Working With Colour

I *love* to work with colour.

It truly makes my heart and soul happy.

There's been a lot of research done on colour therapy, and it is a thing!

Colour makes us feel better.

It's different for everyone of course, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I believe that we all need colour in our lives.

It's the beginning of winter here, and it's cold and dark and wet. So, I'm showing you a selection of some of my finished creations, so you can see how much colour is a part of what I love to do ... and share with the world.

Some of my colourful handmade drop spindles (previously sold in my Etsy shop) ...

And here is how I play with colour on some of my hand-dyed yarns (all colourways that I previously sold in my Etsy shop) ...

And here's how I like to hand-spin, hand-knit and crochet colourful pieces that make my heart soar ...

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little ensemble of (yarn arts inspired) colour therapy today.

Unravel 2015

Having my pre-schooler in tow, it was going to be a challenge to visit the Unravel Knitting Festival for anything longer than a few hours, but visit it we did ... and we did it in style.

Unravel has become an annual treat for me, and I was very happy to introduce my son to it this year. He was very curious about the adventure I was taking him on in the car. I kept him entertained for the hour-long journey to the venue with a sing-along session to a Disney CD.

We were in good spirits when we arrived at Farnham Maltings at about 2:30pm on Saturday 21st February, where I was delighted to find a car parking space at the venue straight away.

Eager to see the goodies, I took my little one by the hand and led him around the quirky corridors of the Maltings to the sales halls of delights.

With it being later on in the day, I was relieved to see that the usual crowds I'd encountered at Unravel in previous years had dispersed.

The Natural Dye Studio's stall was as stunning as ever. The best way to advertise your range of colourful yarns is to see them in action of course!

After receiving a text message from Sarah of Crafts From The Cwtch that the Nudinits talk she had listened to was finished, I cut our tour of Unravel short to see my fellow crafting and blogging friends in the cafe area of the Maltings. I was delighted to see that Sarah was there, along with Marinke from A Creative Being Blog. It was so wonderful to see these two again, and after the initial hellos were said, they introduced me to another lovely lady called Alison (Cristaltips on Ravelry). My little one was bashful at first and then sat on my lap as I caught up on news with friends.

Realising that time was slipping away, I still needed to see the last half of the festival, so my son and I excused ourselves from the cafe area to go and look around some more. Leaving Sarah to her networking, Marinke decided to keep us company whilst we investigated more rooms.

The most tempting stall for me personally with regards to wanting to part with my hard-earned cash was the one run by Louise Player of Spin City. Hers is a feast for the eyes ... with all the kinds of fluff I love ... gorgeous hand-carded batts, sparkly and girly drop spindles, roving in all the colours of the rainbow, and more. As a spinner, I couldn't keep my eyes off of it.

Louise herself was busy trying to (and succeeding) in converting yet more yarn lovers to the joys of spinning on a drop spindle.

And here's one last full view of the stall, with Louise and her lovely Mum.

A vendor that I hadn't encountered before had me loitering around their stall for quite some time. The faux taxidermy knitting kits by Sincerely Louise were just so well designed and executed. From giant tiger floor rugs (like picture below), and trophy wall-mountable animal heads, to faux fox stole scarves, Louise's designs and kits were all really tactile, endearing as well as being quirky and fun.

Other stalls that took my breath away included Hilltop Cloud, John Arbon Textiles, and IST Crafts.

It seemed even bigger and better this year, which may have something to do with more stall holders, more Maltings rooms allocated to the event, and the fact that this was the first year that they'd run the event over three days instead of the usual two. Either way, it was great. With familiar and unfamiliar vendors, it was a feast for the eyes.

As usual, the Maltings was decorated with a variety of yarn-art to inspire crafty souls of every persuasion.

'Growth' by Barbara Touati-Evans

Towards the end, I discovered a very interesting installation at the event called 'Blue Jumper'. This was a participatory knitting experience conceived of by artist Sarah Filmer. Hanging up around the eaves of the Undercroft area of the venue was knitting in a large variety of different blue coloured yarns, in undulating and beautiful shapes, hanging down with unfinished sections attached to knitting needles ... inviting you to join in. Many women were sat at this communal knitting lounge adding their few lines to the sculptural work. It would have been rude not to have participated, so Marinke (Wink) and I sat down and got involved.

My little one is too young and lacking in the fine motor skills needed for the yarn crafts, but I'm hoping that some of the buoyant creativity seen at events like Unravel will rub off on him in some way.

5pm had been and gone, and it was sadly time to leave. I said farewell and safe travels to old friends and new, got in the car with a tired and happy little one, and home we went.

Thanks for a great afternoon, and see you next year Unravel!

A Great Day Out: Unravel 2013

I was very fortunate yesterday as I spent a lovely day in Farnham Maltings at the Unravel 2013 Fiber Arts Festival.

What a sight for lovers of colour and texture! The organisers had done a marvelous job of decorating the whole of the building ... inside and out. The whole place was yarn bombed in one way or another. It was difficult to take it all in, and I didn't want to miss a thing.

There were even a pair of sheep in a pen near the entrance!

Anyway, I was excited in the lead up to the festival as I'd planned to meet an Instagram friend, Amber Weinberg, and go around the show with her, as well meeting up with Danielle Alinia who had a stall at the event for her A Stash Addict business.

Amber and I happened to arrive in Farnham at the same time, so after brief introductions in the freezing snowy car park, we bundled into Farnham Maltings and begun to work our way around the show. That's Amber on the left and me on the right:

The lovely Unravel 2013 mascot greeted us in the foyer.

If you've ever been to Farnham Maltings you'll know how higgeldy-piggeldy the layout is. Needless to say, Amber & I struggled to find our bearings, but we simply followed our noses around the building.

Loving the sheep theme I just had to take a photo of this lovely fellow:

Being an enthusiast of spinning, I was excited to see many people sat around with drop spindles on the go, and there was a room where you could even try spinning on a variety of wheels.

And more evidence of yarny-arty-installations everywhere!

And I loved the pretty yarn creations hanging from every available wall and ceiling space!

Doing my very best to try not to spend a ridiculous amount of money, I carefully made my way around the festival, vowing only to part with my cash if I properly fell in love with something and couldn't part with it!

My first purchase was this 100g braid of Merino fiber in colourway 'Pale Jungle' from a company called Skeins. I simply had to buy this as it features my favourite colours ... beautiful earthy greens, browns and rusts:

After a LOT of walking, and losing our bearings in the maze of rooms, we finally found Danielle of A Stash Addict's stall, and I can hands down say that there was more colour on hers than on any other. It was simply stunning.

Here we all are having a photo together (haha, look at my over the moon face):

I was so happy to see my Drop Spindle Spinning Kits for sale on Danielle's stall, I just had to take a photo to commemorate it. Here's the rainbow kit:

After chatting to the friendly couple for a lovely long time, I finally made my mind up which of her skeins of yarn I would purchase. I decided on one that I've coveted for quite some time ... The Earthy Rainbow DK Tweed. This colourway is just heavenly and coupled with the tweed effect, it looks amazing. I'll have to choose a special pattern for this one:

Here are a few of the other delights on Danielle's stall that caught my eye. First of all, here's a small sample of her braids of fiber ... a spinner or felters dream:

And then I was lured over to the display opposite Danielle's by the sumptuous fiber in batts and braids hanging from every inch the stall. It was Katie Weston of Hilltop Cloud and I was very impressed with her unique and luxurious blends. After chatting to the very knowledgeable Katie I was really inspired by her work, as she had cleverly made beautiful hand-knitted garments from her handspun yarn, using a variety of her very own blends. It was from this that she got the sale of this next beauty:

This is 50% Baby Camel and 50% Silk blend fiber in a beautiful range of purples. No kidding when I say this is the most luxuriously soft and sumptuous fiber I've ever had the pleasure to hold in my hands. But not only that, because I've seen how the finished result comes out, I know it spins up beautifully to produce a very fine yarn that looks phenomenal and feels fabulous close to the skin.

After a whole lot of chatting with store holders and squishing the vast majority of goodies on offer, Amber & I decided to go back to the beginning and make sure we had seen everything properly. I also wanted to buy a few things I'd seen at the beginning of our day.

In the first big hall we'd encountered I'd been impressed by a company called John Arbon Textiles. Amber had been too, as she'd bought a gorgeous pair of Alpaca Fair Isle socks from them. I was drawn to big floor-standing bins that contained  discounted fiber that you could buy by however many grams you liked. They were displayed so you could feel each of the fibers and the quality was very good. I ended up choosing 200g of Organic Merino in natural undyed white:

And also, I bought a bargain 200g bag of Alpaca, Merino & Silk mixed 'Broken Tops' that I thought would be interesting to have a play with:

On our last legs, after several trips around the show, Amber & I were overdue for some food and drink.

We plonked our bottoms down in true weary fashion and tucked in to some well deserved food, chatting all the while.

At 3:30pm, with many stall holders beginning to pack away, and all our energy (and money) , we decided to call it a day.

Going into the snowy outdoors was a shock after being so warm and cosy surrounded by lots of yarn, fiber and a whole lot of people. Amber & I said our goodbyes and then she departed for the train station.

Goodbye Unravel. I hope to visit you again next year ... and who knows ... maybe I'll be an exhibitor?? Fingers crossed.