Review: Debbie Bliss Homeware

During half term me and Kirsty received a rather exciting email from the wonderful Debbie Bliss. We have always been big fans of her knitwear and yarn ranges and I had met Debbie a few years back at a blogging event for Christmas Jumper Day with Save The Children so we were certainly intrigued when her email appeared in our inbox. Anyway it turns out that over at Debbie Bliss they have been busy creating a homeware range so they sent us over a few bits and pieces and it certainly does not disappoint! We had a bit of fun in the photo studio at work photographing them and here's our favourtie shots of the stuff we got... 

featured items: Slate Grey Moss Stitch Mug and Slate Grey Moss Stitch Tea Towel  

Featured items: English Mustard Double Rib Mug and English Mustard Double Rib Tea Towel

These pieces are from the stitches collection. I think our absolute favourites are the mugs which don't just have beautiful illustrations of knit stitches but include the pattern itself on the inside of the mugs and of course are perfect for us teachers to pop a hot (or cold in Kirsty's case) drink in of a break time! We also enjoyed matching them up with some of the Debbie Bliss pieces I've knitted myself...

Featured items: English Mustard Double Rib Mug, Slate Grey Moss Stitch Mug

Featured items: Knitting Aid Apron, Knitting Aid Tea Towel , London Brick Knitting Needle Holder 

The monochrome collection is just as delightful as the stitches collection, we particularly love the knitting aid pieces. The apron is brilliant! We're not going to lie it took us a moment to work out why half of it appeared to be upside down, until we popped them on...a-ha! You can read it when you're wearing it! The information includes everything from knitting needle gauges to washing care instructions and even includes a couple of handy rulers (both inches and cm). This week we were hanging our summer exhibition so the pouches on our aprons came in very handy for storing hammers, nails, measuring tapes and the like whilst we were clambering up and down ladders! We also loved the London Brick Knitting Needle Holder, personally I find knitting needles a pain to store and display and this holder makes it all better and much more beautiful. 

We hope you've enjoyed checking out this beautiful collection, as a knitter I am completely in love with these collections I would wholeheartedly recommend  them as the perfect gift for your knitting friends! You can check out the full homeware range, HERE

Enjoy! 

- Claire and Kirsty ❤

Review: Graduate Fashion Week, My Favourites

I love this time of year, time to visit all of the graduate shows with my students and get them excited and inspired about their future prospects! Yesterday I went to Graduate Fashion Week, which has relocated this year to the Truman Brewery (which I loved! a much more exciting venue) to check out this years fresh young talent and to see the International Catwalk Competition catwalk show. I had a brilliant time and these were some of my favourites from the show...

anna neulinger

Keziah Newlove - her blog has great progress shots

Laura Baker - loved her illustrations

Ainslie Mackie - she had a beautiful portfolio 

Nicci James

Suzanne Nicolson 

Chloe Woodgate

I guess I have a bit of a thing for knitwear! 

- Claire ❤

Exhibition: The knitting and Stitching Show

Today I was lucky enough to get to take my students out on a trip to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London. It's a brilliant event as it combines exhibits of textile art alongside the opportunity to purchase some materials! There's also a bunch of other stuff going on; workshops, fashion shows and there's the opportunity to talk to the exhibitors and people from various organisations and guilds. I had a great time so I thought I'd share some of my favourite bits just incase you're heading off tomorrow or over the weekend...

Exhibitors

My first stop was to see the incredible hand embroidery work of Tilleke Schwarz, I've been a fan of hers for many years so I was thrilled to finally see her work in real life! It is just incredible! I also got the chance to speak to Tilleke herself which was lovely! 

I stopped by to looked at the wonderful knit-based jewellery at Max's World and was amazed to discover this knitted axolotl! I immediately purchased the pattern for this! (oh you want one too? here you go! You can buy it online HERE) 

(From left to right) Katie Jones, Louisa Crompton, Lucy Jones

I like to stop by and check out the UK Hand Knit Award each year as I was on the stand back when I graduated! The stuff on show was incredible but the ones above were my absolute favourites! 

Workshops

The Upcycling Academy (headed by the wonderful Barley Massey of Fabrications) is definitely not to be missed! My students stopped by and got involved and transformed an old t-shirt into a bag (which the sported for the rest of the day!) it's a great cause and they've also put together a wonderful teachers resource pack to inspire lessons. You can download it HERE.  

Other

Oh how wonderful! A knitted taxi! Wouldn't it be nice to be driven around in that?

All in all it was a brilliant day and I recommend it if you get the chance to make it over there... if not there's always the Harrogate show, the Dublin show or the London show again next spring! Full details over at Twisted Thread

- Claire ❤

Review/Exhibition: Kaffe Fassett

Last Wednesday I attend the Teachers Evening at The Fashion and Textiles museum 'The Future of Knitwear'. The evening was in conjunction with the current Kaffe Fassett exhibition and it was a brilliant evening! I was hesitant about attending at first because, to be honest, I'm pretty cheap and I didn't like the idea of forking out £12 (£13 after the booking fee!) to go to an event! As our regular readers will know we are always on the lookout for free events, it's not always because we're tight but we, like many others I'm sure, don't work in places that can constantly reimburse you for every event you choose to attend, it's just not viable. 

I made an exception for this one because I am a knitter! I was planning to visit the exhibition anyway so I figured the extra cost wasn't too bad as it included a gallery tour and two talks; one by Belinda Boaden and Wendy Baker of True Brit Knits and the other by Sandy Black. Sandy Black discussed her new book Knitting: Fashion, Industry, Craft which looks at the history of knitting from a development point of view - the images shown during the talk were interesting and it looks like a fascinating book. The wonderful ladies behind True Brit Knits talked about their background in knit and about their company True Brit Knits who aim to create knitwear patterns from a fashion point of view. They have a regular feature on their blog 'Monday Moods' which is a wonderful resource for students of beautiful mood boards - I can't wait to show my students these to get them re thinking what ought to be included in a mood board. 

It was well worth it! Both talks were really engaging and I came away feeling inspired and with a really urge to knit (which I do regularly anyway but I feel inspired about creating some new stuff!). The only slight downside was that due to the large turnout they didn't conduct a formal tour, but the museum staff were on hand if you did have any questions. The exhibition itself is wonderful. The amount of colour and pattern on display all at once is incredible - I'm not sure my photographs do it justice so if you can get along to visit it, do! They even had the first cardigan Kaffe Fassett ever knitted on display! It was a truly wonderful exhibition. 

The exhibition is on till June 29th and it's £8 entrance (£5.50 concessions), don't be caught out like I have been before though, the museum is shut on Sundays and Mondays. I really do recommend the teachers evenings if it's for a designer or technique your passionate about! The next teachers evening is in conjunction with the upcoming Zandra Rhodes exhibition. Zandra Rhodes founded the Fashion and Textiles Museum and the exhibition is celebrating her work and the fact that the museum is celebrating it's 10th year! The talk sounds cool as you get special access to the design studio and archive and their going to be discussing how the digital archive can be used with schools/colleges. You can book tickets, HERE. 

- Claire ❤

3W: Elizabeth Lau

who: Elizabeth Lau

what: Fashion/Knitwear 

why: because she released snaps of her A/W12 look book last week and we are in love with it! Check it out! How could you not be? Her designs are cute, stylish and perfectly capture Britishness. There's even something in the collection specifically for us teachers this gorgeous waistcoat dress. Although our eyes are on the dungaree dress above! Gorgeous! 

Elizabeth Lau // Blog

3W: Rachel Denny

who: Rachel Denny

what: sculpture covered in interesting materials such as cable knit cashmere 

why: because we love animals and knitting so both together is a winning combo! Denny is best known for her 'Domestic Trophies' collection, featured above, which consists of animals covered in recycled cable knit cashmere. It makes us feel warm and cozy, and just a little bit christmassy!

Rachel Denny // Domestic Trophies // Interview with Idol Magazine

3W: Olek

who: Olek

what: guerilla crochet

why: crazy, ambitious and colourful! Watched the video above where she covers the wall street bull in crochet! There's another video and images on Tonys Gallery website who hosted an exhibition of her work this March. 

Olek // Blog // Tonys Gallery

3W: Donna Wilson

who: Donna Wilson

what: knitting

why: Donna's work is playful and fun. She's renowned for her 'creatures' but she also makes wonderful accessories and home furnishings! What we also love about her work is the gorgeous way she photographs her work (like the piece above) her catalogue is a great place to direct students for inspiration for presentation of final outcomes! 

Donna Wilson // Blog // Catalogue 

3W: Nora Fok

who: Nora Fok

what: knitted body adornments 

why: Nora's work is stunning and innovative yet simple and each piece in her archive is accompanied by an explanation or insight into the inspiration for the work, like the piece above 'bubble bath' which has a wonderful poem alongside it, here. The piece is also featured in a gorgeous online exhibition, 40:40, by the Crafts Council that celebrates 40 objects they've acquired over 40 years. 

Nora Fok // 40:40