On Sunday we (as an MA collective) ran a cutomising/knitting/crocheting/fashion show series of workshops at Camden Green Fair - our tent was beautifully decorated with hand made bunting and had lots of comfy couches around to relax and learn a new skill on!

Saida was an amazing organiser and the Fashion show in the evening went without a hitch and lots of beautiful outfits strutted down the catwalk on equally beautiful models!

I ran the knitting/pom pom making area and it was great fun teaching the children and a few adults!!) how to make fluffy pom poms - I think I shall be hanging up my pom pom making hat for a while to recuperate!
  
It was an amazing day and the fair held in Regent's Park attracted thousands of visitors!

Today I decided to experiment with some natural dye I bought ages ago for another project (and never got around to using!) so thought this would be a good excuse to start playing with different yarns and fading etc...so my quite Sunday of domestic bliss began with a huge clean of the lounge and kitchen before beginning cutting samples from different natural woollen yarns I had and submerging them in the dye, after leaving to simmer or an hour I left it to cool down and am now watching them dry quickly in the lovely afternoon sunshine!! They are looking a little greyer than I thought (I was expecting a dusky egg shell blue!) but you live and learn I suppose!

A few quick snaps so far...









And now for a little afternoon relax..before the evening of fun work begins!!

 

I'm thinking of transferring my work updates to another blog...but until I have the time to copy everything over I think i'll keep it on here!

We'll i've been up and down the country this week, visiting home then going in search of sheep then visiting an amazing fibre processing mill in Yorkshire!

Why?...

For my new project I am focussing on drastic locality and exploring the possibilities for using locally produced fibres to create a high end luxurious knitwear collection - without all the air miles attached to it - utilising a highly abundant fibre now almost worthless to farmers compared to the meat industry...sheep fleeces! Wool has so many natural benefits but it still has a reputation with people of being bulky itchy and old fashioned...my challenge is to change all this!!

Here's a few photographs from my journey so far...







I got an amazing selection of fleeces from a local farmer in Horwich, including some hogs (fat lambs), gritstone's and a Jacob's fleece...so i'm very excited to see how these mix together!!





These are a couple of quick shots I took whilst being shown around The Halifax Spinning Company, it was amazing to see all the processes involved in producing yarn, and the sheer scale, time and effort it takes at each stage of production! I have left the fleeces with the lovely Paul...so watch this space for my new yarns...

I forgot to picture post about the brilliant Pop-Up shop EJF had on Carnaby Street a week or two ago...we went for the Ethical Fashion Network night and it was a lovely night out with organic wine and lots of changing into different clothes...my favourite was a Lowie knitted sailor dress...now I just need to save up!!

This is an amazing piece of machinery from Merel Karhof uses wind power to make tube scarfs!!

I found this nice little video about the recent Estethica event in London last November...

 
To watch more, visit london fashion week

We had a great night last night visiting EJF's pop up shop on Carnaby Street which was hosting this months Ethical Fashion forum Network gathering...there were talks off Tori from EJF themselves about climate refugees which they have a great new campaign on their website, and Forum for the Future did an intro to their Fashion Futures 2025 project which we (at LCF) worked on with them and Levis, and also a talk about a new campaign from the Ethical fashion forum called think vote change - which has a great website too! There was much fun had by us trying on lots of different outfits from some beautiful ethical brands...and the pop up shop looked amazing! Pictures to follow...

Its been a hectic week of presentations for my Masters proposal and preparing to officially write it up...so planning my life for the next six months...which is  a little scary...wish me luck!!

After volcanic disruptions and mix up's we had a long day curating the exhibition for the neighbourhoodies project yesterday...in a lovely gallery under the arches in Bethnal Green called 10 The Gales Gallery (check out the beautiful chairs when you're there!) so after being given free reign of how to style and curate it all in a matter of hours I think we did an amazing job!! Its there for a week so go and have a look...

The sun is shining and stifling me in my room down in London...whilst I am trying to hibernate away and get my masters final project proposal sorted...not fair!

Anyway apart from feeling like i'm stuck in a heater i've had a great week, here goes...

On Monday I went to visit the British Wool Marketing Board up in Bradford, it was a great day and I had a lovely time being shown around a local weavers and getting to understand a little more on how the British wool industry works and how I can involve this in my work!!


 




 
 
Then on Tuesday I packed my bags to move back down to London, with a quick unpack and change I went to meet up with the other lovely FATE ladies to catch up and go to the private viewing of the Design Museums new exhibition 'Sustainable Futures' - it is a great exhibition and you should definitely go and have a wander around...there is so much information crammed in every corner its quite overwhelming...but nicely presented!!

We have been challenged to complete lots of little tasks for tomorrows big workshop at uni tomorrow so the rest of my week has been taken up with this...and trying to put forward my ideas for my new project in a legible way!!

After a major food shop and clothes clean I feel all set to start back tomorrow...and I shall report back on how the workshop goes...excited!!