Tag: knit

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Woolly Workshops

Posted on by Jackie B

After Saturday’s Embroidery with Sea Glass workshop I got to thinking about a couple of others I’ve been to over the last year. Almost a year ago. I went on a worship on Entrelac and Modular Knitting with Judith Schur of Needlecase at Amble Pincushion. At the time I fell in love with Judith’s beautiful modular shell cowl and started to make my own – I got it finished a while back.

I used West Yorkshire Spinners Signature Sock Yarn in Woodpigeon (variegated in mauve, grey and white) and some pink and purple sock weight yarn I got from a stash sale. I’m so pleased with it – and learning this technique has cured me of my dislike of picking up stitches.

I went on another of Judith’s workshops a few months back. This one was on 2-colour brioche knitting. If you’ve never come across brioche knitting before, it looks a bit like K1 P1 rib and in the case of 2 colour brioche, the knit stitches are in one colour and the purl in another to form stripes…. then you can make the lines cross and form waves. It’s double thickness, so each row is knitted twice (you have to slide the stitches back along the needle before you knot the second one so you need to use circular or double pointed needles.). It feels really squishy .

During the workshop we learnt the techniques and produced a sample square ( I must admit I made a bit of a mess of mine, mainly because I was chatting to the other participants. I had another go and perfected my sample when I got home. Brioche does require a fair bit of concentration.

Next I started a cowl using one of Judith’s patterns. This and two balls of James C Brett Aztec were included in the price. I chose a pale duck-egg blue and a deep green – brioche looks most effective when you use strongly contrasting colours. It’s a lovely aran weight yarn with some alpaca in the blend which makes it really soft.

I did make some mistakes, but I pulled them out and kept going until I got it right. The end result looks amazing and is so lovely to wear – the softness of the alpaca and the squishy brioche knitting makes it incredibly cosy.

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Stash Sale Shopping

Posted on by Jackie B

I’d seen some publicity on social media recently about a stash sale. I hadn’t really thought a lot about it until I realised that it was on the way to Newcastle Airport, where I would be heading to pick daughter up on Saturday afternoon. I thought I’d call in.

If you’ve never been to a stash sale, they are a brilliant way of picking up crafting bargains. Those taking part each have table to set out their wares: anything they want rid of from their crafting stash that others may find a use for.

This one at Stannington Village Hall had been well-publicised and was extremely well supported, absolutely rammed with visiting crafters after a bargain, and there was so much to choose from. There was yarn, fabric, card making, embroidery and quilting supplies and more….absolutely all sorts! There was also a cafe area selling drinks and scones and a raffle in aid of a local food bank.

One of the first things I picked up was some yarn: some big cones of 4-ply in pink, magenta and purple at only £1 each. I also bought some claret coloured cotton yarn, also £1.

I saw a couple of people I knew, including one of the stallholders, a friend that I haven’t seen for ages, so it was lovely to have a catch up with her…and she had some lovely items for sale. This bag of small pieces of sari fabric with embellishments was only £5

I also bought this box of pearly glass beads, also £5, which is perfect for a forthcoming project I’m planning.

There were books, patterns and magazines for sale on several of the stalls and I bought this crochet book – it includes a pretty comprehensive library of crochet stitch pattern, which will come in useful as I design more things for crochet classes.

Finally, there was a length of lace fabric (£1) and a handbag frame (£3)

Not a bad haul for £22!

Have you ever been to a stash sale? What was your best ever find?