Yarnporium tomorrow!

Stash enhancement

If you're not interested in stash enhancement, look away now!

I've had two rounds of stash this month. First was from the Great London Yarn Crawl and second was my subscription goody from Knit Now. 
Knit Now gave me two Caron Cakes for signing up for their 6 month subscription:

These two cakes are 350m aran weight of yarn, 20% wool and 80% acrylic. On the left is Funfetti and on the right is Rainbow Sprinkles. I had no idea what to make from these at first! The ball band suggests a scarf.... Yeah no... Does anyone enjoy knitting scarves? Instead there's just enough in each one to make a Flax jumper by Tin Can Knits for the 1-2 year size which will be perfect for my two little cousins. Sorted -  pictures in the near future.

I had a great time at the London Yarn Crawl this year! I bought something from three of the four shops on my route.

From Sharp Works:

I love the soft pastels in this DK weight yarn from lilac to sherbet orange to mint green. I was again thinking of the little people in my family and making mittens. Still undecided though. 

I walked past this a few times. It was in a bowl with a range of dark metallics that shone softly in the light. I was expecting a scratchy yarn but its incredibly soft as its made partly with merino. No idea what to do with this - any suggestions? Its only 50g worth so it might be a good accent to a project.

From Loop:

Some more pastels! These are aran weight and next to them were a lovely mitten pattern (yep mittens again!) by Rachel Atkinson  - Ravelry link here. 

From I Knit:

The colours in the photos don't really match real life. Its a lot brighter and louder for both cakes of yarn and is truly eye-catching. I'm thinking a shawl with both colours for some brightness during winter. Any suggestions would be great. Perhaps the pattern - Girl from the Grocery Store by Joji Locatelli? TBC.

I didn't buy anything from the Handweavers Studio but I have booked a beginners spinning class there in November which I'm really looking forward to! I've tried a drop spindle a few times but would love to try a proper wheel. 

That's all this month! Now to start using some of my stash - any pattern ideas?

Great London Yarn Crawl 2017

What a day last Saturday was! I took part in the Great London Yarn Crawl 2017 organised by Allison and Rachel from Yarn in the City and was part of Team Bakerloo. From 10 in the morning until about 8 in the evening I was surrounded by 10 lovely knitters from around the UK, Australia and Canada. All of us live in or around London although I know people traveled from a lot further in other groups. It was such a welcoming group with everyone chatting away and sharing tips and ideas for yarn as we went around London. This was our bag to match the Bakerloo's brown colour on the London underground map:

Inside were some goodies courtesy of the shops involved in the Crawl:

There was a skein of Luma from The Fibre Co. made from linen, cotton, merino and silk. Two mini skeins from Walcot Yarn and Qing Fibre. A button and ribbon from Sharp Works and various postcards with voucher codes from the different shops. And a pattern for the crocheted Contour shawl which happens to be in my Ravelry queue. Good start!

All routes has three or four shops around London. As mentioned in my last post, the Bakerloo route included Loop, I Knit, Sharp Works and The Handweavers Studio. A real mix of shops.

Our guides Ali and Natasha met us at a bakery near Sharp Works in Herne Hill around ten. As I entered the bakery I knew I was in the right place as I spotted a group near the back either knitting or wearing familiar knitted patterns. One woman had knit the Joji Locatelli Starting Point shawl and there were one or two Fireflies Rising shawls which was the KAL pattern for GLYC. Beautiful.

I thought I didn't have many photos but actually there are loads. I blame the yarn haze that descended at each shop! My camera also seemed to have a bit of a haze though as all the photos had random blurry bits that I only spotted when I got home. You might want to grab a tea and a WIP, this is a very picture heavy post!

First stop – Sharp Works. Based right near Herne Hill station and surrounded by lovely cafes and bakeries. I had a look on their website before going but it didn’t do the shop justice I don’t think. They had a space at the back for classes:

At the front there was a vintage cabinet filled with drawers of yarn.

And more shelves stacked with yarn

There were also sample knits to try on and admire. This cardigan/ coat was so comfy I don’t think any of us really wanted to take it off.

Sharp Works runs classes for crochet and knitting at very reasonable prices. The lady who runs the shop was so friendly and you could tell how much she loves the shop. Definitely returning here at some point.

Our next shop was Loop. I have been meaning to visit this place for nearly 4 years! Based in Camden Passage, I nearly walked past as its surrounded by unusual shops selling vintage, curiousities and other oddments.

I even remembered to take a photo of the front of the shop. Loop has two floors and the yarn is organised so that 4 ply, lace and sportweight are on the ground floor and double knit or thicker is on the first floor. Really good idea I think. The ladies who work there were friendly, enthusiastic and helpful (the word friendly will be mentioned a few times in this post!). All the walls were packed with either yarn or samples. So many samples.

And lots of colour

Another sample knit with Jamieson’s spindrift from the picture above:

Loop runs a knit night every Thursday from 5.30. Tempting!

Shop number three was The Handweavers Studio based near Finsbury Park station. This is a bit of a departure from most shops on the GLYC as its aimed at spinners, weavers and dyers more than knitters and crochet-ers. However, they sell cones in DK and 4 ply so its worth a visit anyway. As a novice weaver and owner of a drop spindle this place was a dream. The shop was filled with what looked like bookshelves except instead of browsing books it was cones of thread. 

And fibre

These are merino tops which are usually used for felting. They also had buckets of fibre made out of everything from wool to cotton to recycled plastic bottles to banana. Amazing!

We also received a spinning demonstration from the owner:

Look at all those wheels in the background! I was so impressed that I have since signed up for an Introduction to Spinning class there. They have a whole host of classes for weaving and spinning listed on their website. I also had an interesting discussion with the owners husband who is an IT specialist about the links between weaving and computing in particular the Jacquard loom, Babbage and Ada Lovelace. I wish I could have stayed longer to talk more about this!

Last and certainly not least was I Knit near Waterloo. The centre of the shop had a very welcoming group of chairs and a couch which we all flopped into gratefully. It was around 4 at this point and I think the caffeine had run out in the group. 

I Knit sells lots of different yarn brands as well as its own yarn dyed in house there. I bought two skeins of their yarn which I'll show in another post.

Again its amazing how friendly everyone was, from the person working there to other customers browsing and knitting away. It had a great atmosphere and I can imagine whiling away an afternoon there sitting and chatting.

I can safely say that I am planning to visit all four of these shops again after I’ve used up a bit more of my stash! In another post I will show my stash enhancement from the day in case anyone is interested.

Our final stop was the GLYC afterparty but I’ll mention that in my next post as this one is far too long already! One thing I want to say before I go is that I was so lucky with all the people in my group as they were such a lovely lot. We may even meet up at Unravel next year for a little reunion which I cannot wait for. 

Links:

Sharp Works

Loop

The Handweavers Studio

IKnit

Walcot Yarn

Qing Fibre

The Fibre Co.

Great London Yarn Crawl 2017

I have bought a ticket for my second Great London Yarn Crawl!! I'm not volunteering this year so I can see what its like to be a normal attendee. The Crawl is split into different routes with a range of craft shops. Most are knitting related but one or two are for fabric and embroidery. There are usually 3/4 shops per route and each route this year is named after a line on the London Underground. 

The best bit about a yarn crawl is the opportunity to sit and knit in each shop. It's ideal to get to know your group, exchange tips and ideas and enjoy being surrounded by people who love knitting as much as you do. 

The most exciting part of GLYC 2017 is that it will herald the first year anniversary of me learning to knit. When I went last year I still hadn't learnt how to cast on or even knit a wonky scarf - the inadvertent initiation project of every newbie knitter. I dived straight in with a yarn crawl (and as a volunteer!) hoping to absorb some knitty knowledge from everyone on my route. 

 

Wild and Woolly yarn shop on the Crawl last year

I certainly picked up a lot of enthusiasm from my group! 9 months on and I am knitting my fourth sock, a jumper and having a go at colourwork. Not too shabby! I have also discovered a community online and offline of some of the warmest and most welcoming people I have ever encountered.

There will be an after party and pop-up market after the Crawl taking place at the Central Hall, Westminster. I cannot wait! 

The tickets for the Great London Yarn Crawl are now sold out but they may have a waiting list (information here). 

Have you got your ticket already? Which shops are you looking forward to?

Embroidery and the Great London Yarn Crawl

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.

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.

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

knitwithattitude.com/shop/

www.fabrications1.co.uk

www.wildandwoollyshop.co.uk/

Podcasts this week

Hey Sister Podcast

The Grocery Girls

A Playful Day