About to gather up my stuff for the Castle Green Midsummer Fayre and Festival 2010.  This takes place on Saturday 3rd July, on the Castle Green from 10am until late....Hope to see you all there.

Be sure to check out the new pages with online shops, Patterns for sale and Mike Holmes goods.  We now have Paypal available for you to use with security. 

The Acacia shoulder purse is a nice little project pattern for which I used some hand dyed Artist's Palette Yarn, available from Juliet's website www.artistspaletteyarns.co.uk 

The Manos silk blend scarf has a gorgeous sheen on the kettle dyed yarn, each skein is signed by the artisan who made it. 

Seeing as how we are being exhorted to spend our money! to save the world, perhaps it is a good time to be connecting to Paypal to make your purchasing easier.  I hope I can get all the tech stuff done well enough for you to shop online.  Fingers crossed and watch this space. 

It's soon my favourite time of year for snuggling up in front of the tv, with all those children's films for me to watch.  I also like to have a knitting project for the tv watching, and this year I have a warm woolly jumper for my son to finish, plus an exciting idea for a new felted bag for 2010 stock which I am prototyping in bright blue!  Watch this space for my trials of a silk bag for evening and wedding wear.  And a peaceful New year to all.

Hooray, we finally had a really good event, a rare occurence this year.  Last weekend at St Katherines Hall in Ledbury, very near home, several pairs of gloves and brooches and bags were sold.  In spite of the dreadful weather (or maybe because of it) lots of people came into the hall and admired our work, and one even bought one of Mike's rugs!!!!!!  It was the wonderful striped one which I have recently put on the website, and we will get the chance to see it in its final position in the buyer's house soon. 

I still have some more gloves left, most of them in the new honeycomb design, which will be on display at the Feathers Hotel in Ledbury next Thursday evening at an event to raise funds for Help for Heroes/Aylton Church.  I also have the new purple bags which I am putting on the website this week.  The effect is very colourful and cheerful. 

I am struggling with a new computer and set of software; for a technophobe like me this takes a long time!  I hope to blog more as it gets closer to Christmas. 

I've just watched Brenda Dayne of www.cast-on.com doing her hour on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.  She was knitting with big needles so everyone could see and musing on the creative process in which all craft people indulge.  Visit her website for lots more including her regular podcasts.  The last series was about Make do and Mend, a compilation of how to use the WW2 experiences of rationing as an inspiration for reduction of our consumer instincts, and our creative juices. 

Isn't it good to have a chance to get together with our internet friends?  See you all in Coventry on Saturday 6th June at UK Rav Day. 

I hope to shop, I need 4 ply for childrens clothes as gifts, and something for my first Clapotis.  I will be looking for small yarn producers, particularly from the Herefordshire and Welsh borders area, and to see the latest yarn from my favourite suppliers.  Best of all will be the chance to sit and knit with lots of old and new friends, and maybe see some of their knitting in the 'flesh'. 

What an amazing event was Wonderwool!  Lots of animals, fleece, yarn, knitted stuff and lovely people.  It has taken me quite some time to recover and reorganise myself since our vitis to Wales.  I saw lots of lovely yarn and hope to invest soon in some caramel coloured Manx Loughtan for bag making.  Juliet of Artists Palette Yarns had a good show and I have seen her yarns on several peoples reports and stash enhancement.  I appeared (reluctantly) on the Sheepwalk festooned in bags (and fingerless gloves at one point) and successfully sold some of them.

Our next foray to sales will be on June 7th to Hellens in Much Marcle for a craft fair.  Hope the weather is much warmer and less wet by then. 

I have arranged with my local friendly cafe owner, Pascal, of Cafe Sez in Ledbury, to hold a bag knitting workshop on Monday 18th May.  It will start at 10 am with a cup of coffee and a chance to chat about knitting techniques and then an excellent buffet lunch will be provided with a finish at 4pm.  Materials will be supplied but participants are welcome to bring along any bags they have made to show and any yarn they may wish to use.

The workshop will enable you to produce a clutch bag with a button fastening.  The pattern will be provided and will include a further pattern for a large shoulder bag.  It will include basic techniques and use basic stitches, garter stitch, stocking stitch and moss stitch, casting on and casting off.  It will introduce you to the usefulness of swatches/tension squares to enable you to take advantage of the wonderful new yarns to design bags for yourself and for your friends and family.  It will include ideas for decoration and embellishment of bags.  I'm very excited about it, and hope to hear from enough people to make it work.   

Yarn Forward Magazine in April Issue 11 had an article in it about 'green' yarns.  See the continuation of this conversation at www.yarnforwardmagazine.co.uk/blog .  Several well-known designers, yarn producers and sellers and authors of knitting books had been invited to contribute to a conversation about greenness in knitting.  While the terms 'organic' and 'eco-friendly' are becoming more widely used, it is quite a task to understand exactly what that means for sustainable knitting.  As the owner of an ever-expanding stash, which has its origins at least forty years ago, I find it very confusing to try and compare the relative 'greenness' of my yarns. 

Is a yarn which I collected and have cherished for forty years 'green'?  If it is not pure wool, should I throw it away, into landfill, or should I knit with it in the spirit of recycling?  If a yarn is 100% natural fibre, grown and processed in a sustainable way, is it ok for it to be sent halfway around the world to me to knit with?  How do we check?  If a yarn has been raised locally, where has it been spun, dyed...? Is organic the definitive and necessary for all yarns, or an aspiration which is not achievable yet? 

I am using a variety of yarns for my handbags, ranging from 100% Hebridean sheep wool produced in Herefordshire, where I live, and sold in the local yarn shop (The Knitting Parlour at Malvern www.theknittingparlour.co.uk), to recycled sari silk knitted with cotton yarn into a sparkle evening bag.  I have pulled out my own and charity shop jumpers, and reused the yarn, although it probably contains an element of acrylic/man-made fibre.  I have felted, on purpose and by accident, machine made garments, and incorporated the fabric in bags and other projects.  I have acquired fabric pieces from friends and relatives (clearing out their attics!), and from shops selling remnants which would otherwise have been thrown away, and used them for linings.  Hand making with love is the best that knitting can do for others....., low energy, (although I use a sewing machine for the linings and an iron for pressing). 

The last thing I want to do is to feel guilty about my yarn, but finding out about yarns and their origins is essential if we are to contribute to the best that knitting can do for the planet. What do others think about this?  Can I continue to use old yarns which I have been given, bought at a charity shop, or found to be made locally, even if they are not organic, or easily defined on the scale of greenness? 

www.naturalfibres2009.org

www.organic-europe.net

Welcome to 2009

 What a relief it is to have passed the end of 2008. Medical problems have frustrated lots of things I wished to do last year, and I am so pleased that only one minor problem remains which may well be resolved soon. At the Hereford Craft Market in December I sold lots of fingerless gloves and brooches made from the handpainted yarns, as well as bags made from locally produced and ethical yarns (the 'natural' range). It's nice to have the feedback about my work that comes on these occasions, even the constructive criticism.

My Christmas knitting project, just right for sitting in front of old films on the tv, was a short-sleeved cardigan called Juliet, made from heather coloured cashmerino chunky yarn from Debbie Bliss http://www.ravelry.com/projects/ledburylady/juliet. Just the right mixture of challenge (knitted on a circular needle in one piece) and repetition to sooth and calm.

There are lots of events to look forward to in 2009. We hope to get out and about a lot more than last year. The most exciting event will definitely be Wonderwool Wales at Builth Wells on April 25^th and 26^th http://www.wonderwoolwales.co.uk/en/wonderwool_wales/index.php. I will be sharing the stand with Juliet from Artists Palette Yarns http://www.artistspaletteyarns.co.uk/, and trying not to buy more than I sell.

There will be some more Hereford craft markets, dates for 2009 are June 13th, Sept 12th, Dec 12^th and for 2010 March 13th. These are very high quality events held in High Town, Hereford and attract lots of visitors with a lovely atmosphere. Mike and I will both be selling at some Forest of Dean Craftworkers Guild events, dates to come soon, and we have joined the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust http://www.h-g-canal.org.uk. We hope to help out on their events but also get a stall at the National event on 29^th to 31^st August near Kegworth.

I am also booked for a talk on Knitted Bags at the Herefordshire WI handicraft club on Wednesday 4^th March. I hope to enthuse new and experienced knitters with the excitement of the new yarns and the online knitting community.

Lots to do and to look forward to and, in spite of years of experience to the contrary, I am once again optimistic about the future.....roll on 2009!

That's what I need. Not to be distracted by the gardening, family history, shopping or washing down the kitchen walls ready for the decorating. I must knuckle down to knitting the fingerless gloves.

I love the long cuffs on these, as they meet up with my shorter-than-wrist-length sleeves (sleeves are always short on me unless I buy menswear or make tops myself). The stitch pattern was taken from the Patons Woolcraft book for 1985, “Spiral socks for all the family”! This travelling rib is 2 plain 2 purl, but done in blocks of 4 rounds, and travels the opposite way around the opposite glove. Since I sold two pairs at the event in Ledbury on October 20^th I have been selling them faster than I can knit them. I'm not complaining, honestly, but the colours of the handpainted yarn have been selling themselves. I hoped to stock up before the craft fair in Hereford on 13^th December, but the gloves are impossible to keep. I have some left made out of Jenny Cook's handpaited Blue-faced Leicester dk in shades of purples and blues, and also the wrist warmers (or pulse warmers as I have heard them called). I hope that some of them are customers' ideal gifts for the cold weather. I've hijacked a pair of dark red Merino ones, in the interests of consumer research, of course.

I have also finished the bucket bags I have introduced made from the Rescue Yarn from Artists Palette Yarns. They knitted up beautifully in k1, p1 moss stitch, and I have lined them with cotton fabric and polyester wadding, to keep the shape. The handles are i-cord, with some nylon cord through the centre to stop any stretching. I hope to have these on the site very soon.

Juliet from APY has also supplied me with handpainted Buttersoft dk in some gorgeous colour combinations, and because the sequence is dyed for socks, they also knit up beautifully blended as gloves.

Just to complete the yarn stash, I obtained this week a black bag full of handspun and hand-dyed chunky (bulky) yarn. It is varying shades of a deep red brick colour, and although it would be good and solid if knitted on small needles as bags, I really am tempted to knit something dramatic and lofty for myself, a coat/cardigan perhaps with lots of drape.....Maybe in my spare time. Discipline.

An unexplained peak in my statistics has just been explained.  My lovely friend JosieP in York has been writing about my bags in her blog.  She writes really well, and you can read some of her stuff at http://purplestocking.wordpress.com   She also has some gorgeous earrings ( I love earrings!) at her ebay shop j.j.jewellery.

My next sales venture is in Ledbury on Monday 20th October, at a Christmas Gift Fair at St Katherine's Hall.  I hope to finish a few more new bags for then, but it's very nice weather outside so the garden may win.  The Rescue yarn from Artists Palette Yarns has knitted up beautifully, I've used a new shape, sort of bucket bag, but have yet to line and finish them.  The colours of the hadnpainted yarn really mix well using the yarn double and knitting in moss stitch.  Watch for the finished bags on the site, or on Ravelry (ledburylady).

We had a good time in Fife.
Fortunately the weather was kind, but Mike, my husband was ill for some of the time. I had time to experiment with Juliet's Rescue yarn to make a new design of bag, something bucket shape, I think, and finish the maroon merino fingerless gloves. Saw the sea several times, including interesting birds, and had gorgeous fish and chips with the smell of the sea. Now back to replacing the bags sold at Hereford Craft Market, and get ready for the next one.

We did it - we got to the Hereford Craft Market and we set up my new display and we sold bags!  Lots of people came and liked my stuff; the sun shone so much, it was so warm, possibly the whole summer in one day.  After being restricted all this year in what I was able/allowed to do, it was great to be outside for a while.  

With a lot of help from my nephew Mark the website is now active, and I hope soon to put some free patterns on it.  Let me know if you like the look of it, and also if you don't! Constructive criticism always taken on board, even if I don't like it. 

 

I need to sort out knitting for a trip to Fife, Scotland, to visit our friend Elizabeth, and to see what crafty things she is making at the moment.  Just worried about needles and yarn filling up the suitcase, and getting through airport security at Birmingham!"