Too much chit chat as you knit-knit

I like to delve into the internet for knitting-related stories and came across this one recently. Of course only one side is represented fully in the report and we all know how tabloids love to 'pep up' a story so I generally take them with a pinch of salt but ...


A screen shot of the story as it appeared on-line.

This sad tale is of a knit and natter group in the North East that has been asked to move out of its local library; there is some doubt as to whether it's because the group's too big or makes too much noise. Of course for the members of the group it's a shame since a place where they've become established and obviously feel comfortable is no longer going to welcome them but for me it also seems great that there's a knitting group with a lot of members all of whom are apparently having such a good time. What a fab advert for the social power of knitting, who cares what the knitting yarn outcome is when the social outcome is this good! I do hope that a more sympathetic venue will snap them up, after all good vibes are a benefit to any space.

I saw the Express story on-line and was intrigued to see displayed straight after it what were thought of as 'related articles' as suggestions for further reading ...



A list of five 'Related Articles' carefully selected for the on-line reading public!

The first few I can (sort of) understand as having some connection with the story (if a bit tenuous) but it gets a bit weirder the further down the list you go! I struggle to see how these stores can be 'related' to the original, certainly not as close cousins but maybe in the way that completely different species of animals are connected through a distant common ancestor millions of years ago!

Using the same kind of 'logic' you could have had equally random related articles on fishing (the nets can be mended by hand with needles), betting (you place bets in a book-makers) and rock groups (they do make a lot of noise)!

Good luck to the knitting group in question (here's a link to the Express article if you want to read it).


When I can I'm making textile art or blogging about it; here's my web site; or follow me on  Facebook and Twitter for knitting and textile art news.

Knitted Textile Awards Finalist - quick someone pinch me!

Occasionally a week brings you news that makes you want to pinch yourself just to check you're not dreaming. This week was one of those!

I wasn't dreaming after all!

Back in July I saw a Twitter message saying that anyone who knits or crochets could enter the UKHKA's Knitted Textile Awards 'Open' category competition with the prize of  being an exhibitor in the Showcase at the amazing Knitting & Stitching Shows at Alexandra Palace and Harrogate.

The award is Sponsored by UK Hand Knitting Association (UKHKA), Love Wool UK and Twisted Thread. The brief was for :
"Dynamic, innovative design - dramatic fashion – idiosyncratic furnishings – intriguing artworks – hand knitting and crochet in all its guises.
Work will be judged on originality, overall concept and the innovative use of hand knitting and/or crochet techniques."

All you had to do was send off some photos of your work, come up with an Artist Statement and then let the judges decide. Well, I happened to have some excellent photos of my work already, thanks to Dayve!  Here's a link to the Facebook album with the photos on my Facebook page.

So I sent them off, thought no more about them and then this week I got the e-mail telling me I had been chosen as a Finalist - needless to say I had to keep checking the e-mail to see that it was still there in my in box and hadn't mysteriously disappeared and that yes it had been sent to the right person, which was indeed me! First reaction was delight, second reaction was blimey I've got a lot to get sorted out before the first Knitting & Stitching Show in London on the 9-13 October 2013 .....


First stop London!



I still have some questions, like :-

• which art work do I need to take with me (one or more than one), they'll let me know?
• how will I be able to sleep the night before?
• how many finalists are there?
• who's going to look after the dogs?
• what am I going to go and see on my days off in London?
• it's so long since I drove in Greater London how will I manage?
• how many questions are too many questions

But for now I'm just enjoying the experience of telling people I've been chosen as a Finalist - it's great!

Now better get on with things - find a hotel in North London first I think .... where is Ally Pally anyway? (Oh that's another question!)


When I can I'm making textile art or blogging about it; here's my web site; or follow me on  Facebook and Twitter for knitting and textile art news.

Too hot for knitting?...

No I'm not talking about the latest Hollywood star (male or female) I'm thinking weather, yarn and needles. Sitting here in temperatures of 28 degrees, lovely as it is and I'm not complaining, it does seem a bit hot to be thinking about knitting!

Of course I realise that makes me a non-fairweather friend of knitting but it just seems wrong to think about sitting there with bits of woolly knitting draped over your bare legs. So I googled it and came up with several examples of people knitting on the beach so clearly I've got a point of view that isn't shared by everyone....

The owner said she was knitting a sock...planning ahead!

This owner said this was Mexico, I like the green and orange thing going on...

The owner has circular needle - this is serious stuff!

So knitting on the beach is clearly an unremarkable thing... but I've got some practical questions:

When/How do you put your suncream on ?
How do you get the sand out of your knitting ? 
At what point do you notice your knitting mistakes? (attributable obviously to wearing your sunglasses instead of your 'proper' specs, as who gets themselves prescription sunspecs in our UK climate!)

In any event I only have to recall the historic link between wool and the beach to realise that there's nothing new in the idea of combining woolly knitting with a hot day and especially a hot day on the beach.

Not a great look!

This photo is actually showing a 1940s revival of knitted swimming 'cossies', part of the early attempts to invent wet-suits for surfers when they combined old wool with thin rubber...(if you don't believe me check out the source!)

If you're tempted to give it a go there are vintage bathing suit patterns out there - just remember to knit that all important tension square first!



When I can I'm making textile art or blogging about it; here's my gallery; or follow me on Twitter for knitting and textile art news.


the knitting on the beach photos came from blogs by:
jackie-blue;
foxflat;
yarn on a stick;
the surfing dudes photo has its own credit!

Woolfest 2013 - where the woolly things were

A visit to Woolfest is always a feast for the senses (and that includes the sense of wet legs from the driving rain that followed us from car park to entrance...oh well it is the Lake District after all!). To be fair that was Friday up to mid afternoon and Saturday was much better.Visiting this year after missing last year I was able to ponder on what had changed, what different trends did I see etc

Mesmerising exhibitor stand - stare at it long enough and it makes your eyes go funny!

So, there was more exhibition space, music at both sides which was slightly disorientating (didn't I have my feet tapping over yonder already?) and super deluxe mobile toilets to put an end to queueing, yeah! (although in previous years I've spotted more friends in the queue than wandering up and down the aisles so it was at least very sociable).

On a more exhibitor-focused note, one thing which really struck me was how much felting has come to the fore. There seemed to be lots of exhibitors with an association of some kind with this great wool pastime, including dry needle felting as a sculptural activity as well as felt making itself. Clearly the magic of this has fired the woolly-community's imagination and quite right too. Surely though it must involve some kind of 'pixie dust'? otherwise how is it possible to create usable fabric from loose wool fibres sprinkled with soapy water and rolled in bubble wrap on a beach mat or create a cute lovable creature from the same loose fibres rolled into little sausages and stabbed with a very dangerous needle ....

This is my super-cute (and much admired) needle felted fox-friendly scarf;
I made it myself and have the scars to prove it!

The other thing which I noticed was the way in which the wool of, and the products made from the wool of, rare and native breed sheep seemed to be occupying a lot more space. This was great to see, and it was possible to fully appreciate all those lovely natural colours, every hue ranging from dark to light in the black, brown, cream, grey spectrum and making fantastic things to wear or carry.

Sorry, don't know what she is; took her pic at an earlier show, she looked cuddly...

For me as a textile artist there was lovely skills to admire all round but what caught my imagination most was the brilliant fairy-tale inspired work by The Materialistics; their wall art (created collectively) was fab. It included the wolf in the bed from little Red Riding Hood (complete with crochet square blanket) and a frieze of creatures from Where the Wild Things Are brought to life by using a range of textile techniques.

Read from top left to bottom right - sorry didn't have ability to capture it in one go!

Finally, one tip to share is that in going round again after 4pm you get to see things you might have missed when you toured earlier on when it was busier; and you've time for a late picnic and good old natter with mate(s) before you set off for round two. After all I couldn't have got near to my favourite alpacas for this photo when everyone was standing round earlier admiring them!

Alpacas - the mop top hair is superb

Thanks to Woolclip and all those involved on the day and behind the scenes for making it a great day out, those on two legs and those on four too.


When I can I'm making textile art or blogging about it; here's my gallery; or follow me on Twitter for knitting and textile art news.

Yarn bombing - what's not to like?

So, I was looking at this on-line news item about yarn bombing and one negative comment posted after it said something like 'I hate this, surely you people could spend the time more usefully knitting socks or something'. My first thought was oh yeh just another person who lists as his hobby (and it was a man's name) pouring ice-cold water on other people's thoughtful and creative endeavours a.k.a trolling. Then I began to wonder more about what lay behind the remark, just what was it about this particular kind of activity that had rattled his particular cage?

Granny square covered craft and folk art museum in Los Angeles

option 1 - he doesn't like more colourful streets. Maybe he's of a naturally melancholic disposition and anything that brightens up his environment and challenges his grey mood is to be avoided.

Feels more like a playground now!

option 2 - he likes more colourful streets just not softly textured ones. Maybe he's into brutal modernist architecture with all those hard lines and surfaces (they're so manly) and softer texture is a betrayal of the purist's treasured concrete landscape.

option 3 - he doesn't like knitting/crochet that's escaped from it's more usual place ie on the body. Maybe he copes with the world by organising and categorising it, keeping everything separate so it doesn't get mixed up (like dangerous chemicals that might inadvertently mix and cause a dangerous reaction).

A third of heat loss is through the head

option 4 -  he doesn't like art on the streets. Maybe he thinks art is to be treasured and cossetted, kept safe in climate controlled galleries, protected from the ravages of weather (and of course dogs).

Sorry, nowhere's safe.

option 5 - he doesn't think knitting/crochet can be art or that knitters/crocheters can be artists. Maybe he thinks that art is something that can only happen with a liquid medium and some sort of applicator and that needles/hooks and yarn don't count.

When you press the nozzle, yarn comes out...

 option 6 - he's a conservative, male chauvinistic, narrow-minded misery-guts.

 Answers on a postcard please...

Two iconic London objects (one slightly altered)

When I can I'm making textile art or blogging about it; here's my gallery; or follow me on Twitter for knitting and textile art news.



note: any search on line brings up loads of great images. Here's links for where I found the ones above, finding the original source was in some cases impossible.
LA building
Coloured steps
Bus Shelter with hat
Dog in gallery
Knit covered spray cans
Knit covered London telephone box

From the woods to the living room

If you've read my last blog you'll know that the skill and ingenuity of some knitters is pretty impressive, but what I like best is a sense of colour and fun. I've been looking for something to follow woolly creatures in a wood and I came across Melanie Porter.

I've seen examples of her work like lampshades which I really like but what I wanted to share here is this video which I found on her Facebook page. It's really worth a look.



Here are five things I liked about her and her work.

1. She's inspired by being hands on and makes the pieces herself.
2. The pieces are colourful and fun.
3. She's recycling old bits of furniture which would otherwise be unloved and discarded.
4. She was very matter of fact about what she does and thinks about both form and function.
5. She said it was 'bitter-sweet' when she had to let a piece go (so the pieces are made with love, aahh so nice!).

It's great that when I looked around it didn't take me very long to find another great example of knitting that is fun, colourful and gives pleasure, thanks Melanie.

Here's Melanie's website.

When I can I'm making textile art or blogging about it; here's my gallery; or follow me on Twitter for knitting and textile art news.

A Walk in the Woollen Woods (part 2)

Following on from my post A Walk in the Woollen Woods (part 1) this is the second part called unsurprisingly A Walk in the Woollen Woods (part 2)! If you haven't the faintest idea what's going on, and to the uniniated this could look like a woodland where some very odd genetic mutations have occurred, you can get up to speed by reading part 1; the link is at the bottom of this post.

Here's my next five picks for my favourite pieces in the Woollen Woods exhibition at Acorn Bank.

Sixth pick:
Dickens Owl - has the most brilliant look of surprise on her face; like that feeling you get driving down the motorway when you suddenly realise you've driven past three junctions and have no recollection of 50 miles of your journey. In her case the surprise is more like 'there I was enjoying life in that lovely warm stash box dreaming of being a lovely jumper and now here I am perched in a wood... how the Dickens did that happen!' (hence the name).

Seventh pick:
Red Squirrel - top marks for thinking outside the box or should that be inside the jumper? This fantastically quirky creation is sewn together from a recycled woolly jumper and has a strangely misshapen appearance that just adds to its charm. I think it looks a bit like there's a real squirrel inside a fine-knit jumper trying to find the neck hole (no I don't know where that image came from perhaps a traumatic childhood memory from learning to dress myself?).

Eighth pick;
Blackbird nest - this one seemed to be a favourite of children visiting when I was there; maybe because it's been positioned at just the perfect see-it-on-tiptoes height for children old enough to know what it is. I recognise this particular pleasure/achievement, as being of short stature myself, I get the same sense in the supermarket when I can just see, recognise and reach the coffee cake I
desire on the top shelf "look mummy/Dayve I've found a nest/cake".

Ninth pick:
Red apples - everything up to now has been rather cute and cuddly and this one's different. I chose this as it was both unexpected and yet perfectly suited to its location (as Acorn Bank holds a great apple day event every year). Where better then to hang a group of very real looking apples from a tree? I'm particularly looking forward to seeing this one later in the year when the trees are in leaf... I wonder if next time I see them some will have bites out of them?

Tenth pick:
Stoat/weasel - I missed this first time around as it's been placed high in the trees and it's a lovely piece. I'm sorry Vivienne if I haven't got it's identity right...although as I recall it should be straight forward since 'a weasel is weasily recognised and a stoat is stoatally different'.

Now that I've resorted to bad jokes (at least it's an eco-joke ie on a natural theme and recycled) it's clearly time to stop. Do please go and see for yourself though - I could easily have picked dozens more as there was that lovely black bat, and that amazing bracket fungus and those lovely butterflies, wonderful bees......

Wondering about my Walk in the Woollen Woods part1? here's the first part...

 Find out more about Acorn Bank | Find out more about The Woollen Woods project


When I'm not walking in woods taking cute photos, I'm making textile art or blogging about it; here's my gallery; or follow me on Twitter for knitting and textile art news.


all photos | Lindy Doran;
Individual makers (as credited on Canopy's Facebook gallery)
Dickens owl:Yarn Tan Tetheras
Red Squirrel:Heather Seddon
Blackbird nest: Joy Davis
Apple tree: Jana Wagner
Stoat/Weasel: Vivienne Netherwood