It's been a busy few weeks! It's my fourth week back at
university and getting used to early mornings and commuting in the sardine cans
known as the London Underground. The lectures have been very variable but
really interesting. Needless to say, term time means less time for creativity
so my knitted bunny has slowwly appeared with only one leg to go now and a bit
of sewing together. One of my goals this academic year is to create a better
work-life balance between revision and everything else. Fingers crossed. One
website that has really helped me with this through learning how to organise my
life better is bakadesuyo.com. It has great articles on being organised,
formulating routines and prioritising the important things in life. It may not
be relevant for everyone but it's been a great help so far.
On the creative side - I have been going to some great events.
The first one was an embroidery refreshers afternoon with the London Craft
Club.
Based in the back of a food and wares market, a small group
of us gathered around a table covered in a rainbow of embroidery thread. We
spent the first hour on colour theory, which is basically how to match colours
for a project so it doesn't look like they've been chosen in the dark. It's a
surprisingly interesting topic and after the class I have really begun to
notice colour combinations used in advertising and patterns in Ravelry.
After that we got onto the pretty stuff. Embroidery! I think
I went into sensory overload when I was told to pick just three colours out of
the multitude on the table. Looking around the table at the others, I knew I
wasn't alone. Sonia who was leading the class helped direct us to different
shades of the colours we had chosen to make even more vibrant or pastel based
groups. We then learnt how to place the fabric in the embroidery hoop and a few
basic stitches. I've recently started following Sarah K Benning on Instagram so I drew a small cactus for my sample piece.
I'll post a finished photo so you can see how the rest of
the cactus went :)
Then, very excitingly, I was a volunteer last Saturday at
the Great London Yarn Crawl 2016 which was organized by the lovely ladies from
Yarn In The City. It was so much fun! There were 12 teams of varying sizes all
of whom went to three or four yarn shops around London. As a newbie volunteer I
was given an easy route around three gorgeous shops in East London: Knit with
Attitude, Fabrications and Wild and Woolly.
I started the Crawl at a little cafe in Stoke Newington
called Chumleys so I had a central place for the yarn crawlers to meet up. All
the tables were old school desks with the lifting lids and the walls were
covered in posters. Not cheap but really good food for breakfast including
bacon and pancakes covered in syrup. Yum! I had eight lovely women in my group
all of whom were very keen knitters. As a beginner it was wonderful to be
surrounded by experienced knitters who were more than happy to share their
knowledge and hints and tips.
Each shop was very individual and really welcoming. Knit
with Attitude was a mix of yarn, jewelllery and a few other items. From what I
could understand the shop is shared between a few people which gave a mix of
different mediums. As someone interested in just about everything and anything
this was a great way to browse. I bought two skeins of 4 ply ‘scrumptious’ by
Fyberspates in Charcoal (grey) and Oyster (pale gold).
Next stop was Fabrications based in Broadway Market. The
owner, Barley, has been in Broadway Market for quite a while now and a lot of
her products are based around her passion for up cycling and preventing waste.
I particularly liked her cushions made from the inner tubing of bicycle tyres. She very kindly let us sit and eat our lunch
in the downstairs class space and made us tea. Thanks Barley! Fabrications run
workshops in sewing and knitting which vary from beginner classes to different
ways to upcycle clothing and other materials.
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| The wall of yarn at Wild and Woolly |
Our final stop was Wild and Woolly. We arrived to find fresh
tea and coffee and cake and biscuits made by Anna who owns the shop. It was
lashing with rain by this point and we had ages between this shop visit and the
after party. Was this a problem? Not at all - Anna invited us to sit and knit
and natter for as long as we wanted and kept us topped up with hot drinks. She also gave us free reign over her ball
winder which provided many minutes of fun. I wound my new skein I bought from Anna from The Wool Kitchen
in Ziggy, it's amazing how different yarns can look in skein and ball form.
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| Image from Wild and Woolly |
A fantastic day with lovely people and lots of yarny
goodness! I cannot wait for next year with faces new and old and more
importantly new shops to visit!
Shop links
Podcasts this week
Hey Sister Podcast
The Grocery Girls
A Playful Day
