two on one of the workshop sessions, so we both sat there in the “Beginner’s Patchwork” class, learning how to cut and stitch our hexagonal pieces of material, laying the foundation for… well, whatever we dreamed of making!

Now, it was predictable that there would be more women than men at this event, but I was still a little surprised at just how few men were there. I reckon there was probably one man for every 100 women, so inevitably I felt as though I stuck out like a sore thumb. It didn’t help that the woman leading the class we went to told everyone that I was only the second man who had ever attended one of her sessions. At least I didn’t make a complete hash of it, though I say so myself!

And I was right about my wife - she loved it!