Meet Deborette Clarke

Based in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, Deborette Clarke designs and makes small leather goods under the label B18 Leather. Deborette is a fun loving creative who has many years experience as an educator , designer and maker. She began working with leather after attending a few workshops and deciding to experiment further by purchasing a pre-owned leather sewing machine.

Deborette will be teaching a hand-sewn leather purse with an applique/punched design, perfect for storing a variety of bits and bobs such as notions, small tools and cash or can be used for passport and documents.

This workshop is suitable for complete beginners and no leatherworking experience is needed.

The workshop will take place on Sunday 12th July. For more information and to book your ticket, which includes marketplace entry for the day of the workshop,visit our website here.

 

Meet Black Girl Knit Club

Black Girl Knit Club 

Black Girl Knit Club (BGKC) is a knitwear collective based in East London started by friends Sicgmone, a Knitwear designer and Textile Lecturer at UAL and Vea, Creative director, stylist & founder of Brantuo Studio Vintage.

They explain: “BGKC started in January 2019 after the realisation that there wasn’t a safe space for women who looked like us in the craft industry. We were further motivated after following the recent social media hashtag #diversknitty, where knitwear designers and makers were calling for more diversity within the craft community. Thus we wanted to change that narrative for us so we created: Black Girl Knit Club. Our aim is to create a safe and inclusive space for black women to gather, unite, and inspire each other through the confidence of encouraging hand knitting skills and create a learning platform which highlights the importance of creativity to our wider community.”

BGKC will be teaching a knitted bracelet workshop using their unique wax print yarn. This workshop is open to all, including beginner knitters. The workshop will take place on Saturday 11th July. For more information and to book your ticket, which includes marketplace entry for the day of the workshop,visit our website here.

Workshops on sale now

Yarningham 2020 workshops are on sale now.

We have a brilliant selection of workshops for you this year.

BLACK GIRL KNIT CLUB will be hosting a drop in KNITTED BRACELET WORKSHOP using their own African wax print yarn.

We just had to ask DEBORETTE CLARKE of B18 LEATHER back to host a LEATHER PURSE WORKSHOP.  We had such fantastic feedback from her previous workshop that it was a no brainer.  In this workshop you will hand stitch your own leather purse and decorate it with punch and embossing tools.

Joining us to teach an embroidery workshop is Imogen Morris ,a local embroidery artist who creates hand stitched pieces in a polygonal style.

The Communitas Wellbeing Project will be hosting a drop in workshop on Sunday 12th July where you can make a felt cactus using recycled materials or learn to make beautiful paper flowers – or do both!

Last, but by no means least the one and only STEPHEN WEST will be hosting two workshops, COLOUR PLAY THE WESTKNITS WAY and SHAWL EVOLUTION.  We are thrilled to have Stephen at Yarningham.

For more information about all of our workshops and to book your place visit our website here.

 

Don’t delay

Time is running out to book onto one of our workshops. Workshop bookings will close on Saturday 6 July.

For more information on all of our workshops visit our website here.  All workshops include entry into Yarningham marketplace.

Strantarsia with Nathan Taylor

We all know that intarsia can’t be done in the round. (Well, you can do some sorts of things that involve working back and forth, and seaming up the side, but it’s not really possible to do it properly.)

You CAN, however, work a panel of stranded (think fair-isle) knitting in the round, where the colourwork does not go all the way round the piece, but is worked as one specific patch.

This is a technique that I have pioneered myself, and it’s really fun to do. Its applications are many and various. You can, for example, put a contrasting motif on the ankle of a sock, or a sports logo on the front of a hat. Fancy working a patch of colour work into the breast of a jumper knitted in the round? Thought you could only achieve it with duplicate stitch after the event? Not any more! Now you can add little patches of stranded colourwork anywhere you like in your in-the-round projects.

Skills covered: Knitting Back Backwards (the ability to work your knitting from the right needle to the left, so that you don’t need to turn the work), How to create the Strantarsia panel itself, and the mechanics of how it works.

Level of experience: Intermediate. This is a class that will be suitable for knitters with some experience of stranded/fair-isle knitting, who are comfortable with working with two colours at the same time, and who are looking to expand their horizons.

Skills needed: You will need to be competent in standard, two-colour colourwork knitting, and working in the round.

Materials Provided by Student: You will need about 20g and 10g respectively, of each of two colours of DK-weight yarn, worked into the swatch described below. Use two highly contrasting colours, and for best results, a fibre that is suitable for colourwork, such as shetland wool, or another fairly grippy, natural fibre, but not too fuzzy

Homework: A swatch worked as follows: Using DK-weight yarn, and appropriately sized needles, with your main colour, cast on 42 sts in the round. Work 8 rounds of 1×1 rib, followed by 4 rnds of stocking stitch/stockinette.

Do not work any colour changes.  DO NOT CAST OFF YOUR SWATCH!  We will continue knitting it in the class.

ABOUT SOCKMATICIAN:

Nathan Taylor (aka Sockmatician on Ravelry, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter) is a knitwear designer, knitting teacher, and popular podcaster on YouTube. Since starting his adult knitting life in 2011, he has had patterns published in the following magazines: Knit Now!; Vogue Knitting; Rib; and The Knitter, and in the book Vogue Knitting: Shawls and Wraps 2. The majority of his patterns, however, can be purchased individually on Ravelry (search Sockmatician’s Sock Shop). His first book, GUYS KNIT, from Haynes Publishing, is available now from Haynes.com

To book onto Nathan’s Strantarsia workshop please visit our website here. All workshops include entrance into the Yarningham marketplace on the day of the workshop.

Make a Stitchers Notebook with Helen Wilson

Come and make your own stitchers handmade book with Helen Wilson. Helen will take you through step by step instructions to make beautiful handmade books using contemporary papers.

Learn about different paper folding techniques to produce zigzag pages, concertina pages and pouches. Customise your notebook’s cover or include knitters graph paper or pockets for labels and keepsakes.

Skills & Experience Absolute Beginner. No previous experience necessary

Materials All tools and materials are provided.

Helen Wilson – Biography

Helen Wilson is a Birmingham based book artist who’s passionate about handmade books. She uses traditional and modern methods of binding with high quality and function in mind.

Her unique book cover designs are mixed media coupled with quirky quotes. Many of her books are made with beautiful contemporary papers. No two books are the same so it means you end up with a unique, quirky hand made book.

Helen has extensive experience in delivering book arts and bookmaking workshops. Her aim is to promote the craft of bookbinding and the book as an art object in its own right. Helen trained in book making in the UK and in New York.

To book onto Helen’s Stitcher’s Notebook workshop please visit our website here.  All workshops include entrance into the Yarningham marketplace on the day of the workshop.

Mock Cables and Twisted Stitches with Karie Westermann

Sometimes a little effort is rewarded by great effect. Mock cables, twisted stitches, and Japanese mini-cables all look complex, but are surprisingly easy to work once you learn the secrets. We’ll play with textures and techniques as we knit wrist warmers together.

With designer and author Karie Westermann at your side, you will learn about how to mimic cables using lace techniques, twisted stitches, and elegant Japanese slipped stitches. Together you will work on a wrist warmer that will enable you to work on projects that look like cables – but without the bulk and the risk of dropped stitches!

Skills focus:

• How to work twisted stitches
• How to work mini-cables and twists without a cable needle
• How to use lace techniques to create the illusion of cables

Experience Advanced beginner

This class is not suitable for beginners

Skills needed:

• Knit, purl, working a yarnover and doing at least one decrease
• How to read an easy chart
• Working in the round

Materials to bring:

• 1 ball of DK
• 1 pair of 4mm needles (whichever you use to work a small circumference in the round)
• 1 pair of 4mm needles (whichever you use to work straight)
• Selection of stitch markers
• Pen and paper
• Tapestry needle

To book onto Karie’s workshop visit our website here. All workshops include entrance into the Yarningham marketplace on the day of the workshop.

Knit Nerdism with Nathan Taylor

It’s a funny thing about knitters: a disproportionate number of us just love to geek out about the technical aspects of what we do, but just how much of that stuff do we actually know, when it comes to the finer details of the whys and wherefores? And most people would argue, why does it matter anyway?

This class looks at the fundamental aspects of what makes knitting work, on a quantum level. Well, maybe not quite quantum, but very small.

We’ll be looking at the importance of stitch mount, what it means, and why it matters: front longs, back legs, left ones, right one, leading, trailing, any kinds of leg you can think of, what they do, and how we can use simple mnemonics to bend them to our will; twisting a stitch? You’ll be surprised to learn it doesn’t happen as often as people think, and it certainly doesn’t happen WHEN people say it does; symmetry is a word that has several ways of being interpreted. It’s always good to know the RIGHT way in any given situation

True perfection in your knitting can only come as a result of truly understanding the simple building blocks of our favourite fibre craft

Intrigued? Come and explore Knit Nerdism with me, and all will be revealed.

ABOUT SOCKMATICIAN:

Nathan Taylor (aka Sockmatician on Ravelry, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter) is a knitwear designer, knitting teacher, and popular podcaster on YouTube. Since starting his adult knitting life in 2011, he has had patterns published in the following magazines: Knit Now!; Vogue Knitting; Rib; and The Knitter, and in the book Vogue Knitting: Shawls and Wraps 2. The majority of his patterns, however, can be purchased individually on Ravelry (search Sockmatician’s Sock Shop). His first book, GUYS KNIT, from Haynes Publishing, is available now from Haynes.com

To book onto Nathan’s Knit Nerdism workshop please visit our website here. All workshops include entrance into the Yarningham marketplace on the day of the workshop.

Knitting the Landscape with Karie Westermann

Psycho-geography is about seeing your local environment in a new light: bike lanes, paths worn by human feet, and old forgotten rivers. It is about wandering about your home town and looking closer at things you pass every day.

This workshop will be an exploration of how to express your memories and thoughts of a specific place using knitting as a medium. Knitwear designer Karie Westermann will talk about her own experiences designing knitwear inspired by specific landscapes, from shawls mimicking submerged beaches to hats taking visual cues from her Glasgow cityscape.

Then, together, you will begin to explore your own landscapes on the needles. What is the fabric of your own place? How can you translate the way you navigate the city into a wearable piece of knitwear? Karie will guide you in thinking about textures, stitch patterns and colours – and make you look at familiar streets in a new way.

Skills and experience Beginner & up. If you can cast on/off and knit & purl, this class is fine.

Materials You will need to bring yarn that you associate with the place you want to explore. Scraps are great, bring a selection! You will also need to bring appropriate sized needles for the yarn

All other materials will be provided

Tutor Karie Westermann does things with wool & words. She is a designer, teacher & general wool enthusiast. Her work combines her love of storytelling, art and woolly yarns as she is a big believer in knitting never being “just knitting”.

Karie relaxes by doing pub quizzes, biking around Glasgow on her red bike, and dabbling in dress-making. Her latest project, This Thing of Paper, a knitting book inspired by medieval manuscripts and books, was released in November 2017.

To book onto Karie’s workshop visit our website here.  All workshops include entrance into the Yarningham marketplace on the day of the workshop.

 

Needle Felting with Denise Liebermann

An inspirational needle felting workshop suitable for beginners and those who are already a fan of this magical craft. Denise creates a relaxed and fun environment to learn – “The rules of needle felting are very simple – there are no rules! Once armed with the basic techniques there are no right and wrongs, it’s all about you and hours of boundless creativity with a barbed needle, wool and a base on which to work.”

The workshop runs from 11am until 4pm (with an hour break for lunch) and within this time Denise will cover all the techniques, tips and shortcuts required to create your own unique needle felted hare, using gorgeous natural materials.

Materials and Equipment provided
All the wools you will require to make your hare, including a selection of carded wool batts and merino wool tops
A pair of eyes
A choice of material for the cardigan
The use of a set of needles and felting surface for the day

Short Bio
Denise Liebermann better known as Crafty Gal, is a Warwickshire based fibre artist specialising in all things needle felted, as well as offering commissions Denise also runs workshops to share the joy of this magical craft.
“I have been in search of a creative way to earn my living for as long as I can remember – selling my corporate business last year finally presented the opportunity to do something about it. And because I’d been on the look out for so long I knew exactly what I wanted to do next. Having concentrated on photography and life drawing for many years, the sculptural aspect of the human form has always fascinated me – identifying a way to channel that passion into something tangible was the challenge,until I found WOOL! And more specifically NEEDLE FELTING! As a medium glorious British Wool has got to be one of the most wondrous to work with! The feel of such a natural texture is heavenly, and there’s a sense of magic when stabbing wool fibre in its many forms, that’s pretty hard to beat.”

To book onto Denise’s Needle Felting workshop please visit our website here.  This workshop includes entrance to the Yarningham marketplace on either Saturday or Sunday.