Knitting

One of the things I love about the k&s show is that I get to see and chat with old friends and catch up with what is going on. This year I was amazed to see Ruth Lee had a stand with some gorgeous machine knitted and felted (fulled) things. Ruth was my hero when I was taking the c&g and of course I had to go and chat. Ruth believes that machine knitting is about to make a come back and she is hoping to write a new book. That's fantastic news. Ruth's "old" books are still valid and every machine knitter should have copies. imho. There may be a new blog soon too. http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/features/knitting/designers/ruth_lee/index.html

Nicky Dillerstone is normally to be found up to her elbows in paint and glue and with a heat gun close by, so I was surprised to see her sitting hand knitting. Nicky's workshops are always great fun too. http://www.nickydillerstone.co.uk/

As soon as I get the water issues sorted out in my studio, I will be setting up my faithful Brother and getting back into knitting too. I have missed the rythmic peaceful feeling I always get when I knit - I don't miss the bruised and bashed toes though. You have to be a knitter to understand that one :)

Harrogate K&S Part 3

I took three classes over the two days, the first was 'Bold and Lacy' with Jean Draper. We used sticky water soluable fabric, lay stuffed ribbon down then covered it with a lightweight film disolvable. I have joined the ribbons with stitch and now it needs loads of extra bits and stitching and embellishing etc. The sticky soluable is expensive but I can see why it is raved about. It saves all the tacking that you normally have to do for needle lace.

Alysn Midgelow-Marsden's one hour workshop was 'Revealing and Concealing'. Alysn sets a frantic pace and first we painted some gauze fabric. Whilst that was drying we used texture plates and sand paper to texture a piece of printer photograph paper, painted it and set it aside to dry. Whilst that was drying, we ironed ink jet prints onto cotton fabric, we distressed those too with our sand paper. Back to the photo paper, another texture plate, more sanding and painted again. By now the gauze was dry so we ironed fuse fx over it. We managed to blow the fuses in the room and the technician came and confiscated 1/2 of the irons.

The various pieces were torn and collaged together and finished with a piece of copper tape. It will need some stitching to finish but goodness what a lot we did in one hour.

Linda Westerman's workshop was 'Angels 2008' - I made this rather dishevelled little angel. Unfinished of course, and her halo is missing, but she is just the kind of angel I like :)

Knitting and Stitching show part 2

I was very restrained this time and didn't buy nearly as many books as I wanted. I have a few in my wish list for later though :)

I had to buy this issue of Embroidery magazine as it has some great articles, including one about Ruth Issett's Connected with Colour exhibition. Ruths work is amazing, this body of work is uplifting and full of joy. I have spent many hours watching Ruth demonstrating over the years and recognised some of the pieces, it is good to see them finished and properly displayed. It also has a piece about Jan and Jeans 'Seeing double' exhibition, which is also at the K&S show.

My favorite exhibition this year was 'Art Cloth', and I had to buy the Paper and Metal Leaf Lamination book, and the cd book. (Also two thermofax screens and a set of printing inks!). The book explains many methods of getting images onto cloth, and is worth every penny. I had a lovely chat with Claire Benn, she was so generous with information about her processes and suppliers. Jan and Jean have a new dvd and it leapt into my bag too.

The Graduate Showcase was interesting and Jackie Langfeld's work was outstanding. See http://purplemissus.blogspot.com/ for a pic of one of Jackie's pieces. She has stitched 'warriors' from cardboard and string, but they are unbelievingly moving and set my imagination on fire.

The Royal Hall has been restored and is fully open, lots of seating, tea, coffee and cakes. And an excelent short cut from Hall TG to the learning curve rooms.

Knitting and Stitching show part one

These are the goodies I got at the Knitting and stitching show in Harrogate. The texture plates and metal work tools were from 'Time to Sow', they had an amazing selection of embossing plates and metal tools and rubber stamp stuff. www.timetosow.com

The Lanartus yarns are perfect for using with the embellisher, the Da Masi is my very favorite and is getting hard to find. www.artyarn.co.uk

The machine threads were in a box under a stand at £1 a reel, but I got 13 reels for £8. Wandering around I saw them on sale at £3.15 per reel so they are my bargain from the show.

Screen printing

I have never tried screen printing before so I booked myself on a class with Joathan Korejko - http://www.timberlandand.co.uk/ to learn how. I have an ear infection which is affecting my balance but was determined to get there, so my prints aren't as adventurous as I would have liked but I did learn the techniques along with tips and tricks.

The first stencil I cut was a very simple bird design, which I printed onto previously hand dyed cotton.

The second day I used a design I am using for the finyovislan classes, cut two stencils and then played with those.

I cropped one of the pieces and can see possibilites, a little foiling and a little stitch and I may have something worthwhile.

I like screen printing and can't understand why I have never tried it before, guess what will be at the top of my christmas pressie list this year?