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.

One day to go - Great London Yarn Crawl 2017!

How is everyone? I am very excited that it’s finally Friday not just because it means it’s the weekend but also because tomorrow is the Great London Yarn Crawl!! I have mentioned the Crawl before (here and here) and am really looking forward to going to my second one. GLYC will be five this year and is a great way to explore different yarn shops in London with a group of like-minded people. Its split into different routes covering different shops and so allows you to explore different places each year. This year I’m going to be part of Team Bakerloo which will be going to Sharp Works, Loop, The Handweavers Studio and I Knit.

Sharp Works

Sharp Works is based in Herne Hill in London. I don’t know much about this shop and I’m looking forward to reviewing it after tomorrow. They have a website but it doesn’t show all their products. It appears to be a mix of yarn and haberdashery which is a nice mix. More after tomorrow!

Loop

I have been meaning to go to Loop for aaaages. Its not that far from my normal commute through London and it has been mentioned on quite a few podcasts previously. Loop sells a broad range of yarns including Brooklyn Tweed, Malabrigo, Madeline Tosh and many others including indie dyers. Loop hosts classes and a weekly knit night on Thursdays in their shop in Camden Passage, Islington. Check out their blog here.

The Handweavers Studio

Slightly different to most of the other shops in the Crawl, the Studio is aimed specifically for weavers. They sell cones rather than skeins and also have wheels and looms for sale. I have been here once before and they are really helpful and patient with new weavers! They run weaving and spinning classes and a weekly evening for general weaving with a teacher to help you. This is beyond my budget at the moment but I think would be an invaluable way to learn! The Studio is based near Finsbury Park station.

I Knit

Another new to me shop! Gerard the owner dyes yarn and also runs classes in the shop. The shop is a stone’s throw from Waterloo Station. That’s pretty much all I know except that they have a knit night on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

After the Crawl I’m hoping to give a bit more of a review of each shop and how the day went! After trailing around London there is a mini yarn market with 13 different stall holders. If you’re interested in the Crawl but haven’t got tickets this year, sign up to the Yarn in the City newsletter (here) for news about tickets for next year and their other event  - the Yarnporium. 

Have you got any plans this weekend? 

The Frog and the FO

This seems to be a week of firsts! I finally frogged a project and I finally finished a project. I started the Hermione socks but having changed both my needle size and starting number of stitches the sock was going to be far too small. So the logical choice was to rip back and start again. It's amazing how reluctant I was to do this! I think the knowledge of the time spent knitting up to that point meant that every stitch I pulled off the needle felt like time lost. Conversely poorly fitting socks would be far worse in the long run and would remind me of time wasted making a whole two socks that didn't fit.

The sock

Back to the start

Another exciting first for this week is my first ever finished object!! I counted the other day and I have 16 works in progress (WIPs) currently sitting in my room. I can now say that's down to 15! Still a huge number but I'm getting there. No new projects can be cast on until I'm down to 10 projects. I think I'm going to set that as my new maximum. What's that I hear you say? You don't care about WIPs, what's the FO? Fair enough really, I am rambling...

Well back in July I went to PomFest (see my post here) which was a combination of a yarn market and a series of talks. I made it to PomFest late on Saturday afternoon so missed the talks but still got to see all the yarn stalls (yay!). I got chatting to the lady running the Garthenor stall and ended up standing there for a good twenty minutes. Garthenor is a company based in Wales which sells 100% British wool yarn and has been around for a few years now. Inspired by her enthusiasm and humour, I bought 100g of Llanwenog DK yarn which is naturally a beautiful creamy white colour.

Garthenor has a huge range of yarn from different sheep breeds from around the UK and on their website they have a page for each one explaining their origins. I really like their story of the journey from sheep to finished ball of yarn. Their website is here.

Less than ten minutes after getting home from PomFest, I cast on the Llanwenog to make a hat! My first ever hat as well. The yarn is described as giving good stitch definition so I chose a cable hat pattern. My Ravelry pattern notes are here

It started as a moustache of a hat while doing the rib.

Then a fringe:

I quickly got to the cabling, the best bit! I think basic cabling makes a plain hat more interesting without much extra effort. At this point I went to Tanzania on holiday so of course I took some knitting.

This hat was knit on a plane: (with a cheeky G&T)

And on a beach in Zanzibar: (yes those are my pale english legs)

And then finally finished! 

It's surprisingly hard to take a photo of a hat on yourself! The first three photos looked a bit manic because I was concentrating so much, looking at the floor seems to be the way to go!

If you would like to try Garthenor yarn but want to squish it first, they are sponsoring the Great London Yarn Crawl after party and will be there with a stall. Tickets are already be sold out but there may be a waiting list. More details on the Yarn in the City website here. I think I might take my hat and show the people at the Garthenor stall :)

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?

Freedom! AKA the holidays have arrived!

Today is the 5th day of my long awaited three weeks off. I have been catching up on sleep, podcasts, more sleep and my languishing knitting projects in that order. It is wonderful. I have sat down to knit without the normal niggle that I should be working and found that half an hour can go by without realising. Does anyone else ever have that feeling?

I finally put pen to paper and worked out how many works in progress (WIP) I have. 
9 knitting WIPs including 4 lonely socks without partners, half a scarf, a hat, a jumper and a bunny that just needs to be sewn together. 
2 crochet WIPs, a crochet blanket (Moorland from Attic24) and a virus shawl. 
And last but not least a weaving sample that's been ignored for nearly six months.

I think my current time off might not be enough.... Better get cracking!

What are you working on? 

PomFest 2017

Pom Pom Magazine has been running for five years this year and to celebrate they created PomFest - a three day yarny festival with talks and a pop up market. I didn't have a huge amount of free time over the weekend but I managed to go late in the afternoon on Saturday. I missed the talks but if there's another PomFest I would love to listen in!

The Pom Pom team were manning the door and giving out tickets. It was nice to put faces to the voices I hear on their podcast. They kindly gave us two tickets for the price of one as I'm a student and it was late in the day. Great start! If you haven't listened to the Pom Pom podcast aka the Pomcast you can listen to it on their website (here). They are really cheery and well worth a listen.

Mum had a quick loop of the vendors with me before heading for the cafe. She's not a knitter and unfortunately twisted her ankle on the way. A cup of tea and a tasty cupcake definitely helped. Its great taking her to events like this to show the innovation of the designers and indie dyers. She was very impressed with all the knit up samples and said she wished they were for sale as well. I have a feeling I'm going to have a few requests for Christmas this year including this gorgeous cardigan from the latest Pom Pom magazine:

And this one:

Yarn purchases! I'm trying to make everything I buy a bit more mindful so with that in mind (haha!) I think my stash enhancement was pretty controlled. I did however do a lot of window shopping of the other vendors for future yarn ideas. 

I have had my eye on all of the Coop Knits books and this one appealed to me most on the day. It was nice to talk to the author behind the books although I was too shy to ask her to sign it. Shyness was a running theme on Saturday. 

I'll do a full review of the book once I've had a proper read of it. Look at all the colourwork on the front cover!

I couldn't walk past the highly colourful Easy Knits stall without having a look. It was a riot of colours. Its at this point I wish I had taken photos of the actual Pomfest and the vendors. Learning point for my next yarn festival visit! The Easy Knits guys had a little sausage dog called Sweep (because his ears sweep along the ground I'm guessing). He almost received more attention than the yarn on the stall. Almost. I picked up this mini skein pack with the aim to buy more in the future. Their range of different yarns was impressive and I would definitely like to buy more of it.

I have been eyeing up the Tanis Fiber Arts pattern for multi-coloured cardigan called Lifesavers (link here). The main colour is a dove grey with regular stripes of different colours. Flicking through other knitters versions the cardigan is a blank canvas to try lots of different variations. Either rainbow or a spectrum of a particular colour or even monochrome. There are endless combinations. These minis are a great start.

With my next purchase, I have to start with the bag that came with them. A normal brown paper bag but the handles were wool!

This is 100% organic wool from the company Garthenor. I'm not entirely sure what makes some wool organic and not all wool? Will need to research that at some point. The wool was nice and crunchy but not scratchy and I cast it on as soon as I got home. (Can anyone say 'too many WIPs?') 

This is destined to be a hiking hat one day! Again I wish I had photographed the stall as it was so well put together. The lady running the stall was so so friendly and we had a great chat about different sheep breeds particularly the ones native to Wales where Garthenor is based. If you would like to try Garthenor yarn but want to feel it first, they are sponsoring the after party for the Great London Yarn Crawl 2017. More on the Crawl in a later post but tickets are nearly sold out so get yours ASAP.

And last but most certainly not least was a skein of yarn from Stranded Dyeworks aka Amy from the Stranded Podcast. Again another podcast thats well worth a listen and can be found on YouTube. Look for Amy Edwards Green and the podcast should appear. I have been listening to Amy's podcast for quite a while now and she is exactly the same person in real life as on her podcast - friendly, bubbly and full of energy!

This is a 4 ply yarn with 75% merino and 25% nylon so ideal for socks, shawls, jumpers or anything really. I would love a jumper out of this.

This is a lot of photos but I had to take a few different angles to capture the many facets of this yarn. I'll be interested to see what it looks like once its wound into a cake. 

And thats all of it! I briefly spoke to Amy from Stranded Dyeworks as well although I was too shy to ask for a photo with her. Maybe next time! Will definitely be working on my courage to talk to podcasters especially as they're always lovely when you do :)

Links for the shops mentioned:

Coop Knits - www.coopknits.co.uk

Easy Knits - www.easyknits.co.uk

Garthenor - https://garthenor.com/

Stranded Dyeworks - www.etsy.com/uk/shop/StrandedDyeworks

Have a great week everyone!

Wo-oh! Halfway there!

Wo-oh we're halfway theeeeere! Wo-oh living on a prayerrr!

Two exams down and one to go! The last exam takes place over two days so I'm tempted to count it as two really. A two day exam is just wrong on so many levels. I haven't posted on here for ages because revision has had to take priority leading up to my end of year exams. But by midday next Thursday I shall be free to relax and do whatever I feel like! I CANNOT WAIT. Can you tell I'm excited?

Knitting-wise a few things have been on the needles. I have taken some speedy photos - be prepared for a bit of blur!

I tried my first piece of colourwork:

The square is a little bit smaller than the plain knit square behind it so more practice needed (and blocking)! It was fun to try something new and get started with a new technique. This is from the Knit Now Enchanted Cottage KAL. You end up with enough squares to make a blanket. There are three square patterns in each magazine aimed at either beginner, intermediate or experienced knitters. Not entirely sure how many magazines you need to buy to complete the pattern, on five so far.

I've started a pair of Hermione's Everyday Socks. The pattern is free and available on Ravelry.

Sitting on a beach definitely helps when knitting. This is the lovely West Wittering on the south coast of England. The sound of the sea cures everything and gives you a deep sense of calm. I love this place and if I could, I would be here everyday rain or shine. The yarn is Regia 4 ply in Mosaik Istanbul.

I have also started the Tin Can Knits Flax Sweater, or a jumper as we Brits call it, in worsted weight yarn . There's not much of it at the moment so photos will follow once its more substantial! I am knitting it with some acrylic yarn from Hobbycraft which is obviously not what I would have as my first choice. As a beginner knitter I'm not yet ready to splurge on a sweater quantity of more expensive yarn. It would add pressure to get the jumper exactly right because of cost rather than for the end product. Now I can enjoy discovering how to knit raglan sleeves, shaping and how to make a jumper in general. Its toasty here in the UK right now but it should be done in time for cooler weather in September. 

That's my five minute speedy update! Back to the revision books! How has your July been so far?

I shall leave you lovely people with a picture of Harvey in his normal state of being - asleep and content:

Charlotte and Harvey x