Knitting and Stitching Show

No excuses for being so quiet. Have just been doing a few things after attending the Knitting and Stitching Show in London. Didn't take a sketch book with me so took a few notes and then created a little memory book.

I resisted all the goody stalls when I first got there and visited the exhibits. One of my favourites was "Inspired to Stitch: 21 artists". This was publicising the book by Diana Springall of the same name.



The Graduate show case was, as usual, very inspiring and I was particularly taken by the manipulated textiles that two grads. were showing: textured corsets from one student and manipulated dyed silks of another. As an auntie who spends some of her time playing truant from college work and making stuff for her nephews and neices I admired the ladybird decorated clothing, crazy patchwork bootees and textile embellished story books.

I wandered out of the textile gallery and into another room (not the main hall) and found The Braidmakers workshop. There I was given a demonstration on the history and use of the lucet fork. Apparently this another way of making 2 stitch i-cord. Having a some knitting already on the go and a certain amount of college work mounting up - I resisted....


As there was not a huge amount of seating and it was getting a bit hot in the exhibition I was glad I had booked an hours mini-workshop session on Japanese Stencilling. We were given the workshop in a backroom which, though not glamorous or smart, had chairs, cool air and peace and quiet! Vivien Prideaux, who gave the workshop, packed the hour with plenty of anecdotes, tips, advice and knowledge. It is a shame it only lasted an hour - would be great to have a longer session with her on textiles. It was also the first time I had ever done any indigo dyeing. It, of course, was dead easy - Vivien had prepared the dye vat ahead of time!

Of course I wouldn't forget the SHOPPING! Mainly concentrated on making sure I had a few of the bits and pieces I need for college, for example, silk organza, xpandaprint, designing pattern sheets book and dyed merino felt tops for felt. Treats included getting bamboo knitting needles in a few sizes I hadn't got yet. Major treat of the show was getting hold of an advance copy of this book which was one of the vendors sample copy. Needless to say this is one of the reasons why I haven't been uploading lately (pictures of the results to follow).

Apologies about the funny images I have uploaded. I wasn't anywhere near a scanner so used my trusty camera phone. My little book was made out of one sheet of A4 paper by following the instructions from one of my favourite creativity books "Living Out Loud" by Keri Smith the instructions are also available from her website.