Wondrous Wool

This is a special edition of Woolly Wednesday - it's Wool Week!

(This is a kitty commission I made 

from Merino lambswool a few years ago)

...What's Wool Week, I hear you ask. 2014 is the 5th year of the Campaign for Wool's week dedicated to wool, that most wondrous of natural fibres. This year's edition runs from the 5th - 12th of October and features a whole host of activities and events promoting wool. Want to organise your own? Check out Picknit for some LoveWool resources.

I love the idea of the Wool Ride, a brand new woolly cycle ride held in London on the first day of Wool Week. It appears to have a similar feel to the annual Harris Tweed Ride in Glasgow, albeit perhaps a little more light-hearted and rough (fluff?!) around the edges.

My latest knitting project is a pair of stripy mittens (shown above) in a lovely pure wool yarn. Seemed like the perfect time of year to start something like this, now that the air is crisper, the leaves are turning and it's starting to get dark sooner in the evenings.

One of the reasons I love making things with wool is its versatility. It can be incredibly useful in its many different forms - the elasticity of the fibre lends itself well to clothing which will keep its shape well, but not only that, it has a natural tendency towards repelling water, due to the waxy lanolin of a sheep's coat, even more so if you felt the fabric as the water will simply bead on the surface and roll off.

You can achieve a great stitch definition in a yarn 

with a high wool content such as this one (80% wool)

As many of you will know, wool is a rather wonderful natural fibre, meaning of course that it's biodegradable, unlike many manmade fibres. One which is renewable (thanks to the sheep growing a new fleece every year!), breathable and happens to be pretty great at absorbing a vast rainbow of dyes, as well as coming in a beautiful range of natural hues. Did you know wool can even be used as an insulation material? It's also naturally flame-retardant, believe it or not!

If you're interested in reading further woolly witterings, click here for more #WoollyWednesday posts.

Woolly Wednesday

Here it is! Another Woolly Wednesday :)

I intend to make these themed posts fortnightly for the time being, which hopefully gives me plenty of time to track down some new woolly things to shout about.

Image via Selvedge

The first of these this week is the recent KNIT issue of Selvedge magazine (issue 60). If you're not familiar with it, the magazine is a rather wonderful publication and provides articles covering the world of textiles, via its many applications in art, craft, fashion, design and interiors. The title is published bi-monthly and is one of my favourites (and has been for a number of years), as it features beautiful photography, insightful pieces on the history of textiles and it showcases some really beautiful art and craft. A highly recommended read. I also *love* the giant chunky cable knit scarf on the cover

Image via Selvedge

Issue 60 features knitting in its many forms and some absolutely stunning photography from Ian Lawson's book, "From the Land Comes the Cloth" - a breathtaking visual journey telling the story of Harris Tweed, showcasing the natural beauty of the Hebrides, the woollen raw materials, the painstaking traditional production process and the world-famous finished product. Needless to say, the book is on this girl's wishlist! If you want to have a look at a little preview of the book, click here.

Image via The Catskill Kiwi on Instagram

Continuing with the woven cloth theme... in my Instagram wanderings, I discovered The Catskill Kiwi's feed which piqued my interest because as someone who dabbled with weaving but realised it wasn't for me, I can live vicariously through the lovely textured tapestries of Toni Brogan.

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

...yes, there's been virtual tumbleweed blowing around here lately, I confess! Things have been a little crazy but I have lots of inspiring things to share with you in the coming weeks.

I recently started a new job which has got me walking down familiar paths but seeing things in a new light. I'm revisiting many things I used to be so involved with as a textile student - it's hard to believe it was almost a decade ago that I completed my degree in that field!

The wonderful thing is that I still find this area so inspiring even after all these years. I thought I'd give you a visual tour of what's got my creative juices flowing of late:

This is a gorgeous fabric I recently received in the post, as part of the Hillarys Blinds Country Craft Competition. The fabric is called Bird Parade and it's from their Country Retreat range. I have yet to make something with it, at this point I'm thinking my limited sewing skills might stretch to a bag but I love the idea of a skirt, should I have enough material! If you want to find out more about the comp, check out this post on the UK Craft Blog.

Image via Pinterest

The colours of spring emerging from the garden always have an impact on me at this time of year. I love that first sign of delicate snowdrops, heralding new life and fresh growth, which is soon followed by crocus, daffodils and tulips (one of my favourite flowers).

Image via Designers Guild

The Fabric of Britain

I recently had the good fortune to discover a series of documentaries being broadcast on BBC Four about different aspects of Britain's textile heritage.

I just happened to come across the series by accident when I was looking for something interesting to watch on the BBC iPlayer and I'm glad so I did! Unfortunately I missed the first one, which was entitled, "Knitting's Golden Age" - as you can imagine, to say I am disappointed to have missed it is a massive understatement. However I was able to watch the subsequent one, called Fabric of Britain: The Story of Wallpaper.

This proved to be a fascinating insight into the origins, history and development of wallpaper from the 16th century right through to the present day. As a textile graduate, I always gravitate towards this sort of thing. When I was a student, we had the opportunity to explore three different disciplines - print, weave and knit. The ones I instinctively felt an affinity with were print and knit.

So I did have a personal connection with the subject matter, as through my studies I learned about pigment, the science of colouration and gained an appreciation of different substrates, dyes and printing processes. I feel really lucky to have had the chance to create my own silk-screened designs.

I thought it was great that the programme explained and demonstrated several printing techniques such as lino printing, etching, block printing and even gave an insight into how flocking is created. I remember one of my favourite techniques to do was devoré which is a nifty process used to create patterns whereby a chemical dissolves one of the fibres in the fabric to produce a "burn-out" effect.

I also liked the exploration of the development of different styles over time or patterning and how the fashions in wallpaper have changed - often from heavily patterned to simple clean designs and back again. I love that William Morris designs were featured, especially those stating they were "Arsenic Free"!

If you have access to the iPlayer, I suspect the final instalment, "The Wonder of Embroidery" might be worth a watch... if you're based outside the UK and/or don't have access to the BBC iPlayer, you can still see some video clips of each of the programmes here.

The Fabric of Britain series is part of the wider "Handmade in Britain" set of programmes - made by the BBC in partnership with the V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum in London). More information here.

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2012!

The observant among you may have noticed this pop up on my blog sidebar recently:

It's back! This year Knitting & Crochet Blog Week is even bigger and better than before - with prizes and everything! All the more reason to participate, if you ask me. See the image below for details of the dates and tags - more info, including details of the prizes also available here.

I've participated since the first one in 2010 and I'm happy to say I'll be blogging along again this year. Looking forward to checking out what other fibre fanatics write too :)

If you want to find out more, and/or get involved yourself, check out this post on Eskimimi's blog.

Creature Comforts

I just came across these wonderfully squishy-looking comfy things of loveliness via Deirdre Nelson's twitter feed. Don't they look deliciously soft?






The pouffe is called Slumber (appropriate, no?), designed by Aleksandra Gaca and it's available from Casalis.

Documenting Knitted Graffiti

Yep, you read that right. Knitted graffiti, also known as yarn-bombing is (hopefully) getting its very own documentary! I wanted to share this because I think it's about time this most colourful and tactile form of urban art got a little bit of recognition :)


Find out more about the Yarn Graffiti Documentary project here.

The Silken Thread

I was recently inspired by this gorgeous cashmere & silk yarn created by the lovely Snowberrylime to collate an etsy treasury along a similar theme, entitled "The Silken Thread" - I hope you like :)


The interactive thingy above was created using CraftCult's Etsy Treasury Widget. Yay!

Make Some Noise...

...for the Beastie Boys! :D


I'm excited to say that a piece of Textile Art I created some time ago has recently been featured on the Indie Fixx blog - a guest post by the lovely Michelle of Craftsville (and several other crafty ventures!) on UK stitchery! Read the article here.


The work was inspired by the Beastie Boys album artwork for "To the 5 Boroughs" - if you're not familliar with it, it features a line drawing of the New York city skyline - an illustration by Matteo Pericoli.



Have a lovely weekend, dear readers! I'm going to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!

Adornment

Day Seven: Embellish the story.

I can't believe it's the last day of Knitting & Crochet Blog Week again, already! This week has really flown by but it's been a lot of fun and I've very much enjoyed reading the blogs of other crafters taking part too.

Most folks are covering "your knitting and crochet time" today, but as I did a post last year which I feel would be a bit too similar, I have gone for the wildcard topic which will hopefully make for a more interesting read!

I'll be honest here, I don't really do huge amounts of embellishment on my knits as I like them to have fairly clean, classic lines. An obvious example is these shell buttons which finished off a pair of shoes neatly:


There have been, however, have a few memorable occasions where I have had a bit of a play around with some ideas!

When I was working on pieces for my degree show, I experimented with knitting on huge needles and creating my own yarns from strips of fabric sewn together - I decided to make the stitched joins a feature, using zig-zagging contrasting thread:


Around the same time, I also tried various ways of embedding fibres into knitted woollen fabrics, using needlepunch and hand felting techniques:






...and finally: you'll probably think me a little bit nutty for including this, but I'm going to incorporate it anyway for the fun factor!


In case you're wondering, they're meant to be 'textile art' and were made for a Comic Relief challenge project several years back ;)

Transformative Knits

Day Four: Where are they now? Whatever happened to your _____?

In last year's Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, I wrote about how my creations ended up in the UK DIY exhibition.

I also briefly mentioned Marianne Jorgensen's pink tank cosy which was featured as part of the Craftivism section in the exhibition.

I'm happy to say I contributed a knitted pink square which went into that very same tank cosy! I know it sounds small and insignificant, but together with others who contributed, I like to think the overall result was thought-provoking and memorable. I made a short film clip of the video installation at the exhibition (excuse the awful sound quality):



Over 4,000 knitted and crocheted 15 x 15 cm squares from crafty types all over the world went into making the cosy for a combat tank which was used in WWII. The basis for this installation was a form of protest against Denmark's (also the UK & USA's) involvement with the war in Iraq.

The tank, complete with pink cosy and a pom-pom (!) hanging off the end of the cannon, was situated outside the Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center in Copenhagen in April 2006. As Marianne says, "When [the tank] is covered in pink, it becomes completely unarmed and it loses it's authority. Pink becomes a contrast in both material and color when combined with the tank."

Click to find out more about: Craftivism (definition) | Marianne Jorgensen | The UK DIY movement!

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011!

This phenomena (phenomenon?) began last year...and I'm pleased to say, thanks to the awesome Eskimimi, it's happening again this year! Hurray!

Needless to say, I will be wholeheartedly getting stuck in - I really enjoyed taking part last year and it definitely pushed me and my blogging skills forward.

It runs from Monday 28th March to Sunday 3rd April 2011 and will see crafty bloggers get with the knit 'n' crochet for a week full of fibrous fun.

If you wish to find out more, and/or get involved, check out the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week announcement on Eskimimi's blog and check out the discussion threads on the Ravelry group The Blog Hub, aka the place where it all started!

My Design Process

I recently designed and created a custom scarf for a friend of my sister's and as I had documented the work throughout, I thought I would provide a little insight on my design process for it.


First of all, I needed to work out a pattern, based on what she had requested. This involved lots of looking at pattern libraries for inspriation as well as scribbling and sketching on squared paper. This is generally how I plan out any design before I hand or machine knit one stitch.


Once the pattern was worked out and agreed on, as this scarf was going to be made on my Knitmaster (a vintage mechanical - that's hand-operated to you and I - knitting machine), I needed to create a punch card with the pattern 'punched out.' This means I can easily make my own original designs for fair isle or individual motifs.


Next, I whizzed up a swatch to test out my pattern design on my machine using Merino lambswool yarn and felted the test swatch to see how it looks in the chosen colours.


Once this had been approved, I got started on the final scarf. After felting and trimming of floats/tufts on the reverse, blocking and sewing on my little WildCat Designs label, it was ready to go!

Winter Contemporary Textiles Exhibition

Hi there, I thought I'd share some exciting news with all you lovely readers!

My work has been selected to be included in the Winter Contemporary Textiles Exhibition at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham, Surrey - a gallery specialising in Contemporary Fine Art & Craft.


The exhibition will run from Friday 19th November 2010 (Private View) until Saturday 22nd January 2011.

Beautiful Texture

I have to admit, one of the things which really inspires me and gets my 'creative juices' flowing is texture. Unsurprising, I suppose, as I am a Textile Designer after all. I think it's something I've always subconciously been drawn to.

In fact, I remember when I was preparing my portfolio for art college, my Art teacher at the time suggested that I consider Textiles, having noticed a textural theme in my sketchbooks. Oh how right she was! Strange though, that I never spotted it myself before, and yet now I can't believe I didn't realise sooner, as it is such an intrinsic part of my nature.

So, without further ado, here are some rather beautiful examples of texture that have caught my magpie eye recently.



Ruched Leather Bag from Pixie Market - Just the description 'crackled leather bag with ruched leather' makes my mouth water! Such a gorgeous grey colour and an almost crinkly look to it.



Sonia Rykiel AW 2011



Deconstructed Corset Top from Elizabeth & James - This is simply divine, grown-up feminine glam but a little bit rough around the edges. Rock chick chic!

Ah, if only I could afford some of the loveliness above... *sigh*