Saltaire - a crafters dream

Events recently conspired to mean that I had to undertake a 500 mile round trip, driving to collect my children from a few days holiday with the grandparents (aka free holiday childcare). Searching for somewhere on the map that fulfilled the remit of less than 3 hours drive for me and had somewhere fun to hang out for lunch I happened upon Saltaire.

My parents moved to near Skipton years ago and have been to Saltaire a lot but to my shame I had never been. Having been now I will certainly be back.

I was so taken with its character and charm. The history of the place is overwhelming and I was thrilled that there was so much open space, with the parkland and canal nearby. To the mill workers who moved out of the industrialised towns around Bradford to live and work there it must have seemed a veritable paradise.

Titus Salt, the indusitrialist who built the town was a firm believer in self improvement and provided ample opportunities for this with art clubs, allotments, music clubs - everything except a pub - he was also a firm teetoller - I guess you can't have everything.

Quite apart from the town itself, the book shop in Salts Mill is well worth a visit in itself. As a crafter it was complete paradise - I have never seen so many craft books in one place. I was quite glad that I arrived early to give myself plenty of quiet browsing time.

 If ever you are in the area I can highly recommend it. Finding a good independent book shop these days is a rare treat and one to be savoured. The coffee and cake in the diner next door is also terrific :)

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Interactions and community #Loveyourblog Week 1

This recent project and blog series from A Playful Day couldn't have come at a better time for me. 

As you may have noticed my blogging has always been a little sporadic and recently it recently seems to have trailed off into a tumbleweed of good intentions and good old fashioned writers block.

I think that part of my problem is that I have become bogged down in what I want my blog to be about. Since starting to grow my own design portfolio I obviously want it to promote my designs and my own work but also I love many aspects of the creative world. I knit for myself, for others as well as for business and I'm wary of it becoming too one-dimensional.

With that in mind, I have decided to take inspiration from Sarah Knight's recent blog post over at Crafts from the Cwtch and just write from the heart. Just find my own voice and write about things that I love, things that inspire me and yes, from time to time that will involve socks.

This weeks focus on community and specifically the crafting community is perfect timing too. My aim for 2015 has been to hide a little less behind social media and meet real live people in the flesh. As a self confessed introvert, albeit one who can talk for hours about yarny-related pursuits I have found it all too easy to inhabit the social media world and stay firmly within my comfort zone. This year though, is all about emerging from my little woolly nest and meeting like-minded people. Forging new connections and deepening friendships initially started online.

Recently I met a small group of people from my Ravelry group on a short day trip to Brighton. I had been looking for an excuse to visit Brighton after missing out on going to Unwind last year and the opening of Kate's new bricks and mortar store - YAK - seemed like the perfect opportunity.

A sunny day by the seaside

I was pleasantly surprised at how quick the journey was from my corner of Essex and a very enjoyable morning was spent yarn shopping, drinking coffee and sampling a local cafe's excellent baked goods. Our initial reserve at meeting each other soon disappeared and before long we were chatting like old friends. The conversation flowed as we worked on our projects and I was genuinely disappointed that I had to leave so soon to catch my train and collect the boys from school.

Some of my new stash

Plans are already underway for another meet up in July - this time on a weekend to suit those with different domestic circumstances and I think it is fair to say that we are all looking forward to it immensely.

It is easy to forget that by being part of such a wide community of crafters - whether that be Ravelry, Instagram or Twitter (or indeed all of them) - when we meet we aren't just strangers meeting for the first time. We already know each other and by meeting in person we can only deepen and grow that connection.

Seatoller Socks

Our first "Walks in the Lakes" series starts off with the Seatoller Socks:

Seatoller Socks

Seatoller is a tiny hamlet nestled at the end of the Borrowdale valley in the Lake District and has surprisingly Scandaniavian connections. The striking braided cable featured on these socks is reminiscent of the type of braids sometimes seen with old Norse textiles.

The start of our walk is a gentle one with the cable running along one side of the front and back of the sock and plenty of relaxing stocking stitch to show off a beautiful yarn.

As with many of my patterns it is offered in both toe-up and cuff down formats- all the better to tempt you with.

Our walk is heading onwards and upwards from here - to the dramatic summit of Glaramara via a beautiful mountain stream and waterfall - Comb Gill. But don't worry, the final stop will be a traditional cosy English pub to rest your weary feet.

More details on the Comb Gill socks will follow next week.

A Colourful Frost

One of the very best things about designing and sending your pattern off into the big wide world by itself is seeing all the wonderful projects that it generates.

Following on from last weeks blog post "It Takes a Village..." social media gives an amazing ability for designers to interact with their customers and see their projects take shape.

Recently a group on Ravelry started a KAL on the theme of Hoar Frost and adopted my Hoar Frost socks as one of their chosen patterns. It is has been great fun to chat along in the thread and see so many fabulous socks spring into life.

It never fails to amaze me that the same design can look totally different when knit in different colours. The design now has 80 projects on Ravelry and it is fun to see how many knitters have chosen to use 'frosty' cool colours of blues, greys and neutrals. Others have spoken before about how certain words evoke certain colour associations (eg green - leaf/vine) and blue water/ocean/sky) which subconciously or not tends to influence our decisions when picking yarn for projects and it is a subject which I confess I find fascinating.

I have loved seeing all the 'non-frosty' colours too and picked a few that really jumped out at me just to create a fun collage. Daylight and sunshine is still in short supply here and so these socks gave me a much needed colour boost this week.

It Takes a Village...

There is a popular saying that It takes a village to raise a child.

I found myself pondering that as I sat in our local village Crafternoon the other day. We were a fairly diverse group of women ranging in age from 16 to 78 and engaged in a variety of different crafts.

We had card makers, cross stitchers, needle felters and of course, knitters. My enabling has proven very effective over the months and at least 3 ladies now permanently have a sock or two on the needles.

Conversation ranged widely during the afternoon on Christmas, holidays, crafts in general and extended to revision and learning techniques as one of our younger members is coming up to A Level exams. We talked about mind maps, bullet journalling, spider diagrams and shared our experiences of them. Afterwards her mother commented that her daughter had probably learnt more about revision techniques that afternoon than she had in her time at school and even though she (her mother) had said much the same thing, her daughter seemed more receptive to new ideas through the group than via her long suffering mum.

@Sarah Clarke, The Sheep Shop, Cambridge UK

We talked about how it takes a village...etc and I also watched as one of our older ladies (well into her 70s) sat with another teenager helping her to get her tension even as she wrestled with a particularly ambitious bit of colourwork knitting. Shared wisdom, shared experiences and knowledge all help us to grow in our craft.

I would also include social media in this category. Although it is easy to become a little overwhelmed by the constant feeds from social media platforms, there is such a profusion of knowledge, cameraderie and warmth on craft-related social media sites that it is hard not be drawn into the wonderful and vibrant online knitting community that we have.

Whether you prefer the wonders of Ravelry, the immediacy of Twitter or the visual appeal of Instagram or Pinterest, there are so many ways in which we can reach out to and be inspired by fellow crafters. Sharing experiences through knit-alongs (KALs), attending yarn festivals, joining in with hashtag events (such as #operationsockdrawer or #yearofmaking) all help to build and strengthen our community.

So, why not make 2015 your year of building your own online community? What KALs or other events are you planning to participate in? Are you going big with a year-long committment or aiming for smaller goals? Leave me a comment - I'd love to know.

And if you haven't already done so, please do join me on the various social media streams. Just follow the links in the sidebar.

Year of the Sock

A belated happy New year to you all

New Years Day in Buttermere

My new year started with a wet, windy and wonderful walk around Buttermere in the Lake District, battling the elements and having fun with the family.

A lovely, chilled out time was had by all with plenty of knitting and outdoor activities

A sunny day in Borrowdale

Lots of sock knitting in particular was done, despite me leaving all my beloved long circular needles at home. But even with DPNs I managed to come away with the makings of a lot more sock designs.

I am aiming to knit 15 pairs of socks in 2015 with 12 of them being my own designs. I have a cunning plan to base some of them on walks we did in the Lake District recently. With 3 or 4 socks per collection (or walk) they will guide you through some of the wonderful scenery on offer, and of course like all good country walks, will end in a sock named for a local pub :)

The first 2 pairs are on the needles and will be ready for testing soon. So dig out your walking boots and waterproofs (it isn't called the Lake District for nothing) and get ready to join me on Walks in the Lakes - Part 1.