The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016

This year The Knitting &Crochet Guild Convention took place on the first weekend in July on the Endcliffe Village Campus of the University of Sheffield. It was an excellent weekend with many highlights. Most of all it was a wonderful chance to catch up with Guild members and be completely absorbed in knitting and crochet for three consecutive days!

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Collection
Knitting needles from the Collection

Along with a large group of other delegates, I arrived the day before the Convention so that we could visit the Guild's Collection, near Holmfirth on the Friday. I had never visited Lee Mills, the home of the Collection before, but have always enjoyed seeing items at Knitting Shows and through Trunk Show presentations by Barbara and Angharad. As there were a substantial group of us, the Collections Team split us into four groups to ensure we got a close look at everything.

First stop for my group was Barbara, showing us publication highlights. The Guild Collection contains 1,200 catalogued books and approximately 50,000 pattern leaflets as well as the Patons Archive. Barbara had prepared a great overview and my favourite book was The Stitchery Annual from 1913, edited by Flora Klickmann, with its beautiful cover and gorgeous illustrations. 

Knitting & Crochet Guild Collection
The Stitchery Annual, 1913, ed by Flora Klickmann

On stop number two, Angharad presented us with a wide selection of garments and accessories from all over the British Isles, from gainsay sweaters to fair isle shawls and from aran jumpers to rare gloves from the Yorkshire Dales. These beautiful Dent gloves were dated 1910 and were most likely "knitted for best" as they are in such great condition. 

The Knitting& Crochet Guild Collection
Close up of 1910 Yorkshire Dales gloves

Maureen's presentation began with her taking the top off an old shell canister to reveal that it was full of knitting needles! The canister and needles had been donated to the Guild, but there was little information about the owner. Cataloguing information had to be worked out by the approximate date of the canister and the materials used to make the needles. This was a great example illustrating the kind of social history clues that the Lee Mills team use to date items n the Collection. Another section of the knitting equipment collection includes a huge number of needle gauges and a clue for dating these items is the conversion from imperial to metric systems in the early 1970s. Some of the gauges also have yarn company logos and magazine names printed on them. 

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Collection
Needle Gauges 

The Guild visits many knitting and crochet shows throughout the year and our stand is always decorated with a theme. This year we are focusing on colour work. In our last presentation at Lee Mills, Julia showed us her design development for the boards that will be used on the stands. Each board relates to a season and Julia has selected stitch patterns from lots of items in the collection to create beautiful borders, birds, animals and scenery. I really enjoyed hearing about all the work Julia put into the boards and how she selected the designs. This innovative way to promote colour work had us all guessing which part of which design came from which garment!

The Knitting & Crochet Guild
Autumn Display Board

Thank you very much to the whole Collection Team for making our visit so informative and inspiring. We'll all be looking out for more opportunities to visit again.

Members of The Knitting & Crochet Guild Collection Team

We returned to the University for the formal welcome and introduction to the Conference, followed by two breakout sessions before dinner. Delegates explored "How to host a trunk show" with Angharad and "Turning a group into a Guild Branch" with Barbara. 

Our Conference dinner was held at Halifax Hall on the Campus and after our meal we were delighted to hear from our keynote speaker, Susan Crawford. Along with other Conference delegates, I have been following Susan's amazing work over the years. In particular, her current project on Vintage Shetland Knitting has generated a huge amount of excitement in the world of knitting! The crowdfunding for the Vintage Shetland project was so oversubscribed that Susan has been able to add more information, detail and images to the book of the project than she had originally planned. Susan told us about her long-held passion for Shetland knitting and about the challenges she faced in recreating these stunning garments. Her husband's system for translating the data she gathered from the archive garments into new charts and a virtual knitted fabric was really clever. There were gasps from the audience when Susan revealed some of the stunning finished garments. Each one had a very interesting story and it was fascinating to hear how much work had gone into getting each one just right. Thank you so much to Susan for this personal insight into the project and the chance to look closely at the garments. I can't wait for my book to arrive in mid August!

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Keynote Speaker, Susan Crawford

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Keynote Speaker, Susan Crawford discussing garments with delegates

The second day of the Conference began with a very colourful talk by Nic Rudd about her journey from full time teacher to indie yarn dyer as "Yarns from the Plain". This is the Cheshire Plain and Nic uses lots of local names for her yarns. Her yarn range includes a special blend by John Arbon that is made up of Exmoor Blueface and Alpaca and has a very soft feel. Beautiful scarves made in Nics Yarn were passed around the room including a lovely design that was on the cover of Inside Crochet. Nic said that she probably should streamline the colours she produces, but she is inspired by so many different things that she frequently feels like a kid in a sweet shop when it comes to colour choices! Look out for Nic and her lovely yarns over the next few months at Shows all over the country.

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016

Nic Rudd, Yarns from the Plain

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016

Yarns from the Plain Crochet Scarf

Our AGM in the late morning took care of the formal business of the weekend.The Guild currently has 29 active branches and our membership recently increased by over 30%, with new members joining from all over the world. Our 763 members all receive Slipknot, our Guild publication. Slipknot has recently been updated and reformatted and now includes colour photos as well as lots of interesting articles and news items by members. The Yarn Shop Scheme is also expanding. Fiona has written to over 200 yarn shops to tell them about the Guild and encourage them to join. So far 25 have signed up and Fiona is actively looking to expand our links to many more.

The AGM was followed by a very helpful session on "how to get the best out of the Guild's Facebook page". Rebecca and the Guild's Facebook moderating team, Marion, Jacqui and Lin lead us all through the main points, from logging on, to sharing photos and this was much appreciated by delegates.

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016

KCG Facebook Moderating Team

The Guild Convention is known for hosting a great selection of workshops and this year was no exception. Five excellent workshops ran during the afternoon, covering a variety of knitting and crochet techniques and, from the positive feedback afterwards, all delegates enjoyed themselves. I certainly enjoyed the Möbius knitting workshop that was run by Sarah Cage. Sarah had brought some of her own möbius knits for us to see, including a fascinating hat design. She also provided us with great handouts on the möbius technique, focusing on the critical cast on. The other workshops were Two colour double knitting with Fiona Morris; Advanced Tunisian crochet with Lindy Zubairy; Shawl design (crochet) with Ann Flanagan; Victorian knitting patterns with Lesley O'Connell Edwards. Barbara has blogged about Lesley's workshop and you can read her post here.

My favourite part of the convention was the Show and Tell. This year delegates had brought along an amazing selection of fabulous knitting and crochet. Unfortunately it was a bit dark in the bar area for photographs, but I hope that the photos below show some of the wide range of skills we have amongst our members.

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Show and Tell

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Show and Tell

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Show and Tell

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Show and Tell

Sunday morning began with a very interesting presentation by Zoe Fletcher. Zoe's research for her PhD, "Designing for Breed" is all about promoting British Breeds in the world of design and pushing the perception of British wool from coarse and itchy to luxurious. Having collected samples of 72 pure breed sheep fibres, along with SEM imaging scans for them all, Zoe has created a database using Shima Seiki 3D knitting technology. This allows virtual knitted samples to be mapped onto body shapes for a realistic finished garment look. Zoe's beautiful illustrations nd user-friendly designs are integral to her PhD and her aim to communicate the properties of each individual type of sheep fleece in a way that encourages wide-spread use. Lots of us also took the chance to buy one of her lovely sheep breed posters.

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Zoe Fletcher

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
A selection of Zoe's samples

Our second set of workshops began mid morning and again, it had been hard to choose which one to do! Although I have designed several wraps, I always want to learn more about design techniques and was therefore delighted to be in the Shawl Design workshop lead by Ann and Katie. This workshop was a great example of collaboration within the Guild. Ann and Katie had never met before the Convention, but as they both have lots of Shawl knitting knowledge, they had decide to do a joint workshop. The planning took place via email and Skype and the resulting workshop was a great success. They started us all on a miniature Stonington Shawl sample and then shared some of their own amazing shawls with us. We looked at several different kinds of shawl construction in different weights of yarn and at a range of books and publications. I really enjoyed this workshop and once again, have learned very useful new techniques. The other workshops running at the same time were Mitred Squares with Anne Scahil; Double Filet Crochet with Barbara Mann; New Approaches to Fair Isle knitting with Rita Taylor and Broomstick Crochet with Helen Jordan.

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Shawl Design Workshop with Ann and Katie

The Knitting & Crochet Guild Convention 2016
Shawl Design Workshop with Ann and Katie

All too soon it was time to leave, but we all have details of next year's convention in Birmingham 7th - 9th July 2017 and I am so looking forward to seeing everyone then. Thank you very much to Tricia and all our Board members for an excellent Convention. I really value the opportunity to learn new techniques, socialise with other members and most importantly, be part of such a welcoming, inclusive, positive community.

The Menil Collection

A few years ago, I visited the beautiful Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. I was very moved by the fourteen enormous Rothko paintings and the serene, contemplative atmosphere in this small, non-denominational building in the centre of the busy city. The Rothko Chapel is just one part of the campus that makes up the Menil Collection. Created by John and Dominique de Menil, this private collection consists of almost 16,000 works that range from the Palaeolithic era to the present day. Last week I had the chance to see some of the other buildings and exhibits that make up this amazing Collection.

The Menil Collection
View from the entrance hall.

Isolated Mass/ Circumflex (#2) 1968-78
by Michael Heizer
Displayed at the entrance to the Menil Collection

The Menil Collection opened to the public in 1987. The main building was designed by Renzo Piano in collaboration with Dominique de Menil, taking into account her requirement that objects from the Collection should be displayed in natural light. The innovative building designed by Renzo Piano uses a special roof structure to keep direct sunlight off the objects, but at the same time reflects natural light downwards into the galleries. My favourite galleries housed the Arts of the Pacific Islands and had lovely plants growing between them. The beautiful sculptures on display are free-standing, allowing for close up viewing. (Photography is only allowed in the hallway and outside the buildings, so please click on the exhibition links to see more images.)

The long central corridor of the Menil Collection main building.

There were several temporary exhibitions in the galleries. Entrancing photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson were on display in "Life is Once, Forever" and "The Secret of the Hanging Egg; Salvador Dali at the Menil",  had many thought-provoking works by Dali, Max Ernst, Renee Magritte and other prominent Surrealist painters and sculptors. In the centre of this exhibition we came across "Witnesses; to a Surrealist Vision", a fascinating on-going exhibition dedicated to the inspiration that fuelled the surreal view of the world. The objects in this exhibition "were either owned by the Surrealists or are in the spirit of those they collected".

From the main building, we walked to Richmond Hall a few blocks away. This was definitely worth the hot walk in 101F! Dominique de Menil commissioned Dan Flavin to create this permanent installation in 1996. Flavin's light installation in the huge, otherwise bare hall of this 1930s former supermarket is beautiful. The longer you look, the more the many individual coloured fluorescent lights glow, reflect and blend together. At the back of the hall is a small room with bright light sculptures created by Flavin in 1964-69 and inspired by the Russian Constructivist movement.

From here, we were directed a few blocks away to the Byzantine Chapel, currently exhibiting the Fabiola Project by Francis Alys. The initial impact of this installation is to make the viewer wonder at the enormous number of repetitive images of Fabiola, a fourth century Christian Saint, brought together in one place. After a few minutes of looking, you begin realise how different each image actually is and by the time you leave, you wonder how you ever thought they were the same!

The Menil Colletion
Byzantine Chapel

Our last stop on this fascinating visit was to the Cy Twombly Gallery. This building was also designed by Renzo Piano, based on a sketch by Twombly. The gallery opened in 1995 and houses a permanent installation of Cy Twombly's work. Although the building looks small from the outside, once inside you walk into several large gallery spaces that display Twombly's enormous canvasses. My favourite room contained an untitled series of nine paintings that can be viewed, along with his other works, on the Cy Twombly website.

I loved the afternoon that my family, friends and I spent on the Menil Collection Campus. The beautiful buildings contain an enormous variety of objects and art that are continually being rotated. This quote from Dominique de Menil summarises her vision for the Collection and is the reason why I am really looking forward to my next visit!

"I came up with a concept ... we would rotate the works of art ... The public would never know museum fatigue. Works would appear, disappear, and reappear like actors on a stage. Each time they would be seen with a fresh eye.” —Dominique de Menil

The main entrance to the Menil Collection

Lempicka in The Knitter Magazine, Issue 98

My new summer top design is in The Knitter Magazine! I love using the technique of short row shaping in my knitting. In this new design for summer, I have used short rows to create shape and emphasise lines throughout the whole garment.

Lempicka by Emma Vining

Lempicka by Emma Vining

Lempicka is knitted using short rows to make a series of parallel and angled lines. The main body is knitted sideways, with full length stripes and short row sections. The garter stitch edgings at the side openings and the lower edge are created when knitting this section sideways. The lines of knitting are also emphasised by contrasting yarn shades. I have used King Cole Bamboo Cotton in shades Opal, Crimson and Aqua. This DK weight yarn has lovely drape and works really well in this summer top.

Side Opening
Lempicka by Emma Vining

After knitting the body sideways, the upper part of the top is picked up from the side/ top of the body. Then the neck and shoulders are also worked in short rows and stripes. After joining the shoulder seams, the cap sleeves are picked up and worked in short rows, leaving only the side seams to sew up.

Cap Sleeve
Lempicka by Emma Vining

Missoni Art Colour

The much anticipated Missoni Art Colour Exhibition opened last week at the Fashion & Textile Museum (FTM) in London. The exhibition was developed by the Missoni family with the MA*GA Art Museum, Gallarate, Italy and showcases over 60 years of fashion looks. These amazing garments designed by Rosita and Angela Missoni are shown alongside stunning artworks by Ottavio Missoni, which include beautiful paintings and huge scale knitted patchwork pieces. Paintings by leading 20th century European artists, such as Sonia Delauny, Lucio Fontana and Gino Severini are also displayed and set the scene for this wonderfully creative Exhibition.

Knit Patchwork by Ottavio Missoni

Missoni patchwork coat

A small selection of the Missoni Garments on display

My first visit to the Exhibition was on Thursday 5th May for a preview event hosted by Luca Missoni. As chief archivist for the Missoni family, Luca Missoni's personal insights into his family's heritage added a fascinating dimension to viewing the exhibition. A huge thank you to the FTM for this opportunity to talk to Luca Missoni and members of the Missoni design team. It was a lovely relaxed event with plenty of opportunities for questions and discussions.

Lucca Missoni

Lucca Missoni

The first patchwork sweater by Ottavio Missoni

On Friday, I returned to the FTM to attend a talk by the Exhibition curators. Celia Joycie, the FTM head curator told us about staging the exhibition in London and about the excitement and challenges of displaying the archive items and the artworks. Alessandro Castiglioni from the MA*GA Art Museum elaborated on how the Exhibition had been adapted to transfer from MA*GA to the FTM. He also spoke passionately about the creative world that Ottavio Missoni was a part of, describing the art in the exhibition and setting it in the political and cultural context of Italy at the time. Luca Missoni again added so much to the presentations and discussions with his wonderful descriptions of his parents and his childhood memories.

Tancredi
Senza titolo (Greenhouses)
Untitled (Greenhouses), 1953

This Exhibition has so much inspiration in every part of it: colour, garment design and high quality craft. Luca Missoni told us that his mother always chooses designs and colours that make her feel happy. I feel that Rosita Missoni's happiness, her whole family's passion for colour and their outstanding design talent all shine through in this exhibition. I know I will be returning again as it is wonderful to be surrounded by such amazing knitted garments and stunning knitted art! The Exhibition is on at the FTM until 4th September 2016.

The knitted art by Ottavio Missoni is on a massive scale

Detail of knitted art by Ottavio Missoni

Plush Blush Sweater in Knit Today Magazine

With a chunky herringbone cable and pretty lines of eyelets, my "Plush Blush" sweater in Knit Today Magazine is a great knit for cooler spring days. The eyelet cable folds pattern has mirror image cables on the upper part of the front of the sweater. An eyelet pattern is worked on the front, the back and the sleeves. The borders and neckband are knitted in reverse stocking stitch.

Plush Blush by Emma Vining
Knit Today Magazine 124

Plush Blush by Emma Vining
Knit Today Magazine 124

Plush Blush is knitted in Stylecraft Alpaca Chunky yarn. This soft, chunky yarn uses 5.5mm and 6mm needles, making this a quick-to-knit project. The lovely pale blush purple shade shown is 6012, Orchid.

Plush Blush by Emma Vining
Knit Today Magazine 124

This sweater makes me feel very spring-like, as at the moment my tiny orchid is in full flower on my window sill. The delicate Orchid flower heads are made up of many beautiful colours, but the palest shade of purple is an almost perfect match for Plush Blush and the Pantone colour of the Year from 2014, Radiant Orchid!

Orchid detail
Photo by Emma Vining

You can find Plush Blush and many more gorgeous knit designs in Knit Today, Issue 124 on sale now.

Ticket Giveaway for the Edinburgh Knitting & Stitching Show!

The Knitting and Stitching Show will be at the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh from 28th April to 1st May 2016. Whether you are looking for inspiration or have a plan to buy yarn and supplies for your next projects, the Knitting & Stitching Shows are always great to visit! There are lots of interesting vendors and the Learning Curve workshops cover many different skills and crafts.

The lovely people from the Knitting &Stitching Show have sent me three pairs of tickets for the new Edinburgh Show to giveaway through my blog!

Update 9/4/16: The Giveaway is now closed and the winners have been contacted. Thank you for all the lovely messages!

If you would like a chance to win a pair of tickets and you are a UK based reader of my blog, please use the contact box on the top right of my blog to send me a friendly message saying hello by Midnight on Friday 8th April 2016 (BST). Three messages will be chosen at random on Saturday 9th April 2016 and if your message is chosen, I will contact you by email for your postal address. Please be assured that I will only use your email to contact you regarding this giveaway.

Good luck and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Here are the details of the Giveaway:
Due to the show location and timing, this giveaway is only open to UK readers of my blog.
Tickets are valid for one of the days of the show only: Thursday 28th April, Friday 29th April, Saturday 30th April or Sunday 1st May. The tickets can only be used once and give free entry to the Show on the day of your choice.
The deadline for messages to be entered for the giveaway is midnight on Friday 8th April (BST).
Winners will be contacted by email on Saturday 9th April. Winners must then reply to me by Monday 11th April 2016 with their full postal address. If I do not hear from you by Midnight on Monday 11th April 2016, then another name will be picked at random.
Tickets will be sent out by Royal Mail first class post.
No cash alternative is available and the prize does not include cost of travel to or from the venue or any other associated expenses.

Fashion in Motion at the V&A

Held in the V&A's stunning Raphael Gallery, the Fashion In Motion series has showcased work by many amazing fashion designers. On Friday, designs by Christopher Raeburn were featured in four sold out shows. Christopher Raeburn is a British fashion designer who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2006 and set up his own studio in 2009. He is known for his ethical approach to design and for his strong military influences.

Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion
Photo by Emma Vining

I was really keen to see Christopher Raeburn's work as he has recently collaborated with Unmade, an innovative knitwear company that has a unique interaction with their customers. Unmade recently featured in Bright New Things and had a stunning corner window display at Selfridges. I love their interactive knitwear designs and couldn't wait to learn more about Christopher Raeburn. There is an excellent interview with Christopher Raeburn on the Unmade website, explaining some of his inspirations for his collections. The Unmade map sweater he designed looks fantastic and I could play with the map contour lines all day!

Map Contour Sweater
Christopher Raeburn for Unmade
Image by Unmade

Christopher Raeburn has also collaborated with the Woolmark Company, promoting the benefits of Merino wool in fashion and there was a great brochure with some of his AW16 designs waiting for us at our seats. This quote from the brochure sums up his work with the Woolmark Company. "The collaboration is a perfect partnership: Merino wool is a natural, biodegradable and renewable; Raeburn's dedication to sustainability in fashion is typified by his signature reappropriation of clothes and consistent sourcing of renewable fabrics." A good example from the AW16 collection is the "Remade In England Biker Jacket" in the photo below. This stunning jacket was constructed from original British military Guardsman's jackets.

Remade In England Biker Jacket
Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining

Remade In England Biker Jacket
Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining

The strong silhouettes of the garments looked stunning in the Raphael Gallery, especially the "Remade Schneetarn Anorak". 

Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining

Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining

Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining

Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining

There were lots of great accessories too and I loved the Shark bag and knitted shark gloves. 

Shark bag
Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining

Shark gloves
Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining

This Fashion in Motion show was a great way to learn more about a very talented designer who is clearly passionate about working with wool in his designs. I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Knitwear at the Christopher Raeburn Fashion In Motion Show
Photo by Emma Vining