Places where textiles are important
Busy, busy, busy The last few weeks have been incredibly busy here at the Being Knitterly Studio. I've done a lot of knitting, both in preparation for new workshops, new patterns and samples for kits, followed by photography, writing instructions and winding mini-balls for those kits. I have also been…
I'm launching some knitting kits soon and I shall be selling them as well as paper copies of my patterns at two Christmas craft fairs. Craft in the City The first craft fair is Craft in the City in Waterstones, Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham 10 am–5.30 pm Saturday 30 November and…
A fair has been held in Loughborough for nearly 800 years. The original charter was granted in 1221 by King Henry III for a fair on St. Peter's Day (in July). Later, a second charter extended it to three days and in 1228 a third charter changed the dates to…
Whilst wandering around the Norwich city centre the day after a wedding, we thought that we should visit this city properly. So, during the Autumn half-term, we stayed there for a few days. Norwich was England's second city from the medieval period to the start of the Industrial Revolution. It…
There seems to be at least one yarn or textile festival every weekend at the moment. I've been suffering from real indecision about which ones to visit. Last weekend was one of my few free weekends until December, so it was fantastic to be able to visit a local event.…
In my last post, I showed you some of the beautiful buildings in Lavenham. These were financed using wealth generated from the wool trade during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There are many areas in the UK where, at some point in their history, the economy has been based on…
There are many towns in East Anglia where you can still see examples of late Medieval or early Tudor buildings. The Tudor period was from 1485–1603 (the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I). These buildings were constructed during the wool industry's boom years.…
This year we decided to have a Suffolk seaside summer holiday. We've flown over, and travelled on and under the sea, but not actually been to the coast for a long while, so we were excited about this holiday. We're a bit too old for buckets and spades, but we…
On Saturday I returned to the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford for the 'Keep Calm and Carry Yarn' event. The Sun was shining and the countryside looked beautiful. During Keep Calm and Carry Yarn, there were exhibitions, demonstrations of spinning and weaving, and opportunities to try felting,…
A few weeks ago I visited The National Centre for Craft & Design for the first time. This is in Sleaford, a small market town in Lincolnshire. I didn't see that much of Sleaford (unless you count driving around the one-way system several times), but the little I did see is very attractive.…