Blogstars Weekend, Part Two.

PREVIOUSLY, ON THE TWISTED YARN… the Stylecraft Blogstars began their twice-yearly meetup in West Yorkshire with a visit to the textiles department at Huddersfield University.

Afterwards, we headed to our hotel. Everyone else was probably thinking terribly sensible, grown-up thoughts, but my mind was full of SNOW! SNOW! SQUEEE!

Granted, it wasn’t much, but the following morning it snowed a little more, and the needle on my over-excitement dial spun so far out of control that centrifugal forces launched it into space. Look!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Most of us were there for dinner on the Friday night. After quite a few meetups we’ve reached the stage where these weekends feel like catching up with friends, with the added bonuses that, (i) it’s considered completely fine to knit at the dinner table, and (ii) nobody yawns if you talk about yarn/knitting/crochet/spinning (or running) for fifteen consecutive minutes. Oops, there goes my over-enthusiasm-meter again. There is SO much skill and creativity amongst the folk you see here:-

Shall I introduce you? Clockwise from front left, we have:-

Sarah of Annaboo’s House, Helen of Crystals Crochet (sneakily hiding), Lucy of Attic24, Lucia of Lucia’s Fig Tree, Juliet representing Stylecraft and of A Kingfisher Morning, Emma aka Emma Varnam, Kathryn of Crafternoon Treats (sneakily hiding), Helen of Josie Kitten, mystery completely-hidden person whom I assume to be Annabelle (sales director at Stylecraft), Sandra of Cherry Heart, and Heather of The Patchwork Heart.

(Blogstars not present due to other commitments or due to inconsiderately living the opposite side of the world are Julia of Hand Knitted Things, Catherine of Catherine’s Crochet Corner, Jane aka Jane Crowfoot, Anne-and-Michelle of Crochet Between Worlds, Zelna of Zooty Owl, Angela of Get Knotted Yarn Craft, and Polly of Every Trick On The Hook.)

The wine flowed and the food was blimmin’ scrumptious. Next morning, we were off (through the snow! Did I mention the snow?!) Our destination was Stylecraft’s mill at Slaithwaite. No snow down here:-

But there was plenty of yarn. If you’ve never seen around the Stylecraft mill, take a look here.

There was great excitement about the packages laid out on each chair. This was mine. Could it be… yarn?

 

Please forgive me for not showing you the contents quite yet, as these are new yarns that will be released over the next few months. There is one forthcoming yarn in particular that had us drooling to a degree that was most undignified. When I can show you, I will. (The yarn, I mean, not the drool.) You’re going to love it.

 

As we’ve come to expect, sales director Annabelle gave a presentation about what lies ahead, both in colour/style trends, and specifically in relation to Stylecraft. There are agencies that will – for a frighteningly fat fee – tell you the colours, styles, and shapes that we will be liking in the future. 2018 is all about pastels (not my thing, I confess), but also bleached-out brights (which I definitely like). Clothes will feature a nod to the sixties (get me, fashion blogger), and interiors will be botanical (yay!) with clean lines. I’m not entirely sure what a clean line is, but I’m pretty certain that my ramshackle old house doesn’t contain any. It is fascinating, don’t you think, that someone, somewhere, must be the origin of all this stuff. Somebody sits frowning into their second coffee of the day, pondering for a good while, before exclaiming, “CAMELS! That’s it! Spring-summer 2023 will be ALL ABOUT CAMELS!”

 

After lunch, Juliet Bernard gave a workshop on making Dorset buttons.

They’re surprisingly quick and easy to make. Here’s the first stage of mine:-

 

…and here’s a finished one by Sandra (Cherry Heart):-

Far, far, too soon, it was time to say goodbye and hit the road. The first part of my route homewards took me back up into the hills, to THIS view:

I may have briefly parked my car and had a secret little dance around in the snow.

Thank you for coming along for the ride!

Phil x