wool house entrance with woolly trees

I can’t believe I’m only just posting this, but I managed to make it to the fabulous Wool House on its very last day.  It was an exhibition by the Campaign for Wool, spanning ten days, to promote the multiple uses and benefits of wool.  For those who missed it, the exhibition took over a section of the beautiful Somerset House in central London, showcases the uses of wool in clothing, furnishings, art, and just about any other use you could think of.

sheepy entrance guards

There were different themed rooms, each with its own focus, whether natural, modern, or nursery (by far the cutest:)

a tweedy toy tucked up in bed

loved these guys

There were some really lovely homewares, which I realised my flat is lacking.  I didn’t get a photo, but there were walls draped in wool fabric as wallpaper (woolpaper?) to0.  Ah, for a pinstripe room!

wool blankets

wool vases, but purely for decorative purposes I expect

fancy a cuppa?

lovely rug

a wall of yarn…I just wish my stash was this tidy

I really liked the incredible detail of the exhibition, right down to the Black Sheep Ale that formed part of one display:

mmm, woolly beer!

It was such a great exhibition, and over the ten days, they had something like 17 000 people come through the doors.  I’m rather immersed in the knitting/crafting community, so it was great to see how much wool is appreciated more broadly.

Some of you may not be aware, but there is a fantastic FREE craft night that happens in Hackney on the last Tuesday of the month.  It’s The Make Escape, and it’s held upstairs in The Attic at The Hackney Picturehouse.  It’s such a great night, I can’t believe not everyone knows about it yet!  The idea is that it’s a space where people can drop in from 7.30pm and just join in with the crafts that are happening on the night.  Each month hosts a different theme, and last week was all about Easter.

Here’s my bunny nugget with a very woolly sheep cosy:

Making the most of the opportunity to learn a new skill, I had a bash at crochet.  It’s hard to believe that someone has actually taught me to crochet before, but since I’ve never practised, I’m still completely rubbish.  I just can’t seem to figure out how to tension the yarn without a needle in my left hand, so I ended up with the smallest, tightest few stitches known to humanity:

Catherine Hirst tried to reassure me that an inability to tension the yarn is very common in beginners, but I think maybe crochet is just not the craft for me.

I had a little stall with my yarns and got a chance to talk to some really interesting knitters and crocheters.   I love how people are welcome to set up a stall and then help out or run a workshop for the evening.  I’m already plotting and scheming for some good ideas for future workshops.

The fabulous Momtaz who organises the night was busy taking photos of the evening’s craftiness, which she has put together in a blog post here.  There’s even a photo of me, but I can assure you, I was much happier than the photo suggests!  (I really need to work on my fear of being photographed).

All in all it was a great evening and I’m looking forward to more.  The next night is April 30th, with the theme of jewellery.  Break out the sparkly stuff!

I’m currently feeling slightly ill from eating too much chocolate.  Oh dear.  I hope you’re all having a great crafty weekend.

The thing that I love most about Walthamstow is the great sense of community.  I’ve jumped in head first, am getting involved in everything I can, and have even set up a knitting group (see here! Come join!). (Oh, and for those of who are not local, yes, it’s the birthplace of 90s band East17. There’s no need to include a link for that, is there?)

One local event that I discovered is the fortnightly E17 Pop-Up Restaurant.  Held every second Monday at the famous Ye Old Rose and Crown, the lovely Will hosts the evening which showcases a different international cuisine each time, and it’s about as authentic as it gets.  I was very excited about the first one that I came across: Burmese.  Can’t say I’ve ever had Burmese food before!

It was really, really good.  For a bargain price, we got a delicious three course meal, with chickpea fritters to start, a main course of butternut or chicken curry on noodles with all the extras, and a dessert of mango and lime cheesecake or coconut sago pudding.

Of course my photos don’t do it justice, but I was too eager to eat the food rather than mess around with settings on my camera.

I missed last night’s Korean meal as I’m currently in Cornwall (more about that soon) but I’m looking forward to seeing what’s up next.

Oh, and expect more blog posts from around The ‘Stow.  There’s lots of  great crafty stuff happening.

23-24 Feb        Unravel Farnham Maltings, Farnham, Surrey

16 March         Edinburgh Yarn Festival The Drill Hall, Edinburgh

27-28 April     Wonderwool Wales Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells, Powys, Wales

28-29 June     Woolfest Mitchells Lakeland Livestock Centre, near Cockermouth, Cumbria

27-28 July       Fibre-East Redborne Community College, Ampthill, Bedfordshire

7-8 Sept           British Wool Weekend The Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate

28-29 Sept      Yarndale Skipton Auction Mart, Skipton, Yorkshire

10-13 Oct         Knitting and Stitching Show Ally Pally, London

19-20 Oct        Bakewell Wool Gathering Bakewell Agricultural Centre, Bakewell

28-29 Oct        Fibre Flurry Birmingham (exact venue TBC)

31 Oct-3 Nov   Knitting and Stitching Show RDS, Dublin

21-24 Nov        Knitting and Stitching Show Harrogate

I’m very pleased to see the ol’ favourites with some new events too.

Please leave a comment if you know of others that I’ve missed out, and let me know where you’re planning on heading!

I got to meet lots of new people, and particularly exciting was meeting ravellers “in real life” for the first time.  It’s always amazing to make face to face contact with people you’ve interacted with on the internet.

One of my favourite aspects of doing a market stall is getting to know the other stallholders.  I love learning about the stories behind their products and hearing about their experiences.  As usual, my stallholder neighbours commented on how “dedicated” knitters seem to be (I think that was a polite way to say yarn-obsessed) and I couldn’t really disagree.  I completely love the knitting community and wouldn’t have it any other way.

I also had lots of friends pop down (which was great not only for company, but also to give me the chance to get some lunch!) but my only regret was that I didn’t get a chance to go shopping at the other stalls myself.  We were part of the 70 stalls designated for the We Make London designer-makers, so there was no shortage of creative goodness to check out.

One of my friends came along and helped to ensure that my displays were all nicely colour co-ordinated…

I had plans for doing a giant Etsy shop update after the market, but I got the sudden news that my landlord wants her flat back, so I’m currently doing a mad dash trying to put my life in to boxes.  I’ll be moving house next weekend, so there will be new stock in the shop once I’m unpacked.  I’m moving to a very creative part of London, opposite another knitter, so there should be lots of knitterly things coming up!

Many of you will be aware of British Wool Week, which is part of the Campaign for Wool‘s promotion of wool and encouraging its use in a range of industries.  Every year there are various events around the country to mark the week, but unfortunately it has also coincided with a ridiculously busy period for me so I couldn’t participate in anything.

I did actually stop by Covent Garden to see the Woolly Golf, which was billed as “a golf course made entirely of wool with over-sized sheep obstacles”.  It sounded like good fun.  However it clearly wasn’t my lucky day, as it was closed (during its stated opening hours!) and this was all I got to see:

Harvey Nichols also had a giant ball of yarn on the front of their store, but it takes a lot for me to venture in to West London…

So, for those of you who saw more of Wool Week than I did, I’d love to hear about it.

We Make London have also been busy putting together a book to showcase some of the amazing creative talent in London, called Inspired:London, A Guide to Handmade London.  The book is divided in to geographic areas, so you can find out about the creative talent in your own neighbourhood.

I was quite happily flicking through the sample printup of the book, when it became apparent that Julie was in fact featured in the book herself!  Can’t believe she kept that quiet.

Oh, I haven’t yet mentioned the real reason were were at the market that day:  I’ve booked a stall for myself! I’ll be flogging my wares selling my yarn there on Saturday November 10th from 11am to 5pm.  At the moment I’m excited and terrified in equal measure, so all friendly visitors will be warmly welcomed!

I spent a night en route, staying at a little B&B in Ullapool, a small town in the Scottish Highlands.  It’s the sort of place that really does feel like an outpost, like I was reaching the end of the earth.  There was an interesting feel to the place, and I can imagine Ullapool has an amazing atmosphere during the various festivals that it hosts.

It so happened that there were two fellow knitters staying in the same accommodation (henceforth known as M&M) who turned out to be excellent fun and very good company.  We actually got kicked out of the B&B the next morning for chatting away for hours over breakfast; I don’t think the owner quite knew what to do with us!
Nonetheless, the view from my room was pretty amazing, and a rainbow appeared just as I was leaving:

There was a delay in the next part of our travels due to the weather, but after driving on from Ullapool, heading down a single lane track to Achiltibuie, and then boarding the ferry, we arrived at our destination of Tanera Mor.  It’s a small island inhabited by only a handful of people, and there are five houses on the island which are used for holiday lets, or for weekly retreats for various activities.

The knitting retreat was organised by the lovely Helen of Ripples Crafts.  There were 11 of us on the retreat (and a similar number the previous week), staying in two main houses (plus a few of us, myself included, sleeping in a shed at the back!).  As you can see, the two houses were spectacularly located:

The smaller house at the front, known as the Farmhouse, had a great view from the sunroom.  It was a great spot to sit, knit, and watch the ever-changing view, and this was where I spent a lot of my time.  And as they say, we had some weather, so there was always plenty to see.  The weather alternated between wind, rain, hail, and even a bit of sunshine, so we definitely had it all.

I seized a moment of sunshine to knit outside for a bit whilst taking in the view:

but even when the weather turned, we had an endless supply of rainbows.

The island also hosts day visitors during the summer (weather permitting, of course) and there is a little cafe/post office along the waterfront where people can grab a cuppa and a snack.

The island is outside Royal Mail’s jurisdiction, so it’s necessary to purchase additional Tanera Mor stamps to cover postage to the mainland.  I love an island with its own postal service, so there was a bit of postcard writing to make the most of it.

As my broken hand hasn’t healed properly I didn’t actually get a great deal of knitting done, but that was OK.  I took the opportunity of the “retreat” to do just that; retreat from the usual expectations, deadlines, and stress.  I actually came away feeling very inspired again, and with my creativity back in full swing.  Of course, a few days back at work soon put creativity back in its place!

We were the last group booking for the summer, and I wouldn’t want to speculate on a causal ink, but within a few days of our departure the family who owns the island announced that they are making it available for a community buyout…

You can see more blog posts about the retreat here and here.

For now, I’ll just leave you with a few more photos from the island, and I’ll try to pretend that I’m not back in the real world again.

The Stratford Olympic park was amazing. Even though there were probably 80 000 people at the venue, everything ran so smoothly. The army seemed to be managing the security checks which were incredibly fast; airports could learn a thing or two!

We had really great seats (well done Andrea) with the 200m track events starting right in front of us. With so many track finals happening, the field events got somewhat neglected. The javelin was fun to “ooh” and “aah” over, and the mini Minis were a brilliant idea for returning the javelins.

I also got to do a Mexican wave, so that’s my sporting experience complete.

I then went to see a Paralympics of a different kind. The kind that’s knitted!

Some of you may have seen media stories about a woman by the name of Mary Haggerty in Walthamstow who put up a knitted olympics display. I didn’t get a chance to visit, but I followed her on twitter, and made sure to see her Paralympic display. I did a bit of a Saturday afternoon touring wiht a few of my knitting group.  I think the display has become quite the tourist attraction:

Definitely not your average front garden!

If you’re in London this weekend I’d highly recommend heading to Walthamstow as it’s the last days of the fab E17 Art Trail. I’d love to hear about favourite art works and exhibitions you’ve seen over the past fortnight.

Personally, I’m not in London at the moment as I’m on my way up to Scotland for a knitting retreat. More about that when I return…