27th February 2012

What happened to February!? 

I went to the Unravel festival at The Farnham Maltings on 25th February. It was incredibly busy, packed with coffee drinking knitters (and some very stressed out other halves!). 

I found the promotional material more interesting than the actual fair (sorry stall holders - the yarn etc was LOVELY but when you are on a student budget - there's only so much window shopping you can do when packed into a hall like sheep in a barn ready for shearing!) 

There were numerous installations around the town centre. My favourites were the knitted lampost 'cosy' complete with laminated QR code. I don't have a reader on my phone (another thing to do!) so I presume that it linked to Unravel.

The choice of multicoloured neon yarn was certainly eye-catching too! I love the mix of modern and traditional hand knitting. I think this is a theme that just appeals to me - I do the same with my quilts, mixing vintage embroidered tablecloths with ultra-modern Scandinavian fabrics and the traditional quilting techniques.








Another installation that confused town-gowers were the crocheted? helium balloon cosies. Inspired! Bobbing over the River Wey. The town certainly went soft on Saturday in a multicoloured way.

Finally inside The Maltings was a ceiling installation of coloured yarns. I wonder how many other people noticed it - everyone was far too busy concentrating on being polite and trying to not walk into each other with sharp pointy sticks! I have a real soft spot for these treasures in unlikely places - it makes me feel special when I find them!

I spent far too much on buttons (I think I was a magpie in a former life) that I know WILL come in useful! And some of the stall holders had empty baskets, 1 hour into the show. All goes to show how popular knitting is as a hobby.

Apparently there is a quilting equivalent festival each January, I'll have to start saving now!