One thing he never would have wanted though, was for my grief over losing him to spoil my enjoyment of a festival all about my favourite hobby, and mental well-being. So it never occurred to me for a second that I wouldn't still go.
My enjoyment of the event was helped immensely by the timely arrival of 18 month of back-dated PIP arriving in my bank account, as just this once I could get away without setting myself a budget, and letting myself go a bit crazy.
Most of that back-dated PIP money has now been put into a savings account that along with Stephen's redundancy pay is helping to see us through until he is once again gainfully employed. But I can't deny that I felt a wonderful sense of freedom on that one day that I allowed myself to behave as though money was no object.
Most of that back-dated PIP money has now been put into a savings account that along with Stephen's redundancy pay is helping to see us through until he is once again gainfully employed. But I can't deny that I felt a wonderful sense of freedom on that one day that I allowed myself to behave as though money was no object.
Anyway, let's get on to the event itself:
Woolness
I heard about this event from Dominey to begin with. Clearly I was going to be interested in a wool festival in the city of my birth! So I joined the facebook group, and found that one of the organisers was a regular at the Travelling Spinners group that I visit (or visited, more on that later) when I'm up in the North East for the first weekend of the month!
The event aimed to focus on the mental health benefits of fibre and yarn crafts, by means of workshops on "Mindful Stitching", introduction to meditation, and my personal favourite, by introducing people to the concept of the "Tension Bird", created by the wonderful Lorna Hamilton-Brown, author of "Myth: Black People Don't Knit", which I thoroughly recommend. I love the Tension Bird so much! The pattern grew out of finding a use for something that most knitters love to hate - Americans, and therefore increasingly the rest of the world these days, call this thing the "Gauge Swatch", but back in the days when I first learned to knit, here in the UK it was known as a "Tension Square". Obviously, in that context, "Tension" refers to how tight or loose your knitting is, but as we all know far too well, tension can also refer to mental stress, to feeling "Tense". In knitting this simple little pattern, and producing the sweet little bird as a finished product, one can release some of that tension, through the repetitive action of creating one stitch after another, and the feeling of achievement at having created something beautiful from your own efforts.
No Fibre and Yarn festival is complete though without a selection of stalls selling the necessaries for our crafts, and I really must say that the variety available for such a new festival was brilliant. Let me demonstrate a little by showing you what I bought:
Hey Jay Yarns
If you're a regular reader, I'm sure you've noticed by now that I'm quite a fan of Hey Jay anyway. She was the first face that I saw as I walked through the door, stood there in her fabulous dinosaur dungarees, in front of a stall of stunning colours.
I feel it's important to support vendors who you love, and it's so easy to do when they're selling such beautiful things! I also love that she always has these Mystery Mini-skeins available! You have no idea what you're getting until you open the sealed paper bag, and you all know how much I love surprises!
I need to find a suitable sweater pattern to work with the fade set there, but I think I'm going to make that my selfish winter knitting, alongside my usual advent mitred squares.
The Woolly Tangle
I don't think I've ever encountered The Woolly Tangle before, but this bright red project bag with many shades of sheep on it called to me from half way across the room! They have many other gorgeous project bags, and I'm particularly fond of the pyramid project bags! But it was the colour of this that made me choose to buy it.
Yellow Door Yarn
I'd never heard of Yellow Door Yarn either, but like a moth to the flame, I was summoned to their stand by the combination of mini-skeins and badges! Such lovely people, they happily encouraged me to dig through the basket of mini-skeins to find all of my favourites, then hunted through their selection of badges to make sure that I had 2 different colours of those.
Sadly, their online shop is currently closed for a stock take, but I've linked to them anyway, so that you can all go and take a look when they're open again.
Sadly, their online shop is currently closed for a stock take, but I've linked to them anyway, so that you can all go and take a look when they're open again.
Turned Studios
This purchase made me a little sad, as a yarn bowl was something that my dad had been working on for me before he died. I found it when my sister, Yaz, and I were clearing the summer house before his Wake. Underneath a pile of wood shavings, put aside in what I would call "Time Out" were it one of my projects, presumably because he couldn't get some aspect of the shaping exactly how he wanted it to be.
You can buy wooden yarn bowls from Amazon for a fraction of the price that this one cost me, but either they have been mass produced in a factory, or they've been produced by exploiting an impoverished work force, and either way they have to be shipped thousands of miles to get to the UK. So I decided that I would buy one made by a Geordie man, at Turned Studios.
The patterning in the wood of this bowl is because the wood is "spalted". Dad used to mock this term, and insist that it just meant the wood was rotten! But he would also admit that providing it was dried and treated properly, items turned out of a spalted gall could be exceptionally beautiful.
Rosarama Beadcraft
Before I got back into knitting, I used to do a lot of bead work. I still own an awfully large number of beads! But most of them are of a size suited to jewellery making, or bead weaving, and don't have holes large enough to be threaded onto yarn for knitting. I still use them, mostly for making stitch markers, but I thought that since Rosarama Beadcraft had such a huge selection of colours and styles suitable for knitting with, I should stock up on the colours I'm most likely to use. Which means lots of purple! The candy pink is because my nieces wouldn't ever forgive me for not buying at least some of such a stunningly girly pink! So now I have to decide what to make for them both that will use those beads!
Coastal Colours
Coastal Colours are a regular at Bakewell Wool Gathering, which I've been to every year since it started, as it's just a short trip from where I live in Sheffield. But I'm not always inspired by Coastal Colours. Don't get me wrong, they always have beautiful yarn, and beautiful colourways, but often they just don't really grab me. However, when they do grab me, they really grab me by the wrist, and drag me to the stall yelling "BUY ME NOW!!!" These colourways were just like that. The lighter of the 2 wasn't skeined up, Graham told me that he'd only dyed it 2 days before the show, in a last blast of inspiration, but it wasn't quite dry in time, and that I'd have to unwind it and hang it to dry for a while when I got home! I couldn't not have it though, in the right light, both of these colourways glow!
The book is one that I saw pre-views of last year, and desperately wanted to buy, but couldn't afford at the time.
This is a huge braid of BFL and Sea Cell, so big I couldn't make it fit sensibly in the photo with the yarn and the book. I'm trying not to buy fibre at the moment, because I'm not getting a lot of opportunity to spin, but this was another colourway that didn't so much whisper in my ear, as yell so loud I couldn't ignore it!
Bright Seed Textiles
If ever I win the lottery, then I'll be buying an original by Bright Seed Textiles. Beautiful scenes of the North East, "painted" in felt and fabric. Even with the temporary riches of my PIP payment, I couldn't justify buying an original, but these prints, and cards are nearly as good. When I finally get around to clearing the final Junk Room, and therefore have a spare room to become my craft room, this will be proudly displayed on my craft room wall. Until then, it's on the wall of my Yarn Niche in our bedroom!
Flight Weaving
As this is made from hand-woven silk, there's no way that I could afford a full size project bag, but this sweet little notions pouch just had to be mine. I spoke with Janis, of Flight Weaving for a while about the craft, as it's not one that I have much experience with, and almost zero skill at! I confess that after this I've become quite tempted to give it a try! I might even have done a little research into affordable looms...
Late Lunch
I did have real food too! I went back to the Links Art Gallery and Cafe, where I had my birthday lunch, because it's a definite advantage of having a wool festival in a town that you know very well, and when you have your own transport, so you know exactly where to go in order to make the day extra special. And how could I possibly go to the seaside, and not have an ice cream?
As it was such a gloriously sunny afternoon, I thought I'd take advantage of the sunshine to get a photo of my entire day's haul all laid out together on a park bench by the sea.
That backpack is a marvellous thing by the way. It folds up into it's own back pocket, so if you're going out somewhere where you may find yourself needing to carry more back than will fit in your handbag, you can take this along and unfold it if you need it. Plus, because it's a backpack, I can use it when I'm also using my crutches, as I was on this day, and it doesn't encumber me the way that shoulder bags do. Also, it has sheep on it.
Just before I decided that I'd done enough shopping, and needed to find food, I met up with a couple of the girls from the Travelling Spinners group. It wasn't intentional, I was just sat outside of the venue taking a breather, when they came out, so we had a bit of a chat. I recently learned from Ravelry that the Travelling Spinners is no more. It had been run voluntarily by the same few people for a long time, and each of them had put a lot of effort, and at times their own money, into keeping everything going, researching and booking venues, handling the money and the raffle, etc. But fewer people were turning up regularly, it wasn't always possible to cover the cost of the venue hire, and it was becoming more effort than could reasonably be expected for an entirely voluntary endeavour. I understand that some of the ladies are hoping to still arrange occasional meetings, but I don't think that it will ever be a regular thing again. I feel bad, as I wasn't able to attend anywhere near as often as I would have liked, but in the end, I do live in South Yorkshire, rather than Northumberland, and I do have family commitments that I can't just ignore for the sake of my hobbies.
Knit and Nibble
A few months ago I showed you all this photo, and explained how I'd been going to see James McIntosh at my Local Yarn Shop in Dinnington, where he talked about his book, Knit and Nibble. I also explained how disappointed I was that I'd had to cancel my ticket, as my knee surgery had been scheduled for the same day as his visit.
Now, James McIntosh was a successful chef, and food writer, and he is also gay. He became successful out in the wide world, but when he returned to his native Ireland, his sexuality became an issue, that eventually lead to him falling into a deep depression, that threatened to end his life. His partner, Dr Thomas Ernst, is a huge believer in mindfulness as a way of easing stress, and reconnecting with yourself, which in turn helps with recovering from Depression and Anxiety related disorders. Thomas tried his best to guide James through many mindfulness exercises, but couldn't find one that worked. Until James discovered knitting, then he found that the process of knitting could be a kind of mindfulness, that the repetitive motion, and the focus on the now, were themselves a kind of meditation. He calls it "Knititation".
I thought then that he would be ideal as a speaker at Woolness, and shortly after I had to cancel my ticket to see him in Dinnington, I discovered that he would indeed be speaking at a special evening event at Woolness, involving very yummy food (chef, remember?) and a few special access stalls, only available to people who had booked tickets for the evening event.
I thought then that he would be ideal as a speaker at Woolness, and shortly after I had to cancel my ticket to see him in Dinnington, I discovered that he would indeed be speaking at a special evening event at Woolness, involving very yummy food (chef, remember?) and a few special access stalls, only available to people who had booked tickets for the evening event.
The evening was brilliant! James and Thomas were both candid, and funny. I was moved by the stories of James' depression from both of their perspectives, as I have been both the sufferer, and the carer of a partner who is suffering. I heard many things that were familiar to me as they spoke. James' passion for his hobby, and his enthusiasm for sharing this hobby as part of the treatment for a very serious medical condition is infectious. I know that to an extent though, this is because I have also found that crafting, and in particular knitting, have helped me through some of the worst times of my life.
I had left a message on James' Instagram before the evening, asking if it was ok for me to bring my copy of his book along for him to sign. He said yes, and then he recognised me when I took my book up to him! He had these tote bags available too, and I mean, how could I not?
The other stalls there that evening weren't all knitting related, but they were all local artisanal products. I bought a couple of small bottles of gin, but I only kept one of them. The other was a thank you gift for Gemma and Graham, who had looked after Finn for me all day while I'd been out. I'm told that He and Reggie had a brilliant time playing together, then snuggling up on the sofa with the family in the evening.
This is where I feel awful, because I can't for the life of me remember the name of the stall that I bought the hand made soaps from. I can tell you that they smell amazing!
The stunning hand-woven project bag is by Woolly Originals, who I also spoke with for quite a while!
Something that amazes me about this whole day, is that I did it all on my own. This is something that I couldn't have done not so very long ago, as my own anxiety and depression were at times so paralysing that I couldn't leave the house. I know that it was easier because this was in a place that I know and love, and where my accent is a sign that I belong. But I am still proud of myself. Most especially for the evening event, where everyone else appeared to be there in small groups. Still, I made myself approach people, and I found myself sat at a table with the 3 lovely women who are Knit 3 together, and 4 other women who were clearly there together too. They were all friendly, especially once the knitting came out, and we started comparing projects. 2 of us were knitting mitred squares, but with different numbers of stitches, and very different colour choices. We got onto the subject of the WI, as the 4 women all together turned out to be from the Wickersley WI. There is only one village in England called Wickersley, and it's just down the road from where we live! We were all most amused that we'd all travelled 140 miles in order to sit next to people who were practically neighbours in South Yorkshire! So I may possibly be joining the WI!
Finn
As this isn't a regular type of post, there's no FO's, no WIP's, and no Penguins. Sorry! I genuinely hope to post a regular type of update in the next 2 weeks, before Bakewell Wool Gathering, as the current confluence of grief + stress + available cash does mean that I really need to do a Stash Acquisition update at the very least before I go to another yarn show!
What I am going to include is more about Finn, because he is in every way an absolute joy! Every cold and soggy dog walk, every muddy pawprint, every "WhatHaveYouGotInYourMouth?!?!" are all worth it for this happy, loving, fluffy snuggle bug!
Here he is on the morning of Woolness, wondering what I was doing up so early, and determinedly snuggling up on my pillow rather than agreeing that he should go for his morning walk! To be fair, as you saw from the photo's at Whitley Bay when I went for food in the afternoon, if I hadn't walked him early, it would have been too hot to walk him safely. I know that Gemma and Graham had initially planned on taking both dogs (Finn and their Lakeland Terrier, Reggie) out for a long woodland romp that afternoon, but decided against it because of the heat.
The next day was a little cooler, and he loves the beach so much that I felt guilty for going to Whitley Bay without him. He wouldn't stay still, or pose for any photos, he just wanted to be sniffing all the things, and splashing in the sea, so here is a lovely shot of the tide coming in, with a sandy coloured dog, against a background of sand...
Home again, on his favourite rug, playing with an authorised sock. Yes, he has a number of socks that are his very own to play with, as he loves them so much, and they're easy to keep clean. He still steals our socks (unauthorised, or illegal sockage) off the drying rack though!
That's all for now my dears. *fingers crossed* I'll be back again before going to Bakewell!
