Knit East 2015

Since winding down from Unravel and Edinburgh, excitement has started to build for the summer, along with new plans for this coming year. I'll be traveling home to Nova Scotia in July to visit for the first time since moving to London. I plan to recharge my batteries and anticipate what the autumn holds. New patterns and accessories are at the top of my agenda right now, which I will introduce at the upcoming yarn festivals in the UK. In October I get to return home again for KnitEast, a Maritime yarn festival, in New Brunswick. I had a blast attending two years ago in 2013. I learned a lot from the workshops last time and got to meet so many generous knitters. However, this time I'm incredibly lucky to be teaching at this year's event. 

KnitEast is talking place this October 23, 24 & 25. It will be held at the gorgeous Algonquin Resort again and I'm looking forward to seeing the recent renovations. You can read about my last trip to KnitEast on my old blog here. I didn't get to experience fall last year so it will be a treat to see the colours changing here. 

 I'll be teaching a number of courses throughout the weekend. On Saturday there will be workshops on reversible cables and toe-up socks. 

Sunday will have two different workshops on my fingerless mitts series, the Greenforest Gang. The morning class with cover stranded knitting and how to follow the patterns. After lunch, I'll be spending some time talking about my design process and then let participants play around at making a custom mitt. 

I know fall is still a few months away, but in the meantime, check out their site for a full list of workshops and registration. I'll see you there!

Edinburgh Yarn Festival

Just a little over four years ago, I came to Scotland to spend my exchange semester at the Glasgow School of Art. It was during this time where I was introduced to the various textiles industries here in the UK and motivated to pursue knitting after graduation. It was a special weekend to return to Scotland and promote my own designs and business that I've managed to grow since then. Edinburgh Yarn Festival was a fantastic weekend, the organizers, vendors and visitors were all lovely and I was touched with the amount of support from everyone. The icing on the cake was that I got to share the weekend with my mom. She was visiting from home and the festival also happened to be on Mother's Day in the UK. Thank-you to everyone who stopped by to chat. I can't wait to see what next year brings, I'd participate in this event again in a heart beat. Do check out their website, there are tones of photos from the weekend! 

My neighbour for the weekend, Dublin Dye. Based in Ireland but originally from Newfoundland! 

La Masion Tricotée came all the way from Montreal. It was great to see Fleece Artist's hand dyed yarn again. Made me pine a little bit for home. 

Stopped by to say hello to Toft. I picked up a copy of Edward's Menagerie. I'm currently working on the hippo! 

Wall of colour at Jamieson's Of Shetland. 

My favourite discovery of the weekend, The Border Mill, a small scale mill specializing in UK alpaca.  

I couldn't resit the feel of their yarn and the sweetest illustrations. I'm currently making Sous Sous for myself and was able to do a bit of knitting on the stand. 

Till next time Edinburgh!

Brighton

Off to Edinburgh

This weekend I'm off to Scotland for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival! I've been busy getting ready since Unravel and I'm excited to add a few new things to may table. My new banners arrived this week just in time and I now have my lumberjack baby socks available as a pattern or in a kit! Also looking forward to meeting some of my favourite Scottish yarn dyers and designers! 

Weekend at Unravel

The venture down to Farnham for Unravel was an especially fun experience and over-all successful weekend. I started off the festival with my workshop on stranded knitting. It was a pleasure to teach in this fantastic dance studio and to be accompanied by a great group of ten ladies. I hope they enjoyed their morning as much as I did. 

I spent the rest of the weekend behind my stand getting to meet and talk to many knitters from Farnham and afar. The craft team at the Maltings was incredible host. There were many friendly faces from the customers and vendors as well. I was in the Courtyard Kiln with Texere Yarns Ltd and The Fibre Company, who were fantastic neighbours to have for the weekend.

The weekend weather was fairly dry but of course it had the rain during set-up and take-down. I got to feast my eyes on the beautiful colour pallets by The Fibre Company during my spare time and that never hurts! 

My first experience at Unravel was exactly what I expected, fun, refreshing and motivating. Meeting new people in the knitting industry and chatting up with old acquaintances was exactly what I needed to spark my inspiration for this coming fall and winter. I'm already looking forward to next year at Unravel!