Climate Week Crochet

Last week was Climate Week, a Scottish government campaign to raise awareness, and inspire action on, climate change.  A series of events was organised by Aberdeenshire Council at nearby Haddo Country Park which is owned and managed by the council and the National Trust for Scotland.

I signed up for a tee-shirt yarn crochet workshop to learn how to reduce textile waste.  Events for Climate Change Week highlight the importance of reducing emissions and adapting to a changing climate. Instead of being thrown away into landfill I was going to learn how to reuse the old tee-shirt I had to take along. My husband's discarded offshore wardrobe yielded a suitable sacrificial offering.

The evening class was run by Claire from Cookston Crafts and was held in the Haddo House tearoom.  Claire created a welcoming environment for the eight participants and Suzanna, from Haddo, was on hand with hot drinks, scones and traybakes.  Under Claire's friendly tutelage, we were soon busy creating our own yarn from the cleverly cut up tee shirts.

Following Claire's pattern we began to crochet the cotton strips into a wee bowl.  I found it quite hard work physically and Claire explained that the cotton I was using had very little stretch.  My arms and my fingers certainly got a bit of a work out!  Some of the others who were using tee-shirts containing Lycra were finding their yarn a bit easier to crochet.  Soon, though, my bowl was beginning to take shape.

One of the aspects I like best about attending any craft class is that we all start out to make the same thing but the final 'show-and-tell' displays everyone's individual creativity and no two pieces are the same.  After two hours of cutting and crochet, here's what we'd made.

I was able to finish crocheting my bowl at home the next day and found an empty glass jar to insert into it for added structure.  The fabric created is tough and durable and I'd definitely try this again.

I've certainly learned that old clothes unsuitable for donation to charity can still have a purpose with a little ingenuity and creative input - oh, and muscle power!

A Perfect Day At Perth

I had  a wonderful day out yesterday at Perth Festival of Yarn.  Here I am ready to go in my newly finished hand-knit jumper adorned with my wool girl brooch by local maker, Gabrielle Reith.

It's only the second time this event has been held and the team behind the festival, headed by Eva Christie, organised an excellent day out for fibre lovers.

I was accompanied by two knitting pals from the village and had also arranged to meet two more Perthshire friends once I was there. Here's my friend Alison enjoying the Midwinter Yarns stand.  She was really easy to spot in her beautiful hand-knitted Noro coat!

So - what makes a good yarn festival?  Well, the release of event information on Facebook and Instagram in the weeks beforehand certainly helped build anticipation for me.  Receiving the event guide by e-mail a few days prior to travelling also helped us plan our trip and, more importantly, our purchases!

The Dewars Centre venue was easy to find, parking was free and entry registration well streamlined. The food was good and service was efficient in the cafeteria.  There was lots of space to move around amongst the vendors so no jostling!  The provision of plenty of places to sit meant you could knit and chat, or just have a breather whilst perusing the festival guide and consider where to visit next.

There were classes and talks for those interested but we'd come to shop and enjoy a chat with the traders.  I caught up with my friend, Lindsay aka The Border Tart.

There was a mouth watering selection of yarns on display ranging from the vibrant skeins of Glasgow based Mothy And The Squid on the left and, on the right,  Ovis Yarns who'd travelled from Merseyside...

...to the delicate shades of naturally dyed vegan yarns by Flora Fibres from Fife.

With all these pretties on display - and many, many more - it  would be easy to become overwhelmed and just want to buy everything.  From past experience, this has lead to me going home from a festival with single skeins of lovely wool and not a clue what to do with them or, as has also happened, seeing what my friends have bought and wishing I'd bought some too!  So this time I did a little forward planning, scouting out the websites of those vendors I follow on Instagram to see in advance what I might like as well as thinking about the patterns I know I want to knit.  Here's my more considered purchases, though impulse still may have played a small part!

I'm going to knit another jumper like my green one using this huge ball of Eclipse 100% wool indigo dyed by Lindsay.  The pattern is the Peppered Top by Katya Frankel.

This beautiful turquoise BFL from Edinburgh boutique Kingfishersblue is destined to be made into the shawl to replace the one I knitted for my sister which got lost in the post.  Want to read more of my sob story? - you can here.

My final yarny purchase was this set of mini skeins from My Mama Knits to make another On the edge shawl (and you already know how much I love this one because I keep going on and on about it!)

I love listening to Tania talk about Skye and her Dorset button business on the TJFrog podcast so I treated myself to one of her kits to make a Dorset button decoration.  This pretty silver shawl pin from Linda at Couthie Designs will help secure my Therapy shawl amongst others.

Finally, I enjoyed a chat with quite a few stall holders but especially the ladies at Wool 'n' Wood as I'd bought a set of their Malawi-produced knitting needles at the shop in the Scottish Parliament last year. Yesterday I bought this wee handcrafted bowl to use for my notions whilst I'm crafting.  So cheery!

Such a fun outing - enjoying the company of like-minded friends, meeting new people and purchasing lovely things.

Well done Perth Festival of Yarn 2017 - see you next year!