Knitting and Stitching 2015 – Adding to the stash!
Some of you may be off to this show at Olympia, London this weekend so just wanted to share with you some images of my visit on Thursday (great idea to have half day tickets at reduced price, unless you’re going to a workshop it’s hard to see how you could spend all day there). My aim in going to these events is to get some inspiration for my next designs as well as having the inevitable shopping spree – I’d been trying to find some buttons suitable for mug hugs and wanted to be able to feel what I was buying rather than use online shops, so had several good reasons to go! I was quite restrained and only purchased a few things!
The yarn is cotton which I want to use for ‘mug hugs’ and my jellyfish amigurumis (or possibly finally venture into creating a cuttlefish) – I was a bit disappointed at the yarn offerings this year which were firmly geared towards knitters and bulk buying. I use only small amounts of yarn at a time in a variety of colours, there weren’t many places I could find these. One stall I did discover was RKM Wools where there was a rack of cotton yarns in a variety of weights and colours – sadly even they didn’t have the weight of crochet cotton I was after (No 3 if you’re wondering) but were very helpful and friendly. The plain aran yarn was exactly what I was looking for, as were the buttons which I got from a couple of stands: Italian Buttons (no active website) which are the plastic ‘sweetie’ ones; and Textile Garden who had a wonderful range of buttons to ‘pick and mix’, where you could select individual buttons (all priced separately) which made it perfect for me as I only wanted a few to try out.
Thread cutter
For a while I’d been considering buying a thread cutter pendant and I managed to find this lovely metal example; when I’m crocheting and travelling on public transport I generally crochet a few motifs or flowers, and use my ‘snips’ or some children’s scissors but I often feel I might be accused of carrying a dangerous weapon so have been in search of an alternative. The thread cutter has a circular blade embedded in the pendant and you slide the yarn in to one of the indentations to cut it. This one is from Sew Mate (other cutters are available!) and it cuts crochet cotton well, will have to see if it can cope with DK acrylic yarn. I also plan to take it on my next plane trip as scissors are usually banned for hand luggage. From the same stall I bought some more tapestry needles for the DIY crochet kits I’ll be selling at the next craft show.
And finally, pure indulgence! The material is from Beadtime and I felt the fishes calling me. Not sure what I’ll use it for – lining a bag perhaps but I love the print.
The National Fashion Textiles Competition
The show was hosting the finalists’ entries for the competition which is open to 16-19 year olds. I am was truly astounding by the quality and imagination in their work. (see if you can spot the lavender stalks and grass used in one of the entries…)
Crochet Jungle
If you’ve never crocheted before you might wander over to this stand (part of Toft) and have a go (or you might like to show off your skills).
seawitchcrochet 