24 Jun 2012

The most cool cinema experience...

The Craft Club will be bringing the knitted cinema to Manchester on October 19th - what a lovely and whacky idea. A short film about knitting and it's joy's within our lives. It is a family event and has a knit-along activity afterward. 
Cinema Knit-along with Craft Club / What's On / Crafts Council
:

'Craft Club Film – ‘The Happy Couple’, 2011 ©Crush Creative

The Craft Club is all about getting craft to the young people - check them out below and you can also watch a bit of the film too -
http://www.craftclub.org.uk/news




23 Jun 2012

Cinema Knit-along with Craft Club / What's On / Crafts Council


lacy crochet pendant shades

So I may not have been blogging for a while but I was
collecting ideas.....


I fell in love with the idea of knitted lampshades and so found some great examples online,
http://alovelything.com/2010/04/38-ways-to-light-up-your-lace/
How could you not want to make one of these- just so beautiful and delicate.

victorian crochet lampshade

You can have lots of fun with them as well.... it's a trend that is picking up but there still isn't that many out there
http://www.design-confidential.com/trend-alert-8-knits-and-crochet-looks-for-interiors/


It seems the trend is not just for lampshades- anything interior can be covered in knit....






http://www.interiordesign.net/blog/Design_Green/37393-Christien_Meindertsma_s_Knit_Poufs.php


22 Jun 2012

Off to the Woolfest

Polly Purl, by that I mean myself and my mum, are off to the Wool fest today!!!! http://www.woolfest.co.uk/
It's my first time and I am so excited, to quote the website
 'Woolfest is a celebration of natural fibres, especially all aspects of wool, wool products and wool crafts'


roughfell.jpgwensleydale.jpg

I'm not just going to this for fun though, I hope to come back with many ideas and contacts to help me with my yarns for Winter. I would like to create and use something extra special for the new collection, a yarn that is British but also something that will sit well with my luxurious designs'- nothing too scratchy in other words. 

It is unfortunate and somewhat surprising that there was not much ethical and/or eco friendly materials being shown at the contemporary craft fair. It maybe seems that when people buy crafts they are less worried about the products being tainted with sweatshops, un-ethical farming or anything of the like. Yet I would say as a small business it is harder to go eco- with cost being such an issue and companies not being worried about losing your orders- I certainly feel the pressure to take the easy route. 

Below is an article about last years Wool fest, very interesting reading - 


21 Jun 2012

A grand return

This weekend Polly Purl was lucky enough to show at the contemporary crafty fair in Devon. An amazing show with 160 designer/makers selling their wares over 3 days. 
http://craftsatboveytracey.co.uk/makers/one+year+on/

So to catch you up on all that has been going on.....
Pre-market it was this scary big cloud hanging over me,  a big step up from the little one day markets I had done before Christmas. But there was no turning back from it and it hurtled towards me, giving me no time to stop and worry. I unfortunately stopped blogging so you will have to take my word for all of this but I am sure anyone who was around could tell you just how stressed I was.

Of course in hindsight I see that stressing was helping no-one, unfortunately I wanted everything to be perfect. I was working on Shetland jumpers and cardigans with fair isle patterns on the shoulders, however this being June I was worried it would be one of those rare hot days we get during the summer. So I was also working with Merino and cotton. These I bought from a company called Yeoman Yarns and both were spun in Europe, although they are lovely yarns and got great compliments at the fair I don't think I will be using these again as I can not get full tractability of either. After the panic buying of these yarns I did some more research and found lots more information on British spun versions. But I think this is a topic for another blog as I still have lots of research to do.

I also had to worry about the layout, packaging and presentation, I didn't want to look out of place and I really wanted to help make my space feel luxurious -i.e expensive. So I roped the boyfriend into helping me make four small tables in varying heights and lengths. It was actually a lot of fun and we didn't fight too much! We managed to pick up some off cuts from B & Q for 50p each, these were then painted a dark walnut colour and we added detachable legs (the hardest thing by far was those darn detachable legs!)

My most lovely sister helped me out with the packaging, getting everything from leaflets (a really good idea) to bags and stickers with my logo on.

I fear this is already an overly long post so I will save the details of the fair for another day........




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