Student Penny has a gansey pattern and article in Yarn Forward (issue 18), it's in the shops now - rush out & buy it! Well done Penny!
I really enjoyed the article too, it's well written & very interesting. I think you can be confident that they will use you again Penny.
I met this lovely group of ladies just before I left. They run spinning & dyeing classes, and use fibre from the farm sheep (and llamas I think) and natural dyestuffs grown on the farm. This is a brilliant charity project and I hope to get over there one day when I'm in London. Maybe we could have a meeting there? I was so busy hearing about the set up that I forgot to buy any yarn! http://www.vauxhallcityfarm.org/2008/12/spinners.html
http://www.dyework.co.uk/index.shtml they use historic dye recipes and methods
The Fibre Factory, lovely yarns handspun and dyed by Julie Draper. The (green) tencel was so gorgeous. She was really nice & just loves spinning & dyeing. Her prices were reasonable for such a work intensive product. The Tencel handspun was particularly unusual & interesting and the heathery colourmixes of the wools, etc. were beautiful. All for less than the price of a ball of mass produced Noro! www.fibrefactory.co.uk 01825 763857 and she lives in Uckfield.
I posted about 'Knitting4fun' after Ravelry at Coventry, Bev is lovely, very helpful & really knows her stuff. I bought some 15cm / 6" long 5mm needles from her, perfect for stitch sampling or teaching kids to knit. She has them especially made and wants to know what sizes people might want. bev@knitting4fun.com www.knitting4fun.com 0115 9148774. Her yarn selection is excellent (I bought some Katia Paillettes sequin yarn and Katia Imagine, a fab mix of different textured tonal grey yarns on one ball) and with competitive prices. She did a C&G and has a good understanding of what you are doing. Nicki says: "Bev also sells singles and roving for felting, as well as a lot of felting kits"
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Had a great time indigo dyeing at Sandra's on Thursday.
It's so exciting to watch the unpromising greeny-yellow colour turn magically to a glorious blue as it hits the air & oxygen floods in.
If you want to have a go Fibrecrafts sell kits.
R: using a plate to catch the dye drips & ensure no oxygenated water gets back into the dyebath.
The yarn/fabric turns blue as the air hits it
R & below: part changed fabric
R: partway
L: fully blue
R: using cling film to bind areas to resist the dye.
L: fabric, the resist patterning was made by bound up chick peas! (dried, not tinned!)
Colours vary a little between fibres, the silks were a cooler, turquoise blue
R & below: bindings removed so the background colour shows through
From 10pm - 11pm GMT Alix will be spinning, high up on the plinth in Trafalgar Square. Below is a link to watch this live and another tells you why she wanted to do it. For those of you who haven’t heard about it, it is a work of public performance art devised by artist Anthony Gormley (best known for his Angel of the North).
To watch live: http://www.oneandother.co.uk/
About what I’m doing: http://www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/Knittabhavana
"We got to be featured seller for this week on Coriandr, the British equivalent of Etsy - front page and everything...!"
Well done Sue & Emily!
See it here http://blog.coriandr.com/2009/06/22/featured-seller-%E2%80%93-22062009/
]]>Thank you to those of you who brought to my attention that the current edition of Slip Knot magazine (the Knit & Crochet Guild) has a large advertisment for my courses containing many typos and spelling mistakes....
I had cancelled my advertisments some months ago so have no idea why it was in there anyway. I know they have a new typesetter / printer and can only assume he transcribed this but it wasn't sent to me (or anyone else!!) for proof reading. What people reading it must think about my suitability as an educator I can't imagine...! I am very angry and emailed yesterday - but have not yet received a reply.
I thought I'd show you a few of the paper samples I made on Saturday. I didn't want to just make sheets of plain paper (can buy those!) but some embossed sheets exploring the ideas of random textured marks in sand that I can put in my sand marks sketchbook (seen in earlier posts). After making a sheet of paper I drained it on a J-cloth and then laid on textured paper, etc. and left it under a weighted board to impress their pattern.
Decided it was such a lovely morning that I must go for a beach walk before sitting at the computer all day. So pleased I did, the earth movers (lots of work building groynes this winter) were putting the sand back where it belongs and the tracks were great - Mark-making (M3) on a grand scale.
I Knit London have announced the dates for their annual London big knitting event - Friday & Saturday 11 & 12 September & tickets are on sale, £8 for one day or £15 for both days.
http://www.iknit.org.uk/news.html.