Goodbye to Summer

I always knew this was going to be a very busy summer, but its been even busier than I ever anticipated. Looking back at my blog over the last few weeks I can see a heap of things have been missed out, so I thought I would finish off the summer with a round up of what else has been going on.

The weekend after Vintage at Goodwood was my very good friends John and Juliet of John Arbon Textiles wedding. It took place in the lovely village of Lynton, with a picnic and party on Exmoor itself. John, Juliet and I all share a love of all things vintage, and a terrible collecting habit that none of us can shake! As previously mentioned I was working on garments for the wedding picnic for them both using the beautiful Excelana yarn that we have been developing together. Ultimately I only managed to get one garment completely ready for the day :( John's wedding vest will be to follow shortly, and both will ultimately be available as patterns. For Juliet I made a simple 50s style round neck cardigan, with fair isle detail on the sleeves and original 50s buttons, using shade 'Ruby Red'. The poor weather prevented me getting many photos and those that I took are on my daughter's laptop so I'm going to have to show you the cardigan another day  I'm afraid.

The yarn colours can now be revealed though. There are eight colours which all work together beautifully creating a coordinated vintage palette. Their names are:

Saharan Sand

Nile Green

Cornflower Blue

Persian Grey

Ruby Red

Alabaster

French Rose

and Powdered Egg

Our ball band and logo has also been created and here is a quick glimpse of what to look out for in your yarn shop!

Copyright Susan Crawford 2010

Once we returned from the wedding, with an eight hour drive from Devon, we then had to unpack and then repack almost immediately to begin our epic car and ferry journey to Shetland, for the In The Loop Two conference being held at the Shetland Museum. The journey started with a seven hour drive to Aberdeen followed by a TWELVE hour ferry journey across the North Sea.

our ferry

leaving Aberdeen

We made a grave mistake on the outgoing trip. To save money we opted for the sleeper seats rather than a cabin. Don't do it! We did not sleep for ONE minute through the night. Fortunately on our arrival in Shetland at 7.30am our lovely landlord for our stay let us into our apartment right away so that we could at least sleep for a couple of hours. The following day was the conference reception and a chance to get to meet the other delegates and speakers, then first thing on Thursday morning the conference began for real - with my talk as the opener. I was very, very nervous. I was doubly nervous when my presentation decided to loose fonts when checking through it on the wednesday night. I think I did actually become a diva and through a tantrum!

In the loop goody bags

The Thursday morning came, and actually my talk went very well. It sparked some debate and discussion which was exactly what I had hoped and I introduced my new 'explanation' of my work. This was it:

TRP

This stands for, Tradition + Reinterpretation + Progression = Renewal

and that I believe is what I do. My talk focused on my use of nostalgia as inspiration, the process behind the making of Vintage Gifts to Knit and the work I'm currently involved in at the Shetland Museum, the writing of  Vintage Shetland.


I met some lovely, lovely people whilst we were there -

Annemor Sundbo

I was heavily inspired by the incredibly knowledgeable Annemor Sundbo (a whole post about this amazing woman's work to follow)

Louise, Me, Zara, Rachael

I hung out and had fun with the fabulous ladies from Prick your Finger, Rachael, Louise and Zara


and had some great chats with lots of lovely knitters from all over the world. Gavin had a great time too, not spending all of his time with the knitters, he escaped to do some fishing

Wrestling Sharks!

And some thinking

Gavin in hat by Babylonglegs

You can see him here in a marvelous hat, very kindly gifted to us by the talented babylonglegs. This is both her yarn and her design. It was given to me, but someone has claimed it.


It was a marvellous event, I came away stimulated, inspired and exhausted! I don't think it could have been better except if it had lasted longer. I never come away from Shetland without being inspired and I think the most incredible inspiration is the light, colour just works in spectacular ways there and also, possibly surprisingly, there is such an abundance of colour all around you.

shetland colours

I didn't expect to see so much orange reflecting my knitting all around me.

Seaweed

 

 

Seaweed Ribbon

 This looks just like a beautifully wrapped birthday present!
 
Coming home we booked a cabin which was a far better idea, particularly as it was a pretty rough sailing. And so, it was A Dieu to Shetland...

Leaving Lerwick

Lerwick in the distance

 
However we got through it and arrived in Aberdeen on a beautiful sunny morning, and then home...


... for a few days before driving back up to Edinburgh for one final trip before the summer was officially over, to take my 'little' girl to her new home, whilst she studys for a BA in Film at Edinburgh College of Art.

So Goodbye to Summer!

for now 
Ruby xx