Jam-packed July

Well I think you will agree we have had a surprisingly summery summer so far, and I don't know about you but this has increasingly become one of the busiest times of the year for me, and this July has been particularly busy. As well as going to Stitch Camp earlier in the month, I did the 10k Cardiff Race for life which proved to be a great day out. Here we are with the finish line in view (actually the real finish line was the pub afterwards....):

Next on the agenda was a long weekend at Warwick Folk Festival. As well as enjoying some great music and festival fun it was a great opportunity for me to meet up with my family who live a fair distance away. I volunteered as a steward which I can recommend - not just because it pays your ticket, but it is an enjoyable experience to be part of the event and supporting the organisers to make it a pleasurable and relaxed experience for everyone. It's also an opportunity to give Betsy (my tent) an outing - Betsy is very popular with other campers and I reckon she has her own fanclub. Quite a few folks were taking pictures of her so I dare say she's doing the rounds on the internet.

It was a real roaster of a weekend so I was glad to be pitched next to the fire buckets!

Then, before I'd finished unpacking from the weekend, it was all systems go setting up the Stitches Coven creative textiles exhibition, followed by our  launch event the following day. This year's work has been inspired by architecture, and here's a picture of our group installation of doors within a door - I'm afraid it's not the best photo so do urge you to pop in to see it and all the other pieces in the flesh at Swansea Grand Theatre (1st floor, white room). The exhibition runs up to and including Fri 15th August - if you are able to go, do leave us a comment/message in the comments book -  it would be lovely to hear from you.

Group Installation, Doors

One of my offerings, called Bridging

And if you fancy seeing more textile creations (you can't have too much of that now, can you??) why not go along to see the Dylan Thomas inspired exhibition by 'big sister' group, Itchy Fingers. This will include the show stopping Llareggub Village Installation Piece, a miniature manifestation of this imaginary village in textile form - definitely not to be missed. “Dylan in Stitches” will be showing at the Taliesin Art Centre, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea. SA2 8PZ. Our private view will be on Friday 15th August 2014 from 6-8pm. Sarah Hopkins will be opening the event and you are invited to what promises to be an exciting evening. The exhibition will run from 15th August until 20th September 2014. 

Well, with all this going on you may not be surprised to hear that after some early enthusiasm my garden has been languishing somewhat from neglect! - But I have had the beginnings of a runner been harvest - whoooop!

Over to you

Well that's it for now - I hope you are having a lovely summer. Have you been busy too, or are you wisely taking time to relax in the glorious sunshine we've been having? Let me know what you've been up to by commenting below - I'd love to hear from you about your summer frolics.

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Stitch Camp 2014

I had a wonderful time away with Sian Martin's Distant Stitch Summer School at Farncombe Estate near Broadway in the Cotswolds. This consisted of a long weekend with one of 2  accomplished artist/tutors where we were immersed in textile art & Design for the duration. Distant Stitch is an online 'school' for people to learn textile arts, and is a great option for those who need flexibility, but also those seeking to undertake City & Guilds courses which (sadly) are now rarely available as  local courses you can physically attend. As well as having ongoing support via email etc, each student has the opportunity to attend the Distant Stitch Summer School.

I find the most challenging aspects of creative textiles is getting started with ideas and interpreting them into textile art pieces, so I opted for Rosemary Campbell's class which  focussed on this very  topic.This was the first Distant Stitch outing for me, and I had a lovely time meeting fellow students as well as gaining inspiration and learning by the bucketload!

The weekend ran from Fri pm to Mon am and was really intensive, with long days in the studio running from 9am to 9.30pm - hense the term Stitch Camp! You could take time out whenever you wanted but, like most of the students, I wanted to make the most of my time there, immersed in all that creativity. This was made all the more possible by the fact you didn't have to consider anything else - all meals, refreshments etc were provided and the accommodation was great with fabulous grounds and breathtaking views.

Farncombe Estate

Rose proved to be a fantastic tutor - positive & encouraging, but also pushing us out from our comfort zones to help us move forward on our individual creative journeys. A mine of information and inspiration about textile design & composition, Rose walked us through the process of coming up with strong, developed designs that take several steps along from, but still relate to the original source of inspiration. All heady sounding stuff, but her delightfully wicked sense of humour and relaxed approach made this great fun.

Here are my efforts - I looked at 2 subjects - the New Birmingham Library which I'm currently fascinated by, and the Chelsea Hotel in New York.

These working designs will I think be great starting points from which to develop into textile pieces, and I'm fired up now with loads of tips and ideas about how to use these in compositions and carry them forward.

You can see what the other students got up to on the Distant Stitch  Facebook page - I'm sure you'll agree they're a talented bunch.

This was my first Distant Stitch Summer School, but not my first Stitch Camp. The last couple of years I have attended the TSG (Textile Study Group) Summer Schools which I would also highly recommend - if you are lucky enough to get a place. These provide ongoing creative development for artists and tutors but  they are open to anyone - less accomplished stitchers are welcome, and I found everyone to be friendly and encouraging. Although they are a fair investment they offer excellent value and attending a stitch camp can really help boost your knowledge, skills and individual development. All in all I have found they provide a great opportunity for touching base with your passion, resetting your compass and planning the next steps of your creative journey, as well as meeting others who share your interest in textiles.

Over to You

Have you attended a stitch camp or similar such as a residential course or retreat? If so, did you enjoy it and find it a valuable experience? If you haven't attended, do you think you'd be tempted in the future?
 
By the way, for those of you who live in the Swansea Area, local textiles group Stitches Coven are putting on their annual exhibition at Swansea Grand Theatre from 29 July to the 15th August. If you are in the area do come long to our launch evening on Tues 29th July, 7-9pm.

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Want to get started with Crochet?

Crochet seems to be enjoying a real renaissance at the moment and granny squares seem to be everywhere. With so many gorgeous yarns to choose from these days too, crochet is shaking off its fuddy duddy image with some stylish contemporary designs, and there are many advantages to crochet.

It's quick, portable and you can plan as you go: Crochet grows quickly and you can make a small project in an evening. Unlike knitting you don't necessarily have to have your project mapped out in detail to start - as you only work on one stitch at a time you have more freedom to move around with your crochet, adding bits and hopping across to join onto other bits as needed. It's also highly portable - just yarn and a hook, plus you don't have to worry about dropped stitches.

It complements knitting beautifully: If you are a knitter, crochet is great for adding decorative finishes to knitted items, and crocheting on an edging can feel so much easier than picking up and knitting a load of stitches along hems and edges.

It's great for colour and using up stash: Using colour in glorious combinations is relatively easy with crochet, and you can make beautiful items made up from the smallest of yarn left-overs you may have in your stash.

I receive many requests for people wanting to learn crochet, and my beginners workshops are usually oversubscribed. Of course face to face workshops are always best for learning practical skills, but where this is not possible for whatever reason, then I think other resources such as books, blogs and video can be very helpful. It also helps to find a friend or local group of knitters/crocheters too for ongoing support and sharing of ideas.

There are plenty of books out there and I'm sure you can find something suitable at your local book shop or on Amazon . However, I appreciate not everyone finds it easy to learn a practical skill from a flat written page, so you may find video is more helpful. Designer Joanne Scrace of Not So Granny has a great blog here and she also has a few beginners videos to help you get started. You can also search YouTube, but bear in mind US terminology differs from UK. You will need to know how to hold your hook & yarn and make a chain, and how to do double crochet and treble crochet stitches (or single & double crochet stitches if you are from the US).

I'm thinking of making a few videos on this myself to make it easier for you folks. Before I do though I'd love to know if you have looked at any crochet (or other craft) 'how to videos' on Youtube etc, and what you think to them? Have they helped you to learn? If not, why do you think that was? What was missing?

If you have managed to get to grips with the basics and working in rows (well done you!), it can be a challenge to know how to move your skills on so you can start working in the round to make interesting shapes, motives and the good old Granny Square. Again a workshop can help here, and as it happens I have just a couple of places left on my Next Steps with Crochet workshop at Swansea on 21 June 2014 :-) Click here to find out more.

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Wonder Wool Wales

I went to Wonderwool Wales at the Royal Welsh Showground the other weekend and am only just now getting round to telling you about it. If you've never been, be sure to put it in your diary for next year - if you love artesan yarns & fibres it's really not to be missed.  There is so much to see and do, and of  course buy! I thought I did pretty well on the self restraint front only coming away with this little bundle of hand dyed yarns.

The lovely sunset colours in the bag are Dazzle 4 ply (bluefaced leicester) by the Natural Dye Studio, and the gorgeous golden yellow skein is by Easyknits which has a bit of spangle in it and is appropriately named Twinkle - I have a very good idea what it is going to be when it grows up too..............

Did any of you get to Wonderwool Wales this year? If so what caught your eye, and what temptations did you give in to?

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Knitting Tension (Gauge) for the Terrified: Part 1

So you've spent hours seeking out the pattern of your heart's desire, you've found the perfect yarn to knit it with that you makes your heart sing (and your mouth water!), you've snatched the size needles recommended in the pattern from your stash, you sprint over to your fave knitting seat and just are about to rip that ball band off in joyous frenzy- STOP RIGHT THERE and read on !!!

I know I touched on this subject in my how to substitute yarns of a similar thickness tutorial, but as tension really is the keystone to knitting designs I feel a more in depth forray into this topic is warranted.

A surprising number of knitters skip the vital stage of swatching their tension before embarking on their knitting journey for a number of reasons:

• they are impatient to to start knitting the actual project
• it seems to be a mysterious and unfathomable process
• they are not sure how to go about swatching for and measuring tension - knitted fabric is pretty wriggly isn't it?
• they believe there is a RIGHT or WRONG tension, and feel defeated if theirs doesn't match, so if they don't swatch then they don't have to feel bad about their knitting ability
• it can seem tricky to match the tension exactly and feels like they are fumbling in the dark.
• they are worried about 'wasting' yarn, or running out of yarn if they've used some of it on swatching.

I'm sure you can think of  more reasons why folks avoid the tension swatch - if so, do share by making a comment below.

I can relate to all the above, and confess that in the early days of knitting I never swatched, and sometimes this works out just fine for simple projects, but it often leads to some disappointing results such as:

• it comes out too small or too large
• you can't get your head through the neck opening
• the pieces don't fit very well together when you come to making a garment up
• the resulting knitted fabric 'drops' because it is knit too loose
• the resulting fabric feels stiff because it is knit too tightly
• you run our of yarn before you finish and can't get more in the same dye lot
• the yarn you chose doesn't actually look that good knit up to that pattern afterall.....

After weeks of slaving over a hot pair of needles this can feel disastrous, and all that hard work (and costly yarn) ends up relegated to the back of your wardrobe which is such a shame. For the sake of a couple of extra hours, the outcome could be very different, and a couple of hours seems a small investment of time  to make before committing to all those hours it will take to knit your project.

Now I know that some of you die-hard non-swatchers have heard all this before, but nothing convinces as much as a real example -  seeing really is believing. These two samples were knit with the same yarn and same number of stitches – the only difference was the needle size used – the smaller sample used 2.5mm, and the larger used 4mm. As I hope you can see this has made a huge difference to the dimensions of the finished samples, and should hopefully persuade even the most resistant amongst you to take the time to do that tension swatch.

Next time I'll show you how to measure the tension of your knitted swatch and, more importantly, what to do if yours doesn't match what the pattern is asking for.

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