Wool Week 2013

I can't believe that there is a whole week devoted to wool!  In my humble opinion, I think it deserves a whole month.  

There have been lots of events going on this week including live knitting and crochet in the window of John Lewis in London, and PicKnits taking place across the country, bringing knitters, crocheters, spinners and lovers of wool together.

The Wool Room on Facebook have been posting a great series of Myth Buster posters about wool which have been both informative and interesting at the same time and are well worth checking out.

Now I am a big fan of wool.  I work with it a lot, both in my crochet and my felting.  I have, over time, come to love certain types of wool more than others.  Here are my top 3:

Jacob
In third place are the beautiful Jacob sheep.  With their dual coloured fleeces, they produce lovely wool, in a range of natural colours, which is great for felting.

Shetland
In a very close second place, we have the Shetland sheep.  Beautifully soft, with 11 main colours, it is used to produce the gossamer lace famous for use in Fair Isle sweaters. I adore working with this wool both in crochet and felting.

And in 1st place .....

Blue Faced Leicester

Soft, lustrous and often compared to mohair, Blue Faced Leicester is my favourite of all the British wool breeds.  I love to work with this wool.

What are your favourite British wools to work with?

Yarndale 2013

Just over a week ago, me and Mr Bunny headed over the Pennines to the beautiful market town of Skipton for a new yarn festival - Yarndale.
The festival took place over 2 days and we attended on the Sunday. A few friends of mine went on the Saturday which was super busy. The Sunday was much quieter and pleasant (although when we left it was starting to get busier).
There was a great range of stalls, from yarn, notions and buttons to handmade items such as felt bags and delicate shawls.
The whole venue had been decorated beautifully with various knitted and crocheted delights such as bunting and flowers.  I loved the crocheted houses in the knit and natter area, which was a snug place to sit and have a little rest from shopping. If you check out the Attic 24 blog, you can see photos of the amazing yarnbombing which took place in Skipton (we didn't get chance to see this).
Needless to say, I did purchase a few goodies! A bought a gorgeous handmade project bag from Daisy Bun Boo Designs made from beautiful bunny print fabric, some.angora yarn from Bigwigs Angora  and a small skien of Blue Faced Leicester yarn from Laal Bear amongst other things (take a peek at the photo below to see some of the other goodies I bought!)

I met the lovely Knit.Spin.Cake on Daisy Bun Boo Designs  with her equally lovely mum as well as some alpacas and angora bunnies.
I would have liked to have seen more animals and I know, that for some people, parking was an issue. But, for a festival in it's first year, I felt it was well organised, in a brilliant location and offered lots of goodies for lovers of all things woolly. I`ll definitely be back next year!

W.I.P Wednesday - Crochet Lego Blanket

It's a bit of a miserable Wednesday here as the weather isn't too great. Nevertheless, I've got a coffee and chocolate loaf cake baking in the oven ready to take to a friends tomorrow - if it lasts that long - and a blog post about my current.W.I.P (work in progress)
After much protesting from Mr Bunny, I've finally got around to working on his blanket.  I don't.blame him for the protesting, honestly, as I started his blanket way back on boxing day last year.
The pattern is The Lego Blanket by Andrea Baker, which I purchases on Etsy, and involves making lots of crocheted lego bricks, using the bobble stitch to make the nobbly bits you get on top of the bricks. 
The pattern is really well written and includes a detailed photo tutorial as well, making it a great project for beginners.
I've got a pretty long way to go on it yet but, you never know, I may finish it before next Boxing Day.  Maybe.

Words of Wisdom - Small Steps

It has been quite a while since I last blogged - time has definitely slipped away from me!
This weeks Words of Wisdom were actually posted by someone I follow on Pinterest and I loved it.
I have just started teaching a community learning/adult education/night school class at a local high school in crochet. It's all very exciting and I'm very lucky to have a class of awesome ladies. 
For me, this is one more step along my journey towards my ultimate dream of making crochet and craft a full time career.  I'm definitely not there yet and, sometimes, I find it frustrating that I can't just skip to the completed end goal.  I have to remind myself that every step I take is one closer to where I was before.
For my students, all eager to master crochet, they have had to learn to walk before they run (or chain before they treble crochet!) Learning anything new can, at times, be frustrating as you know what you want to be able to do but aren't quite there yet. You have to take those small steps and build them slowly.
So this week, whatever you are aiming for in your life, remember that all the small steps are 1 step closer to where you are going.
Until next time,
Sarah x