Yarnporium yeah !

One of the things on my "18 for 2018" list (inspired by Gretchen Rubin's "Happier podcast") was "to visit a British yarn show". I crossed this one off by attending Yarnporium London on November 2. What a lovely, inspiring atmosphere, what great yarns to buy, great people to meet. I joined the "knitwear photography" workshop by Jonna Hietala and Sini Ellen, the co-founders of Laine magazine. Laine is a Nordic knit magazine that cherishes natural fibres and the international community of knitters. I greatly admire their work, and they are very inspiring and enthusiastic teachers.
In the afternoon there was the Marketplace and Indie Maker Spotlight to visit : full of wonderful vendors with lots of fantastic yarns to see, touch, squeeze, smell, and yes... buy.
I went looking particularly for yarns produced in a more environmentally friendly and ethical way.
These are the yarns and vendors I could not resist:
(I put links in this post, so you can visit the websites of the different vendors and yarns I speak of just by clicking on the names in colour).

Marina Skua :

Marina Skua is a fibre crafter who dyes and spins one-off and small batch yarns. I like her work ethic: minimising waste, reusing materials where possible and reducing the environmental impact of her work. She only uses natural fibres, mostly sourcing them locally from farms she knows. But actually it was the colours that caught my eye : warm, intense, irresistible! I'm not wrong, am I?

Garthenor :
Garthenor produces exclusively organic yarns and works directly with farmers and small mills in Britain. Their yarns are fully traceable back to the flock.  It took me a while to choose, since all their wool is so pretty, so real and authentic. I decided to buy two skeins of their number 3 Shetland (DK)

Wild and Woolly and Rauwerk :
At the booth of Wild and Woolly (see further down) I bought a beautiful dark grey skein of Rauwerk wool . Rauwerk is a German brand of eco-friendly and ethical yarn, from a certified organic flock of sheep. The yarn is spun at a local family-run mill and dyed with natural dyes. Since 2016 there is also a physical Rauwerk shop in Munich. Another one for my bucket list....
Wild and Woolly, the fantastic yarn shop in Hackney, is also on my ever-growing bucket list.

Blacker Yarns :
I simply can't resist this yarn: high quality British yarn in  the most beautiful colours, made from 100 % natural fibres. I bought some DK weight yarn. I think it's going to look great in colourwork!
Blacker Yarns is a company with great values and great customer service, as I know from experience through some online shopping.

Knit with attitude :
This small independent yarn shop, based in Stoke Newington, London, was also represented. Knit with attitude specialises in sustainable yarn, which means that they value transparency through every stage of production. Here I found two beautiful skeins of Norwegian wool: Tinde from the Hillesvag Ullvarefabrikk. They dye naturally grey wool, which gives a wonderful shade. I love it !

I had a great time at Yarnporium and am happy to confirm that the international knitting community is a friendly and engaging one! 
And I hope you find these collected bits and bobs interesting and helpful!  

Simple Rules Cowls

I knitted these two cowls on holiday. It's a very fun knit, ideal for using that one special skein of thick and thin yarn from your stash. The rule is very simple : knit when the yarn is thin, purl when it's thick! You can find the free pattern here on Ravelry.
The purple yarn is Verona Scheepjes, bought at Wolwollewool in Maastricht (the Netherlands). I have no idea of the blue yarn's name or specifications. It's probably a woolblend.
The purple cowl felt very prickly, so I lined it with some repurposed black fleece fabric, which makes it super warm.

The structure of the thick and thin yarns gets emphasized by the knitting pattern:

Tadaa! The Baa-ble hat

Now all of you should hear triumphant trumpets! I have been meaning to knit this hat for a while, but was rather scared of the colour-work.
The Baa-ble hat was the official pattern for Shetland Woolweek 2015, held every year in Shetland to celebrate Shetland wool and its associated crafts. When I downloaded it, the pattern was still free. Now you can purchase it, here on Ravelry.
The yarn I used is Rico Design Essentials soft Merino aran superwash. I adore the colours!! But I would recommend a more rustic yarn for this hat. The yarn I used makes the hat a bit too stretchy and soft. That being said, I am sooo happy with it. The sheep are so adorable and the hat is very warm. And let's not forget the huge pompom. I wore it in the house for two days, that's how proud I was.
This is an ideal introduction to colour-work or Fair Isle knitting. As a bonus, I learned to knit with two colours in different hands, which makes colourwork much more fun. And another bonus is that I can now knit continental, which is so much easier on the right shoulder that gives me quite a bit of trouble.
So, in my opinion, triumphant trumpets in order here!

let's get started, on double pointed needles:

the colourwork, on circular needle:

me, very happy, with my own Baable-hat!

The Keeper of Keys

Here is the Keeper of Keys. He'll guard the keys that are entrusted to him. I crocheted the bowl with selfmade t-shirt yarn. Then I washed it by hand and let it dry, stretched over a plastic bowl. This way it kept its form much better. The bear is needle-felted. I gave him a small knitted scarf. Being on a key bowl, he could end up in a drafty place, you see...

Parisienne Chic

This was my very first lace pattern. It is quite easy but I struggled with it at the time, and I made mistakes, dropped stitches etc. Even in an easy lace pattern, mistakes show, but I found a solution. I sewed a nice bead on every mistake and added lots more on random spots. It turned out quite nice actually. Having struggled with this scarf, I still have a soft spot for this "Parisienne Chic".
The yarn I used is Rowan lace (80% baby alpaca and 20% merino), bought at local yarn shop Lana in Antwerp.
You can find this pattern in the booklet "Easy knitted scarves" on p.38.

Daddy-Long-Legs

This fun giraffe is my own design. I made him from a piece of vintage fabric (more than 30 years old), using the sewing machine for a quick make. He reminds me of the original drawings in the 1912 children's book "Daddy-Long-Legs" by Jean Webster, hence the name I chose.

Selfspun experiment

I find myself loving the colour orange more and more. Using my new skill, I spun a small amount of orange yarn, with a bit of purple. I twined it with some turquoise weaving thread, which was  something of a brave combination. Eager to see how it would look like when knit, I got a circular needle and created what would turn out a rather nice, if a bit prikly cowl. Happy day!

the selfspun yarn :

what shall I knit…?

It's a cowl!

A colourful wrap at the end of a rainbow

A while ago, I came across this very colourful wrap in the magazine "Let's knit", issue 72 (Christmas 2013). I fell in love with the colours and just had to knit it. I bought the yarn that was suggested : King Cole Riot Chunky, a wool and acrylic blend. It took a while to knit, I found the garter ridge pattern a bit boring and I didn't like the yarn that much, although it has a soft and not too acrylic feel. But hey, I love having this colourful wrap, it's cheerful !

Felted painting, somewhere in Yorkshire

On a family holiday in 2012, I spent a few weeks in one of the most beautiful landscapes in Europe: Yorkshire. With the help of a photograph I took there for inspiration, I decided to try to recreate this sense of beauty in a felted landscape (yes, it's all wool).
I worked on it in different stages until reasonably satisfied. And this is the result. I nailed it onto a piece of wood and now it can be hung on the wall.

Real wool to dye for

(apologies for the pun…)
I bought these five skeins of homespun yarn (100% wool) from an acquaintance. After following a workshop in wool dyeing, I continued dying them at home.
I used onion peel to make five dye baths varying in colour strength. This way you get five different tints of yellow.

Making the dye                                                                                      one of the dye baths (hot)

the onion peels have done their job!

let them soak! (some skeins are dyed twice)

5 different skeins !!