A Visit to Unravel - A Festival of Knitting 2018
Note before reading: This blog was written in 2018, when I was studying for my MA (hence the Harvard referencing!). Where needed, I have edited these posts to correct any factual inaccuracies. This post was last edited Jan 2025.
In huge contrast to SpinExpo, last weekend I went to Unravel, a knitting festival in Farnham, Surrey. Predominately aimed at the amateur hand knitter, there was a lot of yarn, with an emphasis on hand dyed, luxury fibres and small British producers. The trends I noted from last year, such as hand dyed, speckled fluorescent yarns, seemed to still be popular.
It was excellent to see so many British wool producers and farms at the show, and I had the opportunity to talk with (and buy yarn from) many of them, including Cambrian Wool, Middle Campscott Farm, New Forest Mohair, John Arbon Textiles and The Little Grey Sheep. It made me feel positive that contemporary knitters are more aware of sustainability in knitting, and are interested in knowing how their yarn is produced and where it comes from.
I also had an enlightening conversation with Judy Hardman, a knitter and natural dyer, about growing and harvesting dye plants. I bought some dried Dyer's Greenweed from her, as it was a plant I have not yet worked with.
One of my go-to machine knitting yarn suppliers, Uppingham Yarns, was also there, and I bought some of their British Wool which is undyed and available in five shades, representing the range of natural fleece colours. I have been using this yarn in my dye experiments, and I asked them if they had any more information about the yarn such as the breed of sheep, but they were unsure . I note from their website that the yarn is spun by Paint Box textiles, so perhaps I can find more information about the provenance of the yarn by asking them.
Burns, R. 2018. Unravel Haul. Photograph.
References:
Burns, R. 2018. Unravel Haul. Photograph.
Uppingham Yarns. 2018. British Wool [online] Available from: https://www.wools.co.uk/index.php?seo_path=british-wool [Accessed 20 February 2018]