All creatures great and woollen

Woollen workshops

I spent the last two Sundays at Rushcliffe Country Park running free drop-in workshops as part of Woollen Woods 2015. French knitting proved popular with the young and not so young! The young thought it was similar to loom banding while the not so young reminisced about using cotton reels with nails in the top!

Leaves and flowers were made and sent out to the Woollen Woods display. Other people came with questions about particular techniques. One lady told me about working in the Lace Market in Nottingham; she did machine embroidery and controlled the width of the stitches with a knee-controlled lever.

Linda, who has been to several of my other workshops, came along with this cute bunny, made from one knitted square. Got to make one of these cuties!

Woollen swans

Meanwhile, outside this swan was looking longingly at the lake.

It must have been very keen to swim because its neck got longer and longer! This fantastic creation was made by the Framework Knitters Museum (based in nearby Ruddington) using a Griswold machine. These are compact machines invented to knit socks in small houses.

Woollen Woods

At the entrance to the Woollen Woods, there were many cherry blossoms, mounted rather cleverly on a willow frame.

Look up in the trees and you will see a multitude of woolly creatures. You can almost hear these cheerful birds cheeping!

Here’s a grey squirrel nibbling on an acorn.

And here is a friendly spider complete with a woollen web!

Bees, a dragonfly, a ladybird and a mouse – up a tree! Woollen Woods is a truly magical place.

All in all, there were over 1000 woolly creations in our Woollen Woods, all bringing a smile to visitors’ faces.
The Woollen Woods are over for another year and the woollen creatures have left. However, the sensory garden at Rushcliffe Country Park is open all year.