A Fashion Foray into Antwerp (featuring some fancy French floof!)

In May, the Belgian city of Antwerp became the destination for our latest mother/daughter mini-break.

We travelled by Eurostar from London to Brussels then took a local train, arriving at Antwerp's magnificent art nouveau Spoorwegkathedraal, or railway cathedral, as the stunning station is known.

It was a joy to wander around the safe, clean and compact city centre, taking in historic sights, fountains and statues as well as quirky architecture, colourful graffiti and famous sculptures.

Whilst the Danes are famed for their pastries, Belgians also love a baked good or two, with waffles smothered in chocolate a treat we just had to try.  

The main reason for our trip, though, was to visit to the exhibition currently showing at the MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp entitled The Antwerp Six.  It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the international breakthrough of six iconic Belgian fashion designers who all studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.  They put the city firmly on the world fashion map!  The wonderfully curated exhibition placed the designers Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten,  Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee into a visually entertaining contextual timeline then showcased their respective designs whilst highlighting their individuality.

But no holiday to a new city would be complete for me without a visit to a yarn shop!  

Less than five minutes walk up Nationalestraat from MoMu is Julija.

With a door at either side of the shop, light is able to flood into the airy interior.  Inside, it's spacious and laid out in such a way that the yarns, threads and fabrics, needles and notions are uncrowded and clearly displayed.  I loved that so many samples were on show, from adult garments to cute crocheted amigurumi animals.

At first I was drawn to Julija's own hand dyed yarn and chose this soft blue, green variegated hank of aran weight merino.  It will undoubtedly become a hat sometime in the near future.

Then Maddy spotted the perfect pink to match her hair!  Soft clouds of mohair and wool around a strengthening core make up Fonty Ombelle, and I bought one ball from Julija herself, whilst pondering which pattern to knit.  I knew of the French brand, Fonty, but it's seldom seen for sale in the UK.

Julija at her lovely yarn shop in Antwerp

There's been a trend in the knitting world for some time to hold a strand of wool alongside a strand of mohair yarn to make garments and accessories.  The combination creates a warm, yet lightweight, fabric with a gorgeous fluffy halo, but double the yarn can make costs soar.  As Fonty Ombelle already combines the wool and mohair into a sport weight yarn, it can be held alone and still create the same desired effect. 

I checked out Instagram to see what other knitters had made with Fonty Ombelle and, with Maddy's approval, settled on the Djohnny Cardigan by French designer Mauriciette C.  It's simple but elegant with a round neck and cleverly fashioned button band that you knit as you go along.  Once we'd chosen the pattern, we popped back to Julija's yarn shop to purchase the additional five balls of floof I reckoned I'd need.

Djohnny cardigan pattern by Mauricette C.

As soon as we returned from Antwerp, I knit my gauge swatch and got cracking!  

The cardigan took me about a month to knit and I found the pattern was well written and easy to follow.  I chose size XS for Maddy and knitted it pretty much as stated, but with slightly longer sleeves, as I still had additional yarn left after completing the body to the prescribed length.

On a trip to Fife in June, I found these pretty wooden buttons at The Woolly Brew in Pittenweem.  Maddy rather liked the idea of them being mismatched.

Here's the completed cardigan which was even softer to touch after a wee wash and block.

I'm so pleased that Maddy and I were together in Antwerp to choose the materials and pattern for a garment she wants, and that I was able to use this wool so soon after purchase.  However, with the heatwave continuing in London, where Maddy lives, there's no saying she's going to be wearing it anytime soon!

What - no golfclubs?

My incredulous husband made this remark when he heard I was going to Dornoch, home of the famous 400 year old golf course, with its Royal title, which is ranked number 5 in the world.

This weekend, though, I was attending the Dornoch Fibre Fest with my friend, Alison.  It was knitting needles and crochet hooks rather than drivers and putters, and balls of yarn rather than the white dimpled variety, that we had in mind as we travelled three hours north to the picturesque cathedral town.

The event is a celebration of fibre and woollen crafts and comprised classes, demonstrations, drop-in sessions as well as retail opportunities and was held in two venues in the town.  The gaily decorated lamp posts helped direct visitors from one hall to the other.

Alison and I aren't newcomers to the fibre festival circuit, having enjoyed previous trips together to Edinburgh Yarn Festival last March and the Highland Wool Festival at Dingwall in May 2015.

It was a delight to see stallholders we'd met before and some new vendors too.  Here's Helen from Ripplescrafts, Laurence and Clive from Gongcrafts and Julie from Black Isle Yarns.  It was lovely to blether and I may have purchased some yarn from them all along the way!

Fibre festivals are friendly, colourful, enticing places.  At Dornoch there was squishable hand-dyed yarns from dedicated small batch producers as well as beautiful undyed natural fibres.  There were cute kits to make kids garments, fabrics, threads, spinning supplies and all the knitting accoutrements and paraphernalia one could wish for.  Sellers and buyers shared their love of crafts, inspiring each other and swapping pattern details, and there was a happy atmosphere.

As well as enjoying morning coffee and lunch at the venue, and to keep up our energy levels, we visited Dornoch Patisserie and Cafe for coffee with warm white chocolate and raspberry bread pudding - delicious!  I just loved the illustration on their menu.

The festival also featured a cushion competition.  Entries could be of any design using mixed media so I entered the baable cushion I'd made which I wrote about here.

I was absolutely thrilled to learn I'd  won first prize.  My cushion also won the prize from the Shetland Sheep Society as I'd used Shetland wool for the sheep in my design.  Double first!

My prize was a beautiful candle bowl from Tain Pottery - in a design exclusive to Royal Dornoch Golf Club as they sponsored the competition.

So I didn't take my clubs to Dornoch - but I did come home with a prize from the golf club!