Knitwear at Nottingham Yarn Expo

A couple of weekends ago I went to Nottingham Yarn Expo and saw life from the opposite side of the stand to my usual one. I was thrilled to get to help on Beyond Measure's beautiful stand. Grace sells stunning things for makers of all varieties, do go and check her shop out. I had a great time surrounded by beautiful things, gave my muscles a work out, met interesting people and had a prime position for knitwear spotting.

One of the things I love most about going to shows is looking at other people's knitwear. I love seeing what everyone else has been making, especially when it is things that I tend not to make as I wouldn't wear them (looking at you shawls) but I love what they look like. I am very rarely in my knitwear at shows as I find they are often overheated (odd for a wool show) and then I get hot and grumpy! I am always marvelling at everyone else though.

For ages I have wanted to ask people about their knitwear, take a photo and talk a little about it but have hesitated as I wasn't sure if people would just thing I was a random weirdo and be a bit freaked out. This time, encouraged by Grace I went for it and everyone was super responsive. So big thanks to everyone who I stalked for their knitwear and for finding some time for a chat. I was taking notes on my phone and a combination of auto correct and over excitement may have led to some errors for which I am sorry!

This is Jo, wearing her amazing, recently completed Speckle and Pop shawl by Stephen West. This pattern was the Westknits Mystery Shawl Knit Along 2017. She used yarn from A Homespun House and Madeline Tosh. She also works in a yarn shop, A Good Yarn in Cleethorpes.

Lots of knitted goodness between these two! Wonderful!

On the left is Vanessa from Killtocraft. Her scarf is the Canopy Shawl by Melody Hoffman, knitted in Malabrigo Arroyo. Her hat is Take Heart by Fiona Alice, knitted in Drops Alaska. Vanessa's jumper is Cesium by Sachiko Burgin, knitted in Wooltops merino and silk. Then just when you thought there was no more knitwear she is also wearing hand knit socks. It is her own pattern I Heart Bees knitted in A Homespun House Olsen.

On the right is Hannah from The Corner of Craft. Hannah's scarf is Exploration Station by Stephen West, knitted in La Bien Aimee merino twist sock, Spud & Chloe fine, The Knitting Goddess 4 ply and Voolenvine Yarns Wolke. Her socks are New Depths Heel by Becky Sorensen knitted in Townhouse Yarns Camden Tweed which she purchased as a souvenir from Dublin.

Completing Hannah's outfit is this:

Why have I not made one of these yet?! I love it! This is the Pumpkin Beret by Twinkie Chan and it is going to feature in my autumn wardrobe next year!

Here we have Catrin in her lovely Catkin shawl/wrap/capelet/scarf by Carina Spencer. It is knitted in Malabrigo sock.

Credit to Kayleigh from Truly Hooked for matching her scarf to her hair. This is the Playful Shawl by Verity Castledine and it is knitted in Truly Hooked yarn.

This is the lovely Blithe Spirit wearing her Ella Gordon Ola Yoke jumper. You can read more about the making of the jumper on Blithe Spirit's blog.

I did stalk this jumper as I was pretty confident that it was a vintage knit and I wanted to be sure. The lovely Tracy knitted it from a 1940's Sirdar pattern that she has in her collection. It is knitted in Holst a Danish yarn that knits as 3 ply. We had a marvellous chat about vintage knitting, our respective pattern collections and knitting in general. In a 'isn't it a small world?' kind of way it turns out that I knew of Tracy from a friend who had talked about her lovely vintage knits, I just didn't know that this was Tracy before we got talking. Tracy is one of the organisers of the Leeds Wool Festival.

This is Hannah wearing her fabulous Funchal Moebius wrap by Kate Davies. It is knitted in Rowan wool/cotton.

Here is Sylvie from Phileas Yarns wearing Abram's Bridge by Mer Stevens. She knitted it in her own yarn, Wanderer Aran in the colour Bedouin. This pattern is also in Pom Pom Quarterly magazine, issue 14.

Plenty of knitting inspiration here! I can't wait to see what I spot at the next yarn show I attend.

Victoria's costumes and my outfit snaps.

I took you on a tour of Harewood House in my previous post. Harewood was used as a set for the ITV series Victoria, which is well worth catching up on if you haven't seen it. It focussed on Victoria as a princess and how her life changed as she first became queen and then married Albert. Some of the costumes from the programme are on display in the house until the 29th October and are worth seeing if you need to find another reason to go for a visit!

Formal day dress of Lady Portman, a lady in waiting
and the daughter of the 2nd Earl of Harewood.

A day dress and a state evening dress for the
Duchess of Sutherland.

Evening dress for the Duchess of Sutherland.
She was Victoria's friend and Mistress of the Robes.

Evening dress for Queen Victoria. Worn in the title
sequence for each episode.

A pre coronation dress for Victoria, used in simple
evening scenes to look young and innocent.

Queen Victoria's coronation gown, based on the design
of the original coronation gown. It is made of gold silk
damask, digitally printed and embroidered with symbols
representing the United Kingdom.

A dress for Queen Victoria, worn when she meets Albert
for the first time.

Queen Victoria's betrothal dress, worn when she
proposed to Albert.

Queen Victoria's evening dress, worn in later episodes
when she was married to Albert.

Some pretty fancy frocks there!

And now for something completely different and far less fancy......what I wore on my day out!

You might be able to tell that I was terrified here. I only managed to stand on the first stepping stone and that was a step too far for me!

Not quite on Victoria's level but cool and comfortable for a hot sunny day of exploring. Look at my sleeves! I intended to wear the top tucked in with a belt but frankly it was too hot. I was determined to wear my newly purchased short shorts before my 40th birthday. I will still be wearing them afterwards of course.

Outfit details.

Gingham top - Marks and Spencer

Denim shorts - Vivien of Holloway

Shoes - Hotter

Bag - vintage from an antiques centre.

Happy day at Harewood House

My birthday fell on a Sunday this year and I knew that I wanted to have a proper day out with my husband on the Saturday, with a family do on my birthday. We decided to pay a visit to Harewood House, situated between Leeds and Harrogate and about an hour's drive from us. Harewood was built in 1759 by Edwin Lascelles and he was determined to surround himself with glorious things. He employed craftspeople such as Thomas Chippendale (furniture), Robert Adam (interior design) and Capability Brown (gardens) to make this happen.

The Terrace, built in the 1840's.
See more here.

In the Himalayan garden.

It is a fabulous spot. You can visit the house, gardens, walled kitchen garden, parkland, lake, small farm and bird garden which has an active conservation programme. There are plenty of places to sit and relax and take in the scenery. If you are lucky you will see red kites flying over the estate as they have had success with the birds there. We watched them wheeling and playing for quite some time. I spent much of my time on the visit considering what it would have been like to live there in the 1800's and reflecting on the huge chasm that there was between the lives of the rich and the lives of the poor.

The lakeside garden.

We were lucky that Yorkshire supplied us with one of it's rare but wonderful sunny days so we made the most of it exploring the whole estate.

We decided to have a look around the house first and tried not to be put off when a hoard of Brownies made it inside just in front of us. Luckily they were less bothered about soaking up the atmosphere and details then we were so they got ahead pretty quickly.

Ready for a tour?

The Old Library which had a display of etchings
done by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

A magnificent bathroom belonging to Princess Mary's dressing room.
Princess Mary was Queen Victoria's great granddaughter.

Bathroom ceiling and light

A section of amazing hand painted wallpaper in the East Bedroom.
You can see more of it here.

The State Bedroom, the bed was made by Chippendale.
Princess Victoria slept here on a visit in 1835.

The Spanish Library. The bookcases hide secret doors for the servants to go through.

The Yellow Drawing Room

The ceiling of the Gallery 

The State Dining Room

The Music Room with the stunning Axminster carpet designed
by Robert Adam.

Such sumptuous interiors! Even the carpets, wallpapers and ceilings are amazing. You can see that money was no object.

After touring the upstairs rooms you can have a look around below stairs. There is a massive kitchen such as you see in Downton Abbey and a room especially for cleaning and sorting the produce that comes in from the gardens.

I always like looking at the bell indicator boards in big old houses. I like seeing what all the rooms were called.

More bell boards.

There are also several exhibitions on within the house. I particularly enjoyed the Plaster Bust Re-imagined by Kathy Dalwood.

Miss Egypt

Miss London Town

The artist casts found objects in plaster and moulds them together to make these reinterpretations of Victorian busts. I found them fascinating, looking at all the individual elements and such a clever idea.

The other exhibition is the subject of my next post. It involves costumes...

Balenciaga - shaping fashion exhibition

In my last post I talked about my birthday trip to London and all the fun things that we packed in on our visit. One of the main exhibitions that we wanted to visit was the Balenciaga one at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It did not disappoint!

The exhibition looks at both the work and the legacy of Balenciaga. The first part of the exhibition focuses on his work, with plenty of glorious clothes to look at. The second part looks at how he influenced people that he worked with and his lasting influences on contemporary designers.

This is a photo heavy post. I couldn't choose!

These are the first dresses that you see. They show two of the influences on Balenciaga's designs; Spanish traditional costume and flamenco. I loved the embroidered flowers on the middle dress.

Stunning sleeves and such vibrant fabric.

These dresses revolved; great to get a 360 view.

Balenciaga is known for his sculptural shapes and in this exhibition there were several garments that were displayed alongside x-rays of the garment so that the internal structure/skeleton could be seen. This was really interesting.

Fabulous draping on the right hand jacket.

The x-ray shows weights in the garment.

I always enjoy seeing designer's sketches. Wish I could draw!

I would take this one!

This sari inspired dress is one of several that Balenciaga made. Unlike an Indian sari this dress is made of several parts and sits over a boned and structured under garment.

These three garments display the wonderful craftsmanship which goes into embellishing some of these garments. The beading, embroidery, use of sequins etc is just exquisite.

1960's wild silk evening dress with embroidery by Lesage.

I would happily have both of these too! I love the big bow on the second one.

A rather lovely suit with a display of tools needed for tailoring.

Another sculptural piece, a 1960's envelope dress. Look at those shoulders!

Some of Balenciaga's clothes, like other designers, were made on licence by smaller firms.

These are Balenciaga designs by the house Eisa, based in Madrid. I really like the floral dress.

Amazing!

These two outfits are from the second half of the exhibition. They are by Andre Courreges who worked as a cutter for Balenciaga from 1950-1961 when he then opened his own fashion house. Both of these designs are from 1967.

These are 1960's designs by Emmanuel Ungaro who was an apprentice of Balenciaga's from 1958 to 1964. He also worked at Eisa.

These fantastic sculptural outfits by Nicolas Ghesquiere are the result of re imagining iconic Balenciaga shapes after having access to the archives of the fashion house.

The gown on the left is an embellished beauty by Givenchy using coral, lace, glass beading and embroidery.

I adore this mass of embroidery on this jacket by Dries Van Noten.

This fabulous embroidered dress is by Erdem, influenced by Balenciaga. You can see the back the previous jacket too.

Nicolas Ghesquiere was the creative director of Balenciaga from 1997 until 2012. This is a reinterpretation of the balloon sleeve from 2006.

I really like the shape of this 2016 trapeze suit by Simone Rocha who credits the shapes of Balenciaga's work as an influence. This is interesting as it is made from a broiderie anglaise created from embroidered plastic.

It is a fabulous exhibition and is on until the 18th February 2018 if you fancy a visit.