At Cheshire Fibre Festival we cover many fibre crafts – weaving, spinning, needlefelting, crochet, hairpin lace crochet, modern Irish freeform crochet and knitting. This week I’m sharing more information on the knitting workshops.

These are tutored by Lynne Rowe. Lynne is an expert knitter and crocheter; she designs, teaches and provides technical editing services in these 2 crafts.  She has also written several books, the latest is called Knit Yourself Calm which I rushed to buy when it was published; it covers the health benefits of knitting and in particular how it can help you to manage the stresses of modern life.  It provides a variety of lovely knitting patterns to suit your mood and help you relax.

Lynne’s two knitting workshops at the festival are:

Knitting with Beads – 9.30am to noon.

Learn how to knit with beads/how to thread beads/work a beaded cast on and place beads to create patterns.  You will make a scandi-style christmas tree decoration. Suitable for a confident beginner who would like to expand their knitting skills
Cost £25, includes materials (needles provided for use on day)

Knitted socks – 1pm to 4pm

Learn the basic principles of sock knitting; knitting in the round using double pointed needles/how to knit a cuff/leg/heel/gusset/foot/toe shaping/Kitchener stitch.  You will make a small Christmas stocking using double knitting yarn.
Suitable for a confident beginner who would like to expand their knitting skills
Cost £25, includes materials (needles provided for use on day)

You can book these workshops by emailing Lynne (details on the Cheshire Fibre Festival page) or through her website:  Knit, Crochet, Create.

Happy knitting xxx

 

Nicola Rudd will be running 2 workshops at Cheshire Fibre Festival covering weaving and spinning.

Her morning workshop will teach you how to spin using a Dizzy Sheep spinner.

If you haven’t tried this then you will be amazed at how quickly you can learn to spin and you may become addicted!  Plus you will learn all the basics of spinning without having to learn how to use a spinning wheel (of course once you’ve learnt spinning a wheel may be in your future!).  The workshop starts at 9.30am and runs for 2 hours.  It’s suitable for absolute beginners, both adults and children age 8 upwards (no experience necessary) and costs £15 which includes hand dyed fibre. There is an opportunity to purchase a Dizzy Spinning Kit at a reduced rate at the end of the workshop if you wish.

In the  afternoon, Nic will be running a three hour workshop on weaving using a palm loom. The workshop will start with weaving a coaster or small piece of art (your choice!) in plain weave and will move onto more complex patterns. It starts at 1pm  and is suitable for absolute beginners, both adults and children age 8 upwards (no experience necessary) and costs £20 which includes hand-dyed yarn. There is an opportunity to purchase a palm loom kit at a reduced rate at the end of the workshop if desired.

If you wish to book a place on either (or both!) of these workshops, you can find them in the Nic’s shop Yarns from the Plain alternatively, drop her an email at shop@yarnsfromtheplain.co.uk

Nic will also have her shop open in the mini marketplace at lunchtime – a great opportunity to stock up on her luscious yarn and kits!

Happy knitting, crocheting, weaving and spinning xxx

 

 

 

This week I’m sharing information on 2 crochet workshops at Cheshire Fibre Festival. These are not ordinary crochet workshops but ones which teach you different techniques to help you extend your abilities.   Also, whilst they look amazing they are not difficult to learn provided you know how to do the basic crochet stitches.

They are Hairpin Lace Crochet and Modern Freeform Irish Crochet by Louise Croall.

Hairpin Lace Crochet uses a hairpin loom to make beautiful lacy strips of crochet that can then be joined together to make a large variety of items including scarves, shawls, clothing and blankets. Hairpin Lace can also be used to embellish a pattern giving it a lovely lacy alternative to conventional crochet or knitting.   In this workshop you will be given a quality hairpin lace loom and will learn to use it to make hairpin lace and then how to join them using a variety of different methods.  This is one sample of hairpin lace crochet (it’s part of an amazing scarf that Louise made!):

The workshop is suitable for beginners, who are able to tension yarn, crochet chains and make a double crochet stitch.

It runs from 9.30am til noon and costs £30 which includes the loom and the yarn to make samples.  All you need to bring is your usual crochet kit including hooks and scissors.

Modern Irish Freeform Crochet 

This workshop brings traditional Irish Crochet into the 21^st century! Starting in Russia in the 1990’s using modern yarn in all sorts of colours; Modern Irish Freeform Crochet is a fantastic technique to learn. It’s extremely versatile and can be used for garments, blankets, household items or works of art!

Louise has made some stunning items in modern irish freeform crochet, the photo below is part of an autumnal table runner.   She has designed and made a beautiful floral top and is currently designing and making a sea themed top (I’ve had a sneak peek at some of it and I can’t wait to see the finished garment!).  She taught me the techniques and I am currently making a oolourful window pelmet.

You too can get started in this wonderful craft by learning the techniques to make a table centrepiece (for Christmas!).

The workshop is suitable for intermediate crocheters, ideally you will be familiar with making motifs.  It runs from 1.00pm til 4.00pm and costs £30 which includes the yarn to make the project.  All you need to bring is your usual crochet kit including hooks and scissors, a blocking mat will also be helpful.

If you wish to book either of these workshops email Louise at the email address shown on the CFF page, alternatively send a message through the Cheshire Fibre Festival facebook page.

Happy crocheting xxxx

 

 

The 2017 Cheshire Fibre Festival is being held on Sunday 1st October, that’s only 8 weeks away!  This year the festival is all about creativity; there are workshops morning and afternoon in a variety of fibre crafts, and a mini marketplace at lunchtime.

Today I’m starting a series of blog posts highlighting the workshops and hopefully whetting your appetite so that you book a couple!

First up is my workshops.

Crocheted Christmas Baubles

This workshop will teach you several stitch patterns and how to add beads to your crochet to make a variety of Christmas baubles.  We will work with double knit cotton yarn plus some sparkly yarn.

Suitable for Advanced Beginner; you need to know know how to work in the round.

Staring at 9.30am and runs for 2½ hours.

Cost £25, including all materials except your crochet hook (although hooks will be available to purchase), just bring your own crochet hook in the range 3.25mm to 4mm, plus a larger one about 6mm.

Design your own Crochet Cowl

This workshop will teach you how to design your own cowl, picking the style and sizing to suit you and how to combine stitches to create your own unique cowl.

Suitable for Intermediate; you need to know how to work in the round with confidence.

This workshop starts at 1pm and runs for 3 hours.

Cost: £30, including a skein of luxury yarn DK yarn, just bring your own 4mm crochet hook.

Both workshops include comprehensive notes.

To book either of these workshops email agrarianartisan@supanet.com

I will also have a small stall selling crochet goodies at the lunchtime mini marketplace. There will be some small kits, crochet hooks and copies of my new book: Cowling Around.

There is more information on the venue, all the workshops and how to book here.

Next week, I’ll focus on another 2 workshops.

Happy crocheting xxx

 

 

 

In my last blog post I mentioned I had been busy and I promised to tell you about what has been keeping me busy – my book.

I started designing over 6 years ago, and some of you will know I have accumulated quite a portfolio of crochet and knitting designs (a quick look on Ravelry tells me it is over 180!). I have also published a few collections of designs in ebooks, and I have featured in print in several magazines but I have never published a printed book of my designs.   I decided 2017 is the year I should do this and in January I set about it.  The decision was a bit scary – will anyone like my designs enough to buy a book?  Well, I don’t know the answer to that but I felt so driven that after much deliberating I thought I’d take the risk.

So the last 7 months have been a whirlwind of designing, writing patterns and crocheting.  And I’ve had a whole army of people testing the patterns for me!

The book is called Cowling Around and is a collection of 9 crochet cowl designs.   You see I love cowls and to me it was natural that my first printed book will be a collection of them.

Today was a very big day for the book – we had the photoshoot!   I can’t share any photos with you yet, as it will be a while before I see them myself but I will share one photo I took of the ‘stage’ – it may not look exciting but it was perfect for capturing the right photos.   I learnt a lot from Laurie the photographer, not least about light – I knew light is super important but getting that right is difficult unless you know how!

There will be a lot of people to thank when I publish but for today I’d like to give HUGE thanks to Laurie, Vicky, Julie, Louise and Jenny – what a team!

There is a LOT more work to do before the book is printed but I will start to share some more snippets soon. Meanwhile, maybe a few of my recent crochet cowl designs will tempt you!

Happy crocheting xxxxx